Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN WHO SAID NO
Sophia dragged Alessandro into the private hallway.
“What were you thinking?”
“I was ending the questions.”
“You multiplied them.”
“They will no longer call you my mistress.”
“They will call me your fiancée.”
“Yes.”
“I am not your fiancée.”
“Not yet.”
She stared at him.
“That was not romantic.”
“I was not attempting romance.”
“That is obvious.”
Emma stood nearby holding Vincent’s wooden lion.
“Are we having cake?”
Sophia looked at her.
“No.”
Alessandro answered at the same time.
“Yes.”
Sophia turned on him.
“No cake.”
Emma frowned.
“People have cake when they marry.”
“No one is marrying anyone.”
Alessandro looked at Sophia.
“We should discuss it.”
“We should discuss how you announced ownership of me to the entire country.”
His expression shifted.
“I did not mean it that way.”
“That is how men in your family always mean it.”
The words wounded him.
Good, Sophia thought.
He needed to understand.
“You did not ask me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By deciding my future in public?”
“Yes.”
She laughed in disbelief.
“That answer is exactly the problem.”
Lucia leaned against the wall.
“She is right.”
Alessandro looked at her.
“You have spoken to me six times.”
“This makes seven.”
Sophia folded her arms.
“You cannot protect people by controlling them.”
“That is the only method I know.”
“Then learn another.”
He looked at Emma.
The child was painting another flower on the wooden lion.
“What do you want me to say?”
Sophia answered quietly.
“Ask.”
Alessandro faced her fully.
“Will you marry me?”
“No.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Emma gasped.
Lucia almost smiled.
Alessandro stood very still.
Sophia continued.
“I will not marry you because reporters are cruel.”
“I will not marry you because Emma shares your blood.”
“I will not marry you because your enemies need a warning.”
“And I will not become another woman sacrificed to make a Moretti man feel powerful.”
Alessandro’s voice lowered.
“What would make you consider it?”
“Time.”
“Honesty.”
“Freedom.”
“You would have all three.”
“I need proof.”
He nodded once.
“Then I will prove it.”
Sophia expected anger.
Argument.
A threat.
Instead, he walked back to the press conference.
He returned to the microphone.
“I need to correct my previous statement.”
The reporters fell silent.
“Sophia Bennett is not my fiancée.”
“I asked no permission before announcing a future that was not mine to decide.”
“She has declined my proposal.”
The room erupted again.
Sophia watched in disbelief.
Alessandro raised his voice.
“She is not responsible for my decisions.”
“She is not connected to criminal operations.”
“And anyone who threatens her or our daughter will answer to the law.”
Not to me.
To the law.
Sophia noticed the distinction.
So did Agent Cole.
That evening, Ryan appeared in family court by video.
His lawyer argued that Alessandro was a dangerous influence.
Sophia’s attorney presented the false custody order, the abuse reports, and Emma’s testimony to a child specialist.
The judge terminated Ryan’s temporary custody claim.
But Ryan smiled during the ruling.
Sophia knew that smile.
He had another weapon.
The following morning, a package arrived.
Inside was a photograph of Sophia entering Carlo’s private club two years earlier.
A note read:
Tell Alessandro why you were really there.
Alessandro saw the picture.
“You told me you never met Carlo.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then why were you at his club?”
Sophia sat down.
The secret she had buried for two years had finally returned.
May you like
“I went there to kill him.”
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