Chapter 9 - The Woman Wearing Sophia’s Face
Sophia stared at the drawing.
“That is impossible.”
Aleandro placed the notebook on the table.
“Emma drew what she saw.”
“Children combine memories.”
“Sometimes.”
Sophia touched the diamond earrings she still wore occasionally.
Only three people knew where she stored them.
Aleandro.
Her personal assistant, Caroline Webb.
And her older sister, Natalie Bennett.
Natalie had arrived from Boston after the kidnapping and remained close throughout Sophia’s recovery.
She attended medical appointments.
She helped organize the legal support fund.
She knew every security routine.
Sophia shook her head.
“Natalie would never help Vittorio.”
“Then we prove it.”
They invited Natalie to the estate under the pretense of discussing the baby shower.
She arrived wearing a cream suit and Sophia’s old perfume.
Aleandro noticed the scent immediately.
The same perfume lingered in the greenhouse the night Emma saw Vittorio.
Natalie embraced Sophia.
“You look exhausted.”
“I am fine.”
Aleandro watched her eyes move toward the drawing notebook.
Recognition.
Quickly hidden.
He placed a photograph of Vittorio on the table.
“Did you know him?”
“Everyone knew him.”
“Did you meet him privately?”
“No.”
Sophia’s voice trembled.
“Natalie, please tell the truth.”
Natalie’s expression changed.
Not guilt.
Resentment.
“You always did this.”
“Did what?”
“Looked at me as though your life was the only one that could be ruined.”
Sophia stepped back.
“What are you talking about?”
Natalie laughed.
“You met Aleandro. You entered this world. You received diamonds, security, attention. And I remained the older sister everyone forgot.”
“You hated me?”
“I hated what you became.”
Aleandro remained near the door.
“Why did you help Vittorio?”
Natalie looked at him.
“He promised to destroy the engagement.”
“Through murder?”
“He said no one would die.”
“You watched a child get kidnapped.”
“I did not know Emma would be there.”
Sophia’s face collapsed.
“You wore my earrings.”
“Vittorio wanted witnesses to believe you met him secretly.”
“The clinic file?”
“I delivered the false disease report.”
Sophia covered her mouth.
Her own sister had sent the document that frightened her into secrecy.
“Why?”
Natalie’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because he said Gabriel De Luca loved you.”
Sophia stared.
“You did this for Gabriel?”
Natalie had met Gabriel two years earlier.
They had begun an affair while he negotiated shipping contracts in Boston.
Gabriel promised to leave his political engagement for her.
Then he became interested in Sophia’s connection to the Morettis.
He used Natalie to obtain information.
When Vittorio approached her, she believed helping destroy Sophia’s engagement would allow Gabriel to choose her.
“He never loved you,” Aleandro said.
Natalie turned on him.
“You do not know anything.”
“He used you to enter the estate.”
“He said we would leave together.”
“Then why did he expose Sophia publicly?”
Natalie had no answer.
Sophia looked at her sister.
“You stood beside me after Belladonna House.”
“I was sorry.”
“You helped the man who tied a bomb beneath my chair.”
“I did not know about the bomb.”
“But you knew he threatened Elena.”
Natalie began crying.
“I wanted one thing that belonged to me.”
Sophia’s voice became very quiet.
“I was never something you had to lose.”
Natalie reached inside her purse.
Aleandro moved instantly.
She did not pull a weapon.
She removed a small injector.
Sophia stepped back.
“What is that?”
Natalie’s hand shook.
“Vittorio gave it to me.”
Aleandro seized her wrist.
The injector contained a drug capable of causing premature labor.
Natalie had planned to use it during the baby shower.
Whether she intended to kill the baby or force Sophia into medical crisis, even she seemed uncertain.
Security entered.
As they took her away, Natalie looked at Sophia.
“Gabriel said the baby would always keep him tied to you.”
Sophia froze.
“What?”
Natalie believed Gabriel was the father because Vittorio had shown her the altered clinic report.
Vittorio manipulated everyone with a different version of the same lie.
Gabriel believed the records could protect him.
Sophia believed they endangered Aleandro.
Natalie believed they proved Gabriel had chosen Sophia.
One false document had transformed fear into betrayal across three families.
Gabriel was arrested for conspiracy after messages showed he knew Natalie had access to the estate and encouraged her to gather information.
He denied knowledge of the kidnapping and injector.
But his manipulation was enough to destroy what remained of his influence.
Sophia visited Natalie in custody once.
Aleandro waited outside.
When she emerged, she did not cry.
“What did she say?” he asked.
“She asked me to forgive her.”
“And?”
“I told her forgiveness is not a door she can demand I open.”
Aleandro nodded.
Sophia placed one hand over her stomach.
“I spent months believing secrecy protected people. Natalie believed betrayal would finally make someone choose her. Isabella believed lies could create a family.”
She looked at him.
“Everyone keeps confusing control with love.”
“Yes.”
“Do you still want to marry me?”
Aleandro took the engagement ring from his pocket.
He had carried it for months.
“I want to build something that does not require either of us to disappear inside it.”
“That is not an answer.”
“It is the only honest one I have.”
He held out the ring.
Not toward her finger.
Toward her open hand.
Sophia took it.
“When the baby is born,” she said, “ask me again.”
Two months later, labor began during a thunderstorm.
Aleandro remained beside her through fourteen hours.
No council.
No guards in the room.
No negotiations.
Only Sophia’s hand crushing his and the sound of rain against the hospital windows.
Their daughter was born shortly before dawn.
They named her Lucia Elena Moretti.
Lucia for light.
Elena for the woman whose stolen motherhood had exposed the truth.
When Aleandro held his daughter, she opened her eyes and stared at him with complete suspicion.
Sophia laughed weakly.
“She notices everything.”
“Then we are in trouble.”
A small knock came at the door.
Emma entered holding a drawing.
It showed Aleandro, Sophia, and baby Lucia beneath a table.
May you like
But this time, there was nothing hidden underneath.
Only their feet touching.
