Chapter 1 - THE ONE THING HE COULD NOT BUY
“Tell me what I can do to make you stay.”
For fourteen years, Alessandro Moretti had solved problems with money, power, fear, or violence.
This was the first time Sofia looked at him as though none of those things mattered.
“You can’t.”
His face changed.
Not anger.
Not yet.
Shock.
“Sofia.”
“You don’t get to destroy something and then ask what it costs to replace it.”
“I made a mistake.”
“A mistake is forgetting our anniversary.”
Her voice broke, but she refused to look away.
“You carried on an affair for seven months.”
Valentina stood several feet behind him, crying silently.
Sofia looked at her.
“And you.”
Valentina flinched.
“You sat at my table.”
“Sofia, I’m sorry.”
“No. You’re sorry because I opened the door.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Leave her out of this.”
Sofia laughed.
“You brought her into it.”
His jaw tightened.
Then he did something men in Chicago would have paid money to witness.
He lowered his voice.
“Please don’t leave angry.”
She stared at him.
“Would it make you feel better if I left calmly?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Everything you say tonight seems to become something you didn’t mean.”
She opened the front door.
Cold October air rushed inside.
Alessandro followed.
“Sofia.”
She turned.
“You want to know what would make me stay?”
“Yes.”
“You should’ve remembered that I was your wife before you needed to be reminded.”
Then she walked away.
No chauffeur.
No guard.
No husband.
For the first time since marrying Alessandro, Sofia took a taxi like an ordinary woman.
She went to the only place she could think of.
Her mother’s old townhouse in Ravenswood.
The property had been empty for years.
Dust covered the furniture.
The electricity barely worked.
But it was hers.
She sat on the floor until sunrise.
At six-thirty, someone knocked.
Sofia stiffened.
Three knocks.
A pause.
Then a voice.
“Sofia? It’s Marco.”
Marco Bellini had been Alessandro’s closest friend for twenty-five years.
Sofia opened the door only a few inches.
He looked exhausted.
“I’m not here to bring you back.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Alessandro doesn’t know I came.”
That got her attention.
Marco stepped inside.
He removed an envelope from his coat.
“There’s something you need to know about Valentina.”
Sofia’s stomach tightened.
“I know enough.”
“No.”
Marco’s expression darkened.
“You know about the affair.”
He handed her the envelope.
“You don’t know why she came into your house the first time.”
Sofia opened it.
Inside were surveillance photographs.
Valentina meeting with a man Sofia recognized immediately.
Gabriel Russo.
Valentina’s older brother.
Alessandro’s ally.
In one photograph, Gabriel handed Valentina a small recording device.
Marco said quietly:
“The affair may have started seven months ago.”
May you like
Sofia looked up.
“But Valentina started spying on your husband almost a year before that.”
