Chapter 2 - The Message Meant for Sofia
Sofia read the message twice.
It did not become less terrifying.
THE ONE BESIDE YOU.
Her fingers tightened around the folds of her wedding gown.
“How do they know I’m standing beside you?”
Luca immediately scanned the ballroom.
Every guest became a possibility.
Every waiter became a threat.
Every camera lens became an eye.
“Phones,” Luca said.
Aldo nodded and moved toward security.
Within seconds the ballroom doors closed.
Luca turned to Sofia.
“You’re coming with me.”
“Where?”
“A secure room.”
“Absolutely not.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Someone has just demonstrated that they can see what is happening inside my house.”
“And locking me away will solve that?”
“It will make shooting you more difficult.”
Sofia stared.
“That is a terrible sales pitch.”
“It wasn’t a sales pitch.”
He placed one hand lightly at the center of her back and guided her toward a side corridor.
She resisted just enough to make her point.
“I can walk.”
His hand disappeared instantly.
“Then walk.”
That irritated her even more because he listened.
The secure room turned out to be Luca’s private library.
No windows.
Two reinforced doors.
Walls filled with books rather than guns, which surprised Sofia.
Aldo entered behind them carrying the burner phone.
Three security men remained outside.
Luca removed his tuxedo jacket and placed it across a chair.
His shoulder holster was now visible.
Sofia looked at it.
“You actually wear one under formal clothing?”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I thought that was only in movies.”
“Movies steal from accountants, criminals, and unhappy marriages.”
“Which category are we?”
“Too early to classify.”
Aldo almost smiled.
Luca noticed.
Aldo stopped.
“Trace the phone,” Luca said.
“Already trying.”
“And the locker?”
“Station security footage shows a courier opening it twenty-two minutes before our man arrived.”
“Face?”
“Baseball cap. Sunglasses.”
“Route?”
“Lost him at Lexington.”
Sofia sat carefully, gathering the heavy dress around her.
“What was supposed to be in the locker?”
Nobody knew.
She looked at the ivory card again.
“Isabella expected someone to find 317.”
Luca leaned against the desk.
“Maybe me.”
“No.”
“You’re certain?”
“She barely spoke to you.”
“That doesn’t eliminate me.”
Sofia shook her head.
“She knew I would recognize her handwriting.”
The implication settled.
Luca’s eyes darkened.
“You think the clue was meant for you.”
“I think she hoped I’d see it.”
“Then why hide it at my wedding?”
“Our wedding,” Sofia corrected automatically.
Silence.
Sofia blinked.
“I mean—”
“I heard you.”
“That was not sentimental.”
“Of course not.”
His expression remained unreadable, but she caught the smallest shift near his mouth.
Aldo cleared his throat.
“We have another issue.”
“When do we not?” Sofia muttered.
Aldo turned the burner phone around.
A countdown had appeared.
02:58:41.
“What happens at zero?” Sofia asked.
“That is what I’m trying to determine.”
Luca’s voice sharpened.
“Can it transmit?”
“Probably.”
“Then put it in the shield box.”
“No,” Sofia said.
Both men looked at her.
“If Isabella arranged any of this, she may contact us through that phone.”
“It may also be tracking you.”
“They already know I’m here.”
Luca folded his arms.
“That does not improve your argument.”
“It makes your shield box pointless.”
Aldo looked between them.
Sofia pointed at him.
“Don’t look entertained.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
Luca said, “He was.”
Aldo sighed.
“Marriage has improved the atmosphere already.”
Luca gave him a look.
Aldo became serious again.
The countdown kept moving.
02:57:52.
Sofia removed her heels.
Luca noticed.
“What are you doing?”
“My feet are dying.”
“You’re taking off your shoes during a possible hostage situation?”
“If someone intends to kidnap me, I’d rather be able to run.”
Luca considered that.
“Reasonable.”
She set the champagne heels aside.
For the first time since the ceremony, she felt like herself.
Almost.
“Tell me the truth,” she said.
“About?”
“Why every woman refused to marry you.”
Aldo coughed.
Luca stared at Sofia.
“Who told you that?”
“My family.”
“Your family exaggerates.”
“So only most women refused?”
“They were not lining up.”
“Why?”
“You know my reputation.”
“I know rumors.”
“Rumors are often safer than details.”
Sofia studied him.
“Did Isabella believe you would hurt her?”
“Yes.”
“Would you?”
“No.”
“Would you hurt someone else?”
“Yes.”
His answer came without hesitation.
Sofia appreciated that more than a lie.
“Under what circumstances?”
“If they threatened my family.”
“Or your business?”
“Sometimes those are the same thing.”
Sofia looked toward the bookshelves.
“What did Isabella discover?”
Luca’s gaze sharpened.
“You assume she discovered something.”
“She asked about disappearing. Then she vanished. She planted a locker number. Now someone is demanding me.”
He nodded.
“Fair.”
The burner phone vibrated.
All three froze.
A photograph appeared.
Sofia recognized it immediately.
Her mother.
Elena Marconi sat in her hospital room wearing a pale blue robe, reading beside the window.
The photograph had been taken through the glass from the corridor.
Beneath it was one sentence.
SHE HAS FORTY-EIGHT HOURS.
Sofia shot to her feet.
“No.”
Luca caught her as the gown tangled around her legs.
She shoved his hands away.
“Get someone there!”
“I already am.”
“You don’t even know which hospital—”
“St. Catherine’s. Oncology wing. Seventh floor. Room 714.”
Sofia stared at him.
“How do you know that?”
“I had Aldo confirm her medical arrangements after you told me your aunt was using them against you.”
“When?”
“During the ceremony photographs.”
“You checked my mother’s hospital room during our wedding photographs?”
“Yes.”
