Chapter 9 - SOPHIA LEFT THE MANSION
Gabriel Rizzo was charged four days later.
The news spread quickly.
Dominic expected scandal.
He got something worse.
Questions.
Reporters gathered outside Moretti properties.
Federal investigators expanded inquiries.
Business partners demanded meetings.
Old enemies became suddenly interested in morality.
Dominic didn't care.
Sophia did.
Not about the business.
About Lily.
A photographer caught them leaving the mansion.
The image appeared online before lunch.
MYSTERY WOMAN AND CHILD INSIDE MORETTI ESTATE DURING RIZZO INVESTIGATION.
Sophia saw it while folding towels upstairs.
Dominic found her packing thirty minutes later.
He stopped in the doorway.
“No.”
She didn't look up.
“Please don't.”
“You're leaving.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You know why.”
“I know a photograph exists.”
“My daughter’s face is online.”
“It will be removed.”
Sophia turned.
“You can't remove the internet.”
“I can remove that photograph from every publication that—”
“Dominic.”
He stopped.
Control.
Again.
She zipped Lily’s bag.
“I knew your life was dangerous.”
His jaw tightened.
“I told myself we could stay outside that part.”
“You can.”
“No, we can't.”
She faced him.
“Someone tried to take Lily because of this.”
“Gabriel is in custody.”
“There will always be someone.”
Dominic couldn't deny it.
“That isn’t fair to her.”
“I can protect you.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
“That is the problem.”
His face hardened.
“My protection is the problem?”
“Your whole world is built around needing protection.”
Silence.
She softened.
“I’m not insulting you.”
“It feels remarkably similar.”
“I know.”
She stepped closer.
“Lily should go to school without security men watching the playground.”
“She can.”
“Can she?”
Dominic said nothing.
Sophia looked around the enormous guest room.
“She loves it here.”
“So do you.”
The sentence escaped.
Sophia looked at him.
Dominic continued more quietly.
“You do.”
“I care about people here.”
“People.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Make me say something before I’m ready because you're afraid.”
He went still.
She had seen him.
Again.
Sophia continued.
“You're used to forcing answers because uncertainty feels dangerous.”
“That is usually because uncertainty is dangerous.”
“Not with me.”
Dominic looked at her.
She took a breath.
“I care about you.”
He could not move.
“But I don't know what that means yet.”
He looked away.
His father’s lesson screamed inside him.
Never let another person become important enough to destroy you.
The irony was almost funny.
Sophia did not need to destroy him.
She could simply leave.
“I won’t stop you,” he said.
Her eyes filled.
“I know.”
That made it worse.
Lily came running into the room.
“Are we going home?”
Sophia crouched.
“Yes.”
Lily frowned.
“Why?”
“We've been here a long time.”
“But Leonardo lives here.”
Dominic looked away.
Lily walked toward him.
“Can he come?”
Dominic crouched.
Leonardo was in his hand.
He had brought the toy upstairs without realizing it.
Lily reached.
Dominic hesitated.
Then placed the lion in her palm.
“He belongs to you.”
She shook her head.
“He protects you.”
“I have Victor.”
From the hallway, Victor said, “Not the same skill set.”
Dominic glared.
Lily giggled.
Then pushed Leonardo back into Dominic’s hand.
“You keep him.”
His throat tightened.
“For how long?”
“Until I come back.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
Dominic looked at Lily.
“Deal.”
He drove them home himself.
No convoy.
One security car several blocks behind.
Sophia noticed but said nothing.
At her apartment, Dominic carried Lily’s bag upstairs.
The place was small.
Warm.
Photographs everywhere.
Daniel.
Sophia.
Lily as a baby.
A man pushing a laundry basket down a hallway while Sophia laughed behind the camera.
Dominic stopped.
That was Daniel.
Alive.
Ridiculous.
Happy.
Sophia saw him watching.
“That was the race car.”
“I assumed.”
Lily ran to her toys.
Dominic placed the bag beside the sofa.
He did not know what to do next.
He had negotiated hostile takeovers more comfortably.
Sophia stood near the door.
“Thank you.”
He nodded.
“You’ll have security outside.”
“Dominic.”
“One car.”
“No.”
“One.”
She sighed.
“Across the street.”
“Yes.”
“No men in the building.”
“Unless there is danger.”
“Dominic.”
“Fine.”
She almost smiled.
He looked at her.
“I don't know how to do this.”
Her expression softened.
“Do what?”
“Let people leave.”
Sophia’s eyes filled.
“Maybe don't think of it as leaving you.”
“It looks remarkably like leaving.”
“I’m going home.”
He nodded.
“That is what people say when they leave.”
She stepped closer.
“Dominic.”
He looked at her.
“I need my life to belong to me.”
He swallowed.
“I understand.”
“And I need Lily’s life to be normal.”
“I understand.”
“And I need to know that if I come back to you, it's because I choose it.”
That stopped him.
“If?”
Sophia smiled faintly.
“You always need the last word.”
“Yes.”
She reached up.
For a second Dominic thought she would touch his face.
Instead she straightened his tie.
Then whispered, “Not this time.”
She closed the door gently behind him.
Dominic stood in the hallway.
Alone.
At the mansion that night, the silence was unbearable.
No tiny footsteps.
No plastic animals.
No purple cup.
The sitting room was perfect again.
Dominic hated it.
He lay on the sofa.
Eyes open.
The charcoal blanket remained folded across the chair.
He did not pretend to sleep.
There was nobody to test.
That realization hurt more than expected.
At midnight, Victor entered without knocking.
Dominic didn't move.
“You're depressing.”
“Leave.”
Victor sat.
“I brought whiskey.”
“I don't want it.”
“That is how I know this is serious.”
Dominic stared at the ceiling.
Victor poured one glass for himself.
“Do you know what Salvatore would tell you?”
“I am deeply uninterested.”
“He'd say she made you weak.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
Victor drank.
“He'd be wrong.”
Dominic looked over.
Victor rarely spoke about Salvatore that way.
“She made you predictable in exactly one way,” Victor continued.
“What way?”
“You finally care what happens after the fight.”
Dominic sat up.
Victor looked around the empty room.
“For years, winning was enough for you.”
He shrugged.
“Now you want someone waiting when you come home.”
Dominic looked away.
“That isn't weakness.”
“What is it?”
Victor smiled faintly.
“A terrible inconvenience.”
Dominic almost laughed.
His phone buzzed.
A message.
Sophia.
He opened it immediately.
A photograph.
Lily sleeping in her own bed.
Under the charcoal velvet blanket.
Dominic stared.
Another message.
SHE INSISTED ON BRINGING IT. SORRY.
He looked toward the chair.
The blanket was gone.
He hadn't even noticed.
Dominic typed:
KEEP IT.
Three dots appeared.
Then:
SHE SAYS LEONARDO BETTER BE WARM.
Dominic looked at the plastic lion on the side table.
He typed:
HE IS.
For the first time since Sophia left, the mansion did not feel completely empty.
May you like
Not because they were there.
Because there was a reason to believe they might come back.
