Chapter 46
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Sophia
My fingers shake as I button Lorenzo's shirt. It's the black one he wore to our first dinner at the compound. I've been living in his clothes since the hospital. Can't stand anything tight around my throat.
The bruises have faded to ugly yellows and greens, but I still see Daniil's face every time I close my eyes. Feel his hands crushing my windpipe. Hear Marina's scream before the gunshot.
I haven't slept through a single night since I woke up in the hospital.
Lorenzo tries to hide it, but I know he doesn't sleep either. He holds me when the nightmares come, whispers Italian endearments against my hair, but his body stays coiled tight like he's ready for another attack.
We're both broken right now. Pretending we're not.
I pull on a pair of jeans.
A text comes on my phone.
Lorenzo: Starting in 5 minutes. Pietro's office.
Luna.
Luna told him she was pregnant.
There might be a child out there.
A child that could be Lorenzo's.
The thought makes me sink onto the bed. What happens if there is a kid? A thirteen-year-old who shares Lorenzo's blood? Where would that leave us?
"You're my only love."
He said it in the car, but I couldn't push when he was already drowning in betrayal. His brothers lied to him. His first love deceived him. The family he'd die for kept secrets that cut him to the bone.
But I need to know. Am I really the love of his life, or am I just the one who's here now? The convenient wife who came with a crime empire attached?
Stop. I can't think like this. Not now.
I force myself to stand, to check my appearance in the mirror. The woman staring back looks hollow. Haunted. Nothing like the girl who knocked on Lorenzo's door a month ago, desperate for protection.
That girl is dead. Daniil killed her in Marina's apartment.
This woman—whoever she is—has to be stronger. Has to face whatever comes next.
My phone buzzes again.
Lorenzo: You don't have to come if you're not ready.
But I do have to. Because I'm his wife. Because whatever Luna says will affect our future. Because I need to see her face when she talks about the child that might exist.
Me: On my way down.
The hallway feels longer than usual. Somewhere below, voices carry—Pietro's commanding tone, Nico's sharp responses. They're all gathering for this family meeting that will either answer everything or destroy what's left of the Sartori brothers' trust.
Pietro said every member needs to be there.
I step into the living room. Vittoria sits curled in the corner of the couch, arms wrapped around her knees. Nora stands behind Pietro's chair, one hand on his shoulder. Nico paces near the window, his movements sharp and agitated.
Lorenzo doesn't look at me when I enter. He's standing by the fireplace, staring at nothing.
I take the empty spot next to Vittoria. She reaches for my hand, squeezes it once. Her fingers are ice cold.
The door opens again. Bruno wheels himself in. Lorenzo turns away from his brother completely, facing the wall like he can't stand to look at him.
Bruno looks exactly like he always does.
Fury carved into every line of his face, darkness radiating from him like smoke.
But there's something else today. He's angry, yes, but it's different.
He's the one who betrayed everyone, who kept Luna's secret, who helped her fake her death.
He should be apologizing, begging for forgiveness.
Instead, he sits there radiating rage like we're the ones who wronged him.
I scan the room, taking in each face. Pietro's expression is stone. Nico has stopped pacing but his hands are fisted at his sides. Nora watches everything. Vittoria stares at the floor.
No one speaks.
Then I hear footsteps in the hallway.
Liam enters first, and behind him—
Luna.
She's smaller than I remember. All these years hearing about her, building her up in my mind as this larger-than-life figure who destroyed Lorenzo, and she's just... a woman. Beautiful, yes. Dark hair like mine but cut sharp at her shoulders. Green eyes that seem to take in everything at once.
Her hands are secured behind her back. Liam guides her to an armchair in the center of the room, positions her carefully. She doesn't resist, doesn't fight. She sits with the grace of someone who's been in worse situations.
Those green eyes find me immediately.
"Hello, Sophia," she says, and her voice is warm. Kind, even. Like we're old friends meeting for coffee instead of whatever this is.
