Chapter 5
Sofia remembered the elevator.
She did not want to talk about it.
I asked anyway.
Gently.
“I packed one bag.”
“For you and Lily?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you going?”
“My mother’s.”
I nodded.
“Then?”
“Marcus came downstairs holding Lily.”
My hands curled.
“He said if I walked into the elevator, Lily stayed.”
Sofia’s eyes filled.
“I knew he couldn’t legally—”
She stopped.
We did not need law.
We needed fear.
“But you believed he could make it happen.”
“Yes.”
“Because of me?”
She started crying.
“Because they said you agreed.”
There it was again.
My name used like a locked door.
I looked away for a moment.
Not because I blamed her.
Because I blamed myself.
I had built a reputation so absolute that apparently my wife believed one sentence—Raffaele agreed—could erase her choices.
“What did Delia say?”
Sofia wiped her face.
“That if I wanted Lily to grow up Montoro, I needed to stop behaving like a Bennett.”
My expression hardened.
Sofia’s maiden name.
Of course.
They had turned her family into an insult.
“She said my mother cleaned bakery floors and maybe I was finally doing work I understood.”
I stood.
Sofia caught my wrist.
“Raffaele.”
I stopped.
“Don’t.”
Her voice shook.
“Don’t go destroy something because you’re angry.”
I looked at her.
“What do you want me to do?”
The question surprised her.
That hurt too.
Nobody had asked her what she wanted in months.
“I want Lily never to hear them call me trash again.”
Done.
“I want the staff to stop being punished for helping me.”
Done.
“I want Delia away from me.”
Done.
“And Marcus?”
Sofia’s face changed.
“I don’t want him near Lily.”
My jaw tightened.
“Done.”
Then she looked at me.
“And I need you to understand something.”
I waited.
“This happened because they were cruel.”
Pause.
May you like
“But it lasted because they knew I thought you wouldn’t believe me.”
That belonged to me.
