Chapter 2
Helena called her an impostor.
She did it before I even carried Sofia out of the passage.
“Vincent, look at her. You’re grieving. Someone knew what bracelet Sofia wore and built this around your weakness.”
I stopped in front of her.
“My weakness?”
Her expression tightened.
Wrong word.
Sofia was shaking against me, but she raised her wrist.
“Look inside.”
I already knew what I would find.
Still, I turned the bracelet.
The engraving was there.
WHEN THE ROOM GOES QUIET, FIND ME.
A private joke from the night I proposed. Sofia hated crowded dinners and used to squeeze my hand whenever she wanted me to rescue her from a room.
I looked at Helena.
She said nothing.
Marco stepped forward.
“Jewelry can be copied.”
Sofia laughed weakly.
Then looked at me.
“You broke your left thumb when you were sixteen because you punched the pantry door after your father locked Marco Bellini inside.”
I went still.
Nobody knew that except Sofia.
Not Helena.
Not Marco Trent.
Not even Clara.
Sofia continued.
“The night Clara was born, you were so afraid to hold her that I called you a coward.”
My eyes burned.
“You said she looked too small.”
I remembered every word.
Every second.
I had held my newborn daughter ten minutes later while Sofia laughed at me from the hospital bed.
Helena’s face changed.
Clara stepped from behind one of my guards.
She stared at Sofia.
Children understand faces before stories.
Clara touched my hand.
“Daddy… who is she?”
Sofia stopped breathing.
I crouched beside my daughter.
There was no safe sentence.
No perfect way to return a mother from the dead.
“This is Sofia.”
Clara looked toward the portrait.
Then back at the woman.
“My mommy?”
Sofia covered her mouth.
Clara did not run to her.
She moved behind me.
That hurt Sofia.
I saw it.
But she nodded.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
Helena suddenly spoke.
“Do not fill that child’s head with this before we know what happened.”
I stood.
Sofia flinched at Helena’s voice.
Not slightly.
Her entire body recoiled.
I looked at my sister.
Then at Marco.
May you like
I no longer needed proof that Sofia had been hidden.
I needed to know what they had done to make my wife afraid of hearing Helena speak.