The kindness throws me. I expected venom, or indifference, or calculated charm.
I don't know how to respond. My throat still hurts, but that's not why I can't speak.
"Don't talk to her," Lorenzo says. He still won't turn around, won't look at Luna or Bruno or any of us.
Luna tilts her head. "She's my only family left, Lorenzo."
The words land like a bomb in the room.
My only family left.
Lorenzo
I turn around. "Enough."
The word cuts through whatever Luna was about to say next. I'm done with the games, the careful dance, the waiting.
"You want to tell us about the child? About Riccardo? About how you faked your death?" My voice stays level, but everyone in the room knows what that costs me. "Then talk. Now."
Luna's eyes shift to Bruno. "Don't you want to—"
"No." I step forward. "Whatever Bruno has to say, he can say it after. You start. Everything that has to do with you and me. From the beginning."
She settles back in the chair, hands still secured behind her. For a moment, she looks almost sad. Then she begins.
"I was eighteen when Francesco sent me to you." Her voice carries no emotion, like she's reading a grocery list. "My job was simple. Make Lorenzo Sartori fall in love with me."
Sophia shifts beside Vittoria. I don't look at her. Can't.
"That was my only job," Luna continues. "Making you love me would open doors.
Either you'd marry me and secure an alliance between our families, or if you didn't want marriage.
.." She pauses. "I'd destroy you from the inside.
Use what I learned, what you told me in moments of weakness, to tear the Sartoris apart. "
The room stays silent.
"You fell for it." Not accusation, just fact. "You were careful at first, kept me away from your family for months. But eventually, you introduced me as your girlfriend. That's when I met Riccardo."
Her expression softens now.
"This might feel awful for you to hear, but it was instant. The moment I saw him, everything changed. I'd never believed in that kind of love before. The kind that hits you like lightning, rewrites everything you thought you knew about yourself."
I feel nothing. The words slide off me like water. She loved Riccardo? She didn't? I don't give a damn about her feelings.
"I don't care," I tell her. "I don't care if you loved him or if you were playing him too. I care about what Riccardo did. What my brother did when he knew you were with me."
Luna's eyes find mine. "He tried to stay away. For weeks, he avoided being in the same room with me. But I..." She trails off.
"You what?"
"I pursued him. Relentlessly. I knew it was wrong, knew it would destroy everything, but I couldn't stop myself. For the first time in my life, I wanted something that wasn't part of Francesco's plan."
Pietro shifts in his chair. "So you seduced both brothers."
"I fell in love with one brother while using the other." Luna doesn't flinch from the truth. "Lorenzo was my mission. Riccardo was my choice."
"When did it start? The affair."
"Three months after you introduced me to the family. Riccardo held out for three months before he..." She stops herself. "Before we crossed that line."
Three months. While I was planning our future, talking about marriage, my oldest brother was fucking the woman I loved.
"Continue," I tell Luna. "The affair started. Then what?"
"We met in secret. Always careful, always guilty. Riccardo hated himself for it, hated me sometimes too. But we couldn't stop."
I watch Luna's face as she continues, searching for the lie. But all I see is exhaustion.
"Francesco got impatient." Her voice drops. "Six months of me being with you, and all I had to show for it was dinner dates and stolen kisses. He wanted results. Real intelligence. Something he could use."
My jaw tightens. I know what's coming.
"That shipment." The words taste like ash in my mouth. "The one that went wrong. Four of my men died."
"Yes." She doesn't look away. "Francesco threatened to pull me out, send someone else. Someone who'd be more... aggressive in their methods. I panicked. I knew about the shipment because you'd mentioned it during dinner. Just casual talk about being busy that week."
Pietro's fist slams on his desk. "Four men died because of casual dinner conversation?"
"I gave Francesco the route, the time, nothing more. I didn't know he'd—" Luna stops herself. "No. That's a lie. I knew exactly what he'd do with that information. I just didn't want to admit it to myself."
