Chapter 3 - SOPHIA CAME TO MY HOUSE ALONE
Sophia Carter arrived at my mansion the next morning without Vincent.
That was the only reason I let her through the gate.
She stood on my front step wearing a navy coat and no makeup.
She looked tired.
Not seductive.
Not triumphant.
Just tired.
“I owe you an explanation.”
“You owe me several.”
She nodded.
Fair.
I let her inside.
Nathan was in the library reviewing title records. I did not ask him to leave.
Sophia noticed.
“I don't blame you.”
“Good.”
We sat opposite each other.
For three years, I had seen this woman beside my husband.
Perfect hair.
Perfect schedules.
Perfect ability to reach Vincent at hours when I couldn't.
Now I finally asked the question directly.
“Did you sleep with my husband?”
“No.”
“Did you kiss him?”
“No.”
“Did he ever ask you to?”
“No.”
“Did you want him to?”
Sophia hesitated.
That was the first answer I didn't like.
“A long time ago,” she said. “Maybe.”
Vincent had hired her four years earlier.
Before our marriage.
She admitted she'd had a brief crush.
Nothing happened.
By the time Vincent married me, she said, it was gone.
“Why didn't you correct the rumors?”
Her expression tightened.
“Because we were told not to.”
I laughed once.
“Of course.”
“Claire, Marco had people watching Vincent.”
That stopped me.
“What?”
“The stolen funds weren't the first problem. A year ago, I found duplicate vendor payments. When I asked questions, somebody broke into my apartment.”
Nathan looked up.
Sophia continued.
“Richard and Vincent decided to make it appear that Vincent and I were distracted by something personal.”
I stared at her.
“You used an affair rumor as camouflage.”
“Yes.”
“And nobody thought the wife might deserve to know?”
Her eyes filled with shame.
“I argued that.”
“Not hard enough.”
“No.”
That answer took some of my anger away.
Not all.
“You wore his jacket.”
“It was raining.”
“I hate that the stupidest explanation is apparently true.”
Sophia almost smiled.
She didn't.
“I should have told you anyway.”
“Yes.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of Marco?”
She looked toward Nathan.
“Not only Marco.”
Then she removed a flash drive from her purse.
“This is why I'm here.”
Nathan took it.
Sophia explained that the missing twenty-eight million wasn't simply stolen.
The money had been moved into companies that were buying voting shares in Moretti Holdings from small private investors.
Someone was using stolen company money to finance a takeover of the same company.
Nathan looked impressed despite himself.
“That's ambitious.”
“It's almost complete.”
“How close?”
“If the board removes Vincent tomorrow, whoever controls those shares can force a leadership vote.”
I stared.
“Marco.”
“We think so.”
“Think?”
Sophia leaned forward.
“Because yesterday something changed.”
“What?”
“Your group-chat message.”
I almost laughed.
“My public humiliation contributed to corporate governance?”
“In a strange way, yes.”
She opened her laptop.
“Someone tried to delete your message from the company server three seconds after you sent it.”
“Vincent?”
“No.”
The deletion request came from an executive administrator credential.
Only three people had that level.
Vincent.
Sophia.
Marco.
Vincent was calling me at the time.
Sophia was in another building, logged into a separate secure terminal.
That left Marco.
“Why would he care about deleting my message?”
“Because your message changed the board's timing.”
“How?”
“It told everyone Vincent's marriage was unstable before Marco was ready to control the story.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“So Marco's emergency board meeting isn't opportunistic.”
“No.”
Sophia looked at me.
“He had already prepared it.”
My skin went cold.
“How long ago?”
“Three weeks.”
Three weeks.
The same week I moved my clothes into the guest closet.
I thought no one had noticed.
Apparently someone had.
Sophia opened one final file.
An email drafted by Marco but never sent.
Subject:
SUCCESSION EVENT - MORETTI CEO.
Inside was a communications plan.
Vincent removed.
Richard pressured into retirement.
Company fraud blamed on Claire and Sophia.
Marco appointed interim CEO.
I read my name twice.
“Why me?”
Sophia answered quietly.
“Because you're the only person who owns something Marco needs but can't take through the company.”
“My house.”
She nodded.
Nathan and I exchanged a look.
Then Sophia said the sentence that changed everything.
“The house isn't what he wants.”
I stared.
“What does he want?”
May you like
She looked toward the floor.
“Something your father hid inside it.”