She did not know whether to be horrified or grateful.
Aldo was already speaking into his phone.
“Two teams. Hospital. Now.”
Sofia grabbed Luca’s forearm.
“Call them.”
“They’re moving.”
“No. Call the hospital.”
“That could warn whoever took the picture.”
“She’s alone.”
“She won’t be in ninety seconds.”
The certainty in his voice made Sofia release him.
The countdown continued.
02:43:17.
“Why would someone threaten my mother?” she whispered.
“To control you.”
“But why me?”
Luca looked at her.
“That is the question we should have asked first.”
Aldo finished the call.
“Team is inside the hospital.”
Sofia held her breath.
“Your mother is safe.”
Her knees nearly gave way.
Luca placed a chair behind her before she noticed him move.
She sat.
“Get her out.”
“We will.”
“Somewhere my family doesn’t know.”
Luca nodded.
“My physician has a private facility outside the city.”
“No Bellandi property.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“If your house is compromised, your property could be compromised.”
He accepted that instantly.
“Good point.”
Aldo said, “I know a place in Connecticut.”
Sofia looked at him.
“Can you trust it?”
“With my own mother.”
“Then take mine there.”
Aldo nodded.
She looked at Luca.
“See? I can give orders too.”
“You’re my wife.”
“So?”
“So half the men downstairs would probably obey you before Aldo now.”
Aldo muttered, “Unfortunately true.”
Sofia stared at both of them.
“This family is insane.”
Luca’s voice was quiet.
“You married into it voluntarily.”
“I was blackmailed into a wedding dress.”
“Technically you consented at the altar.”
“I can still annul it.”
“You can.”
Again, no threat.
No challenge.
That unsettled Sofia in a completely different way.
She had expected Luca Bellandi to be cruel.
She had prepared herself to hate him.
Kindness would have been easier to dismiss if it looked like kindness.
His did not.
His kindness looked like security teams moving before she finished asking.
Like remembering her mother’s room number.
Like letting her say no without punishing her.
The burner phone rang.
Not vibrated.
Rang.
Aldo reached for it.
Sofia grabbed it first.
“Sofia,” Luca warned.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then breathing.
A woman’s voice whispered.
“Sofi?”
Sofia’s blood went cold.
“Isabella?”
Luca moved closer.
Aldo started recording.
“Sofi, listen to me.”
“Where are you?”
“Don’t trust—”
A crash interrupted her.
Sofia stood.
“Isabella!”
“Listen. The wedding agreement isn’t about territory.”
“What?”
“It’s about the port.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“What port?” Sofia asked.
“Pier Thirty-One.”
Sofia looked at Luca.
“Three-one-seven,” she whispered.
Luca understood.
Pier 31.
Building 7.
Isabella was crying now.
“They’ve been moving something through Bellandi containers.”
Luca stepped closer to the speaker.
“Who?”
Isabella heard him.
“Oh God.”
“Isabella,” Luca said calmly. “Tell me who.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
A shaky breath.
“Then it’s worse than I thought.”
“Name.”
“I can’t.”
“Isabella.”
“If I say his name, he’ll kill Sofia.”
Sofia’s hand tightened around the phone.
“Who has you?”
Silence.
Then Isabella whispered, “Someone Luca trusts.”
The line died.
Sofia stared at the phone.
Luca’s face became stone.
Aldo slowly lowered his recording device.
Nobody spoke.
The countdown remained.
02:31:04.
Luca walked toward the desk.
He pulled open a drawer and removed a port map.
Pier 31.
Building 7.
He spread it flat.
“What goes through there?” Sofia asked.
“Luxury imports. Construction stone. Restaurant equipment.”
“Anything illegal?”
Luca looked at her.
“Yes.”
She appreciated the answer despite the chill it gave her.
“What kind?”
“Untaxed goods. Cigarettes. Electronics occasionally.”
“People?”
His head snapped up.
“No.”
“Weapons?”
“Not through that pier.”
“Drugs?”
“No.”
“Then someone is using your operation without permission.”
“That appears increasingly likely.”
Aldo’s jaw tightened.
“Only six people have full manifest access.”
Luca named them from memory.
“Me. You. Matteo Bellandi. Carlo Vescari. Dominic Russo. Enzo Falcone.”
Sofia caught one name.
“Matteo Bellandi?”
“My uncle.”
“The man sitting in the front row at our wedding?”
“Yes.”
“Great.”
Luca looked at Aldo.
“Where is everyone?”
Aldo checked.
“Matteo left twenty minutes ago. Carlo is downstairs. Dominic is at Pier Twelve. Enzo is in Miami.”
“And you?”
Aldo looked offended.
“I am standing in front of you.”
“That doesn’t clear you.”
Aldo’s face changed.
Sofia watched the two men.
There was history there.
Deep history.
Aldo nodded slowly.
“Good.”
Sofia frowned.
“Good?”
“If Luca trusted me enough not to question me, he wouldn’t remain alive long.”
The burner phone vibrated again.
Another photograph.
This time it showed the mansion.
Taken from outside.
Zoomed through the library’s upper ventilation window.
Someone had circled Sofia’s position in red.
A message appeared.
ONE HOUR.
Sofia whispered, “One hour until what?”
The lights went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the room.
A gunshot exploded in the corridor.
Sofia flinched.
Luca’s arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her to the floor behind the desk.
Another shot.
Then another.
Someone pounded once against the reinforced door.
A voice shouted from outside.
“Boss!”
Luca drew his weapon.
Sofia crouched beside him, barefoot beneath a wedding dress, trying not to breathe too loudly.
The electronic door lock clicked.
Once.
Twice.
Then the handle began to turn.
Luca raised his gun.
May you like
The door opened three inches.
And a familiar voice whispered Sofia’s name.
