Chapter 6 - What Alessandro Knew
Alessandro moved between Sophia and the door.
“How did he find us?”
Sophia whispered.
Alessandro called security.
No signal.
The secure room blocked reception.
Daniel knocked again.
“I know what you found.”
Sophia stared at the letter.
Daniel’s real father.
She looked at Alessandro.
His face revealed nothing.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Do you believe it?”
“I believe your mother had a reason to write it.”
Daniel struck the door.
“Sophia!”
She walked toward it.
Alessandro caught himself before touching her.
“Don’t.”
“You said choice.”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“I’m choosing to hear him.”
Alessandro stepped aside.
Sophia opened the door.
Daniel stood alone.
His suit was wrinkled.
His eyes were bloodshot.
He looked nothing like the polished man she had planned to marry.
“Where’s Vittorio?”
Daniel laughed.
“You already know.”
“No, I don’t.”
Daniel looked at the letter.
Then at Alessandro.
“Tell him.”
Sophia said nothing.
Daniel stepped inside.
“Tell my brother what your mother wrote.”
Alessandro spoke.
“She wrote that you are not Carlo’s son.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“So you know.”
“Who is your father?”
Daniel looked at Sophia.
“Vittorio.”
Silence.
Sophia felt the room tilt.
Alessandro did not move.
Daniel laughed again.
“Congratulations, brother. You finally found something Father didn’t leave you.”
Alessandro’s voice remained controlled.
“When did you learn?”
“Six months ago.”
The proposal.
Again.
Sophia felt sick.
“Vittorio contacted you.”
“Yes.”
“He told you about box 317.”
“Yes.”
“And you proposed to me.”
Daniel looked at her.
For the first time, shame appeared.
“At first.”
Sophia’s chest tightened.
“At first what?”
“At first, yes. I needed access.”
Alessandro stepped forward.
Daniel raised a hand.
“Let me finish.”
Sophia whispered, “You proposed because of a bank box.”
Daniel looked desperate.
“I already loved you.”
“You were sleeping with Elena.”
“That happened later.”
Sophia laughed.
It sounded broken.
“You want credit for the timeline?”
“No.”
Daniel looked down.
“I hated Alessandro.”
Alessandro said nothing.
“Father trusted him. The board trusted him. Everyone treated me like the spare.”
“So you used me.”
“I thought if I found what was in the box, I could finally have leverage.”
“Against Alessandro?”
“Against everyone.”
Sophia looked at the flash drive.
“What’s on it?”
Daniel’s gaze followed hers.
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did Vittorio want it?”
“Because your mother collected evidence against him.”
“We know that.”
“No.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You know half.”
Alessandro’s expression sharpened.
Daniel pointed at the drive.
“That isn’t just evidence against Vittorio.”
“Who else?”
“Our father.”
Alessandro went still.
Daniel smiled sadly.
“Carlo wasn’t cleaning up the family. Not at first. He and Vittorio built it together.”
Alessandro’s eyes hardened.
“I know my father’s history.”
“Not this part.”
Daniel looked at Sophia.
“Your mother discovered they were both involved.”
Sophia thought of Isabella.
A woman she remembered baking bread on Sundays.
Singing badly in the car.
Kissing her daughters goodnight.
Secretly collecting evidence against dangerous men.
“Then why did Carlo help her?”
“Because he wanted out.”
Daniel looked at Alessandro.
“Because of you.”
Alessandro frowned.
“Father saw what the business was doing to the family. He wanted you to inherit something clean.”
“And you?”
Daniel smiled bitterly.
“He never thought I was his.”
Sophia understood.
Carlo knew.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
Daniel had grown up inside a family that never fully trusted him.
It explained his resentment.
It did not excuse what he had done.
“You could have told me,” Sophia said.
Daniel looked at her.
“I was ashamed.”
“So you humiliated me instead.”
His eyes closed.
“Yes.”
The honesty stunned her.
Elena had not stolen a perfect man.
Daniel had been collapsing long before the affair.
“Where is Vittorio?”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Close.”
“How close?”
The lights went out.
Emergency lighting glowed red.
Alessandro immediately pulled Sophia behind him.
This time she let him.
A sound came from the corridor.
Metal striking tile.
Daniel whispered, “He followed me.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“You led him here?”
“I thought I lost him.”
“You never lose Vittorio.”
Security alarms sounded.
Sophia grabbed the flash drive and letter.
Alessandro opened an emergency exit behind the deposit room.
“Move.”
They entered a narrow service corridor.
Daniel followed.
Alessandro stopped.
“You stay.”
Daniel stared at him.
“He’ll kill me.”
Alessandro’s face hardened.
“You brought him to Sophia.”
“He is my father.”
“No. He is the man hunting her.”
Daniel looked toward Sophia.
She saw terror in his face.
For all the harm he had done, she could not leave him to die.
“He comes.”
Alessandro stared at her.
“Sophia.”
“My choice.”
A muscle moved in his jaw.
Then he nodded.
They ran.
At the stairwell, Daniel stopped suddenly.
“What?”
He stared downward.
A man stood two floors below.
Vittorio.
He looked up.
“Daniel.”
Daniel froze.
Vittorio smiled.
“Bring me the girl.”
Alessandro stepped in front of Sophia.
Vittorio raised something in his hand.
Not a weapon.
A photograph.
Sophia’s mother.
On the back, visible even from above, was a handwritten date.
A date three years after Isabella supposedly died.
May you like
Vittorio called upward.
“Ask Antonio whose body you buried.”
