Chapter 6 - THE HOSTAGE WAS NEVER SOFIA
Dante stood so quickly the chair hit the wall.
“Where is he?”
Matteo laughed through the phone.
“Still ordering people around. Some things never change.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“You’ll see him when Lena signs.”
I stared at Dante.
Signs what?
Matteo continued.
“The trust transfer. North Harbor. Everything Lucia stole from me.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“That trust was never yours.”
“Neither was the family, apparently. You took that too.”
“You left.”
“You helped me disappear.”
“You begged me.”
Matteo hung up.
Dante immediately called his security chief.
Then Rachel asked the question nobody else had.
“If Matteo already has Vittorio, why mention Sofia?”
Dante froze.
He called Sofia.
Her phone rang.
Then she answered.
“Dante?”
He closed his eyes.
“You’re safe.”
“What?”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
Sofia had never been kidnapped.
Matteo wanted Dante to think she had been.
Another distraction.
“Lock your door,” Dante said.
Sofia became frantic.
“What happened?”
“You tell me.”
Silence.
Dante’s voice went cold.
“Were you working with Matteo?”
“I—”
“Answer.”
“I thought he wanted money.”
Dante looked at me.
“How much did you give him?”
“Nothing.”
“Information?”
Sofia began crying.
“He said he had evidence that would send my father to prison. He made me copy files.”
“What files?”
“Trust documents.”
“And Lena’s signature?”
Another silence.
My stomach turned.
“Sofia.”
“I copied it.”
Dante shut his eyes.
There it was.
Sofia had forged my signature.
But she insisted she had not altered the insurance policy.
“That wasn’t me.”
“Who did?”
“Matteo.”
She told us Matteo needed my legal authority active but controllable.
The kiss was designed to trigger a divorce after the five-year deadline.
He expected me to leave.
Expected Dante to react badly.
Expected the marriage to fracture exactly when the trust vested.
Then Rachel frowned.
“Why wait until after vesting? Why not destroy the marriage earlier?”
Sofia answered.
“Because Lucia’s trust requires a living beneficiary.”
Everyone went quiet.
Matteo could not access the assets if I divorced before five years.
He needed me to become owner first.
Then he needed me gone.
I instinctively placed a hand over my stomach.
Dante noticed.
His expression became terrifying.
“Did Matteo know Lena was pregnant?”
Sofia whispered, “I didn’t.”
Then Rachel’s computer chimed.
A new email.
Anonymous.
Subject:
CHOOSE WHO LIVES.
Inside was a live video feed.
Vittorio Moretti sat tied to a chair inside an abandoned warehouse.
Behind him, a digital clock counted down from six hours.
But he was not alone.
Another chair sat beside him.
Occupied.
My father.
Thomas Reed.
A retired high-school principal in Indiana.
A man who had never been involved with the Morettis.
I stopped breathing.
Matteo had taken my father too.
Then text appeared beneath the video.
One trust.
Two fathers.
One signature.
May you like
And for the first time, this war was no longer about Dante’s family.
It was about mine.
