Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME INTO MY HOME WITH A PLAN
Sofia wanted the affair to be simple.
Painful.
Ugly.
Simple.
Instead, by sunrise, she was staring at proof that Valentina Russo had entered her home with a hidden microphone months before Alessandro slept with her.
“That doesn’t excuse him.”
Marco nodded immediately.
“No.”
“He still chose her.”
“Yes.”
“He still brought her into my mother’s room.”
“Yes.”
Sofia appreciated that Marco did not defend him.
“Then why show me this?”
“Because Gabriel Russo is making a move against Alessandro.”
“What kind?”
“The kind that ends with funerals.”
Sofia looked back at the photographs.
“Why would Gabriel use his sister?”
“Because he knows Alessandro’s weakness.”
Sofia gave a bitter laugh.
“Apparently beautiful women.”
Marco’s expression did not change.
“You.”
She looked at him.
“Alessandro’s weakness is you.”
“That’s difficult to believe tonight.”
“Believe whatever you want about his character. I’m talking strategy.”
Marco sat across from her.
“For fourteen years, nobody could get close to him through money. Nobody could threaten him through business.”
“So they used Valentina?”
“They tried.”
“And he made their job easier.”
Marco said nothing.
Again, that silence mattered.
Sofia studied the photographs.
“What was she recording?”
“Meetings. Names. Routes. Financial information.”
“Did Alessandro know?”
“Not at first.”
Sofia looked up.
“At first?”
Marco hesitated.
Then she understood.
“He found out.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Her chest tightened.
The affair had lasted seven months.
Meaning Alessandro discovered Valentina was spying on him and continued sleeping with her anyway.
That was worse.
Far worse.
Sofia stood.
“Get out.”
“Sofia—”
“Get out.”
“He may have been using her after he found out.”
“That makes him a strategist, Marco. It does not make him a husband.”
Marco rose.
“You’re right.”
She looked at him sharply.
He continued.
“But Gabriel believes Valentina has something Alessandro needs.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does Alessandro?”
“Maybe.”
That word stayed with her.
Maybe.
At eleven that morning, Sofia turned on her phone.
There were twenty-nine missed calls.
Twenty-one from Alessandro.
Four from household staff.
Two from Marco.
One unknown.
And one from Valentina.
Sofia almost deleted it.
Then she saw the voicemail.
She pressed play.
Valentina’s voice shook.
“Sofia, I know you hate me. You should.”
A breath.
“But if you leave Alessandro now, Gabriel wins.”
Sofia’s fingers tightened around the phone.
Then Valentina whispered:
“The west guest room was not my idea.”
Sofia stopped breathing.
“Alessandro chose it because there was something hidden there.”
A pause.
“Something your mother left behind.”
The message ended.
Sofia stared at the wall.
May you like
Her mother had died in that room eleven years ago.
And suddenly, the betrayal was no longer the only secret Alessandro had carried into it.
