Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Arranged the Wedding
Bianca Marconi smiled.
“Hello, Sofia.”
Sofia stared at the hospital bracelet.
“Where is my mother?”
“Safe.”
“Give me the bracelet.”
Bianca rolled it between manicured fingers.
“You’ve become demanding.”
“I learned from you.”
Luca stepped into the room.
“Where is Isabella?”
Bianca’s smile faded.
“Always business with you.”
Aldo checked the hall behind them.
Sofia moved closer.
“Why did you force me into this marriage?”
Bianca laughed softly.
“Force? You said yes.”
“You threatened Mom’s care.”
“I reminded you what family sacrifice means.”
“You poisoned her.”
Bianca’s expression flickered.
That was the first crack.
Sofia saw it.
“You knew about the counterfeit medicine.”
“I knew about many things.”
“One batch reached her.”
Bianca looked away.
Sofia’s voice hardened.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
“You did.”
“No.”
“You knew.”
Bianca stood.
“I controlled distribution contracts. I did not choose individual hospital batches.”
Sofia felt rage rise.
“So that makes it better?”
“You don’t understand the scale of what you’re interfering with.”
Luca spoke.
“Explain it.”
Bianca looked at him.
“You really don’t know.”
“No.”
“Your father did.”
Luca’s face remained still.
Bianca smiled.
“Vittorio Bellandi built the first route.”
“Proof.”
“Your family archive.”
“Where?”
“Ask Matteo.”
A sound came from downstairs.
Three sharp knocks.
Bianca’s gaze shifted.
Fear.
Real fear.
Luca noticed.
“You’re not in control.”
Bianca said nothing.
“Who is?” Sofia asked.
The bedroom door slammed shut behind them.
A lock clicked.
Aldo pulled the handle.
Sealed.
A speaker hidden somewhere in the room activated.
A man’s voice filled the air.
“Now we can begin.”
Luca recognized it.
“Matteo.”
His uncle laughed through the speaker.
“You always were quick.”
Bianca looked pale.
“Matteo, this wasn’t the agreement.”
“No, Bianca. The agreement ended when your niece ran.”
Sofia turned toward her aunt.
“You worked with him.”
Bianca said, “Not like this.”
“Then how?”
Matteo’s voice interrupted.
“Bianca provided hospitals. I provided shipping. Vittorio provided protection.”
Luca stared at the ceiling speaker.
“My father knew?”
“Eventually.”
“Eventually?”
“He discovered what we were moving.”
“And?”
“He ordered it stopped.”
Something in Luca’s face released.
Not relief.
Pain.
“Then why didn’t it stop?”
Matteo laughed.
“Because Vittorio had become sentimental.”
Bianca sank slowly into a chair.
Sofia understood first.
“You killed him.”
Silence.
Luca’s eyes became empty.
“Say it.”
Matteo replied calmly.
“Your father died of a heart attack.”
“Say it.”
“He became inconvenient.”
Luca drew his gun and fired into the speaker.
The sound exploded.
Sofia flinched.
The speaker died.
Luca stood breathing heavily.
His weapon remained raised.
Sofia touched his forearm.
“Luca.”
Nothing.
“Luca.”
He looked at her.
“Don’t give him what he wants.”
“What?”
“You angry. Reckless. Blind.”
His breathing slowed.
He lowered the gun.
Bianca stared at Sofia as though seeing her for the first time.
“You control him.”
Sofia turned.
“No.”
Bianca smiled bitterly.
“That is what powerful men call it when they listen to women.”
“He listens because he chooses to.”
The room’s lights went out.
Emergency red illumination returned.
Aldo examined the lock.
“Magnetic seal.”
“Can you break it?” Luca asked.
“With time.”
“We don’t have time.”
Sofia looked around.
The bridal suite.
Her wedding preparation room.
Two windows.
Fireplace.
Bathroom.
Closet.
She remembered the mansion layout from arranging flowers.
“Laundry chute.”
Bianca frowned.
“What?”
“There’s a service chute behind the dressing room.”
Luca looked at Sofia.
“How do you know?”
“I spent six hours carrying decorations while everyone else prepared for a wedding.”
They opened a panel behind the dressing mirror.
The chute was narrow.
Luca stared.
“I won’t fit.”
Sofia looked at his shoulders.
“Definitely not.”
Aldo said, “I might.”
Sofia shook her head.
“I’ll go.”
Luca immediately said, “No.”
“You said you were learning.”
“I’ve stopped learning.”
“It leads to the service corridor.”
“You don’t know who’s there.”
“They don’t know I can get there.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Sofia.”
She lowered her voice.
