Chapter 7 - SOMEONE INSIDE
Dante questioned everyone.
Sophia watched from the upstairs landing.
His voice never rose.
That made it worse.
“Who received the package?”
Rosa pointed toward a young guard named Michael.
Michael shook his head.
“I brought it from the front desk.”
“Who was at the desk?”
“Carlo.”
Carlo denied seeing it.
The cook denied touching it.
The driver denied knowing anything.
Everybody had an answer.
Nobody had the truth.
Elena became impatient.
“If someone wants to kill me, tell them to try harder.”
“Mama.”
“What? I am eighty-one. They are wasting medication.”
Sophia sat beside her.
“This isn’t funny.”
“It becomes funny when you survive long enough.”
Sophia smiled weakly.
That afternoon, she went through Elena’s medication cabinet.
Every bottle.
Every label.
Every date.
Then she noticed something.
The fake bottle had a pharmacy sticker.
A good one.
But Elena’s first name was spelled “Helena.”
One letter.
Most people wouldn’t notice.
Sophia did.
She took the bottle to Enzo.
“Whoever made this copied information from somewhere that spells her name wrong.”
Enzo’s eyes sharpened.
“Medical intake forms.”
“What?”
“One private clinic has her listed as Helena. They made the error years ago.”
“Who has those records?”
“Family.”
Sophia went still.
“Vanessa?”
“She would have access through the Genovese family doctor.”
Dante overheard.
“No.”
Sophia turned.
“No?”
“We don’t accuse someone without proof.”
“She threatened my father.”
“I know.”
“She offered me fifty thousand dollars to disappear.”
Dante’s face changed.
“You never told me that.”
“I’m telling you now.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I handle my own problems.”
His voice hardened.
“You got shot at.”
“So did you.”
“That’s different.”
Sophia laughed bitterly.
“Of course it is.”
She walked away.
Dante followed.
“What did she say exactly?”
“That I was temporary.”
“Sophia.”
“That men like you rescue broken things until you get bored.”
He stopped.
Sophia turned back.
“She wasn’t wrong about one thing.”
“What?”
“You did rescue me.”
Dante stepped closer.
“No.”
“You bought my father’s debt.”
“I gave you a choice.”
“A choice with forty thousand dollars sitting between us.”
His face tightened.
“I never wanted you to feel bought.”
“But you always get what you want, don’t you?”
“That isn’t true.”
“Name one thing.”
His eyes held hers.
“You.”
Sophia stopped breathing.
Dante spoke quietly.
“I don’t have you.”
The hallway suddenly felt too narrow.
She should have moved.
She didn’t.
He lifted a hand toward her face.
Then Enzo appeared.
“We found something.”
Inside Dante’s office, Enzo placed a photograph on the desk.
Anthony Rossi.
Standing outside the Moretti mansion.
Sophia stared.
The timestamp was three nights earlier.
“What the hell?”
Dante looked at her.
“Did you know he came here?”
“No.”
Enzo placed another photograph beside it.
This one showed Anthony talking to Carlo, the front-desk guard.
Sophia’s stomach dropped.
Then came a third image.
Anthony handing Carlo an envelope.
Dante’s voice became ice.
“Your father paid my guard.”
Sophia shook her head.
“No.”
Enzo looked grim.
“We checked Carlo’s locker.”
He slid a small pharmacy label printer across the desk.
Sophia stared at it.
May you like
Her father hadn’t just gambled again.
He might have helped someone poison Elena.