“My mother and Isabella are somewhere in this house.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Bianca brought Mom’s bracelet here. Matteo wants all of us under one roof.”
Bianca whispered, “She’s right.”
Sofia turned.
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“You know something.”
Bianca hesitated.
“Old servants’ wing.”
“Which floor?”
“Basement.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“You said you didn’t know.”
“I don’t know which room.”
Sofia moved toward the chute.
Luca caught her wrist gently.
“No.”
She met his gaze.
“If it were your mother?”
He froze.
Sofia softened.
“If Lucia were downstairs, would anyone stop you?”
His hand loosened.
“No.”
“Then don’t ask me to be less loyal than you.”
The words struck him.
He released her.
“Take this.”
He handed her a compact pistol.
Sofia stared at it.
“I don’t know how to use that.”
“Point. Safety. Trigger.”
“That is not training.”
“It is tonight.”
She took it.
Luca pulled off his jacket.
“Wear this.”
“Why?”
“Your blouse is visible in the corridors.”
She put on his enormous black jacket.
It nearly swallowed her.
Under any other circumstances, it would have been funny.
He looked at her.
“Come back.”
Sofia’s heart shifted.
She nodded.
“I will.”
She climbed into the service chute.
The descent was ugly.
Uncomfortable.
Terrifying.
She landed in a laundry room three levels below with a pile of sheets cushioning the fall.
Her hip hurt.
Her hair was destroyed.
Luca’s jacket covered half her body.
She still had one wedding heel tucked in her pocket because she had inexplicably refused to abandon both.
Sofia listened.
Footsteps.
Two men passed the corridor.
“They’re moving the women in ten minutes,” one said.
“To the garage?”
“No. Tunnel.”
Sofia waited.
Then followed.
The servants’ wing was dark.
She found three locked rooms.
Empty.
A fourth had a guard.
Sofia crouched behind a cart.
She could not shoot him.
She had never fired a gun.
She looked down.
Laundry detergent.
Metal tray.
And the single champagne heel in her pocket.
Five minutes later, the guard heard a crash in the adjacent room.
He entered.
Sofia hit him over the head with a brass fire extinguisher.
He fell.
She stared.
“Sorry.”
Then she took his keys.
The door opened.
“Mom?”
Elena Marconi sat on a cot.
Sofia ran to her.
Her mother looked weak but uninjured.
“Oh, baby.”
Sofia dropped to her knees.
They held each other.
“I thought—”
“I’m all right.”
“Isabella?”
Elena pointed toward the wall.
“Next room.”
Sofia used the keys.
Isabella lay tied to a chair.
Her face was bruised.
Alive.
“Sofi?”
Sofia rushed in.
Isabella began crying.
“You came.”
“Of course I came.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“The wedding.”
“This is not the time.”
“I knew they might use you.”
Sofia stopped cutting the ropes.
“What?”
Isabella looked ashamed.
“I left the card because I knew you’d recognize my handwriting.”
“Yes.”
“I thought Luca would find the operation.”
“Why me?”
“Because I couldn’t trust anyone else.”
Sofia stared.
“You let them make me your replacement.”
“No. I didn’t know Bianca would do that.”
“But you knew my mother was leverage.”
Isabella cried harder.
“I thought I could expose them before the ceremony.”
“You failed.”
“I know.”
Sofia finished the ropes.
“Then help me fix it.”
They freed Elena.
A distant alarm started.
Sofia froze.
“They know.”
Isabella grabbed her arm.
“There’s a tunnel.”
“Where?”
“Under the garage.”
“Matteo plans to move everything out.”
“Everything?”
“Records. Money. Evidence.”
“Can we get there?”
Isabella nodded.
They moved.
Sofia supported her mother.
At a junction, voices approached.
They hid in an old pantry.
Matteo’s men passed.
One said, “Bring Bellandi down when the room opens.”
The other replied, “Matteo wants him alive until the transfer is signed.”
Sofia’s mind caught the phrase.
Transfer.
“What transfer?” she whispered.
Isabella looked terrified.
“Ownership.”
“Of what?”
“The port.”
“Why would Luca sign it?”
“Because Matteo has something Luca doesn’t know about.”
“What?”
Isabella hesitated.
“Tell me.”
“Vittorio left a second will.”
Sofia stared.
“What does it say?”
“Luca doesn’t legally own Pier Thirty-One.”
“Who does?”
Isabella looked directly at her.
“His mother did.”
“Lucia is dead.”
“No.”
Sofia stopped breathing.
Isabella whispered:
“Luca’s mother is alive.”
The pantry door suddenly opened.
May you like
A man stood there holding a gun.
And behind him was a woman barely five feet tall with silver hair and Luca Bellandi’s eyes.