Luna continues. "Two days after the shipment, I found out I was pregnant. I was on my way to meet Riccardo, to tell him, when Bruno intercepted me."
Bruno shifts in his wheelchair but stays silent.
"He was going to kill me." Luna looks directly at Bruno now. "Had the gun pressed to my temple in that alley behind Riccardo's small city apartment. I could see it in his eyes. I was already dead."
"Should have pulled the trigger," Bruno growls.
"I told him I was pregnant." Luna's hands flex behind her back. "That stopped him. Then I saw recognition in his face. He knew. Somehow, he knew about me and Riccardo."
I turn to Bruno. "How?"
Bruno's jaw works. "Followed him one night. Saw them together. Was planning to tell you, but then the shipment happened. Our men died. I went to handle it myself."
"But you didn't."
"She was pregnant." Bruno's voice turns bitter. "Could have been Riccardo's kid. Could have been yours. Either way, it was Sartori blood."
Luna nods. "Bruno gave me a choice. He'd fake my death, set me up somewhere far away, cover me financially for life. In exchange, I disappear completely. Never contact anyone, never come back."
"Or?" Sophia asks quietly.
"Or he'd tell everyone everything. About the affair, about the pregnancy, about my role in the shipment.
It would have destroyed your family from the inside.
" Luna looks at me. "Riccardo would have confessed everything to you.
You two would have killed each other. Francesco would have used the chaos to take over. There was no good ending."
"So you ran," I state.
"I ran. Bruno staged the car bomb that night. Everyone believed I was dead. I went to Switzerland first, then Prague. Had my son there." Her voice softens on the last words. "Raised him alone for thirteen years while Bruno sent money every month. Never missed a payment."
"Until?" Pietro prompts.
"Until Riccardo died." Luna's composure finally cracks.
"The payments stopped immediately. Bruno was in a coma, and without that money.
.." She takes a shaky breath. "I had a choice.
Risk exposure by getting a job, knowing someone might recognize me, or watch my son go hungry.
A mother who knows there are people who'd use her child as leverage?
I chose to live off charity rather than make him a target. "
The room falls silent. Everyone processing this story, these revelations.
"The boy," I finally ask. "Is he mine or Riccardo's?"
Luna meets my eyes. "I don't know."
"I know whose kid it is," Bruno says from his wheelchair, his voice flat and cold.
I turn to Bruno. Everyone does.
Luna's eyes snap open wide. "What?"
"The boy is Riccardo's."
"Oh my God." Luna closes her eyes, her whole body sagging in the chair.
Vittoria puts both hands over her mouth, a strangled sound escaping her. Nora grabs her arm, steadying her.
"How do you know?" I ask Bruno.
"I paid doctors in Prague." He doesn't even look guilty. "Had them send me a sample. I ran a DNA test against Riccardo's and your hair I took."
The room explodes.
"You've known for years?" Pietro's on his feet.
"You sick bastard," Nico spits.
But I stay focused on Bruno. "Riccardo didn't know Luna was alive either?"
"No." Bruno's jaw tightens. "He mourned her like everyone else. Drank himself stupid for months, thinking she died because of him. Because he couldn't stay away from his brother's woman."
"Jesus Christ," Pietro breathes.
"Why?" I ask Bruno. The word comes out strangled. "Why keep it from him? From all of us?"
Bruno's eyes flash with something dark. "What the fuck would anyone else do if they were in my position?"
"Not this—"
"Really?" Bruno cuts me off, his voice rising. "You want to talk about keeping secrets, Lorenzo? You hid Giuseppe's other family for years of looking us in the eye and lying."
"That's different—"
"Is it?" Bruno leans forward in his wheelchair. "You made a choice to protect the family from a truth that would destroy us. I made the same choice."
"You let Riccardo die thinking he got her killed," Vittoria says, her voice breaking. "He carried that guilt—"
"He carried the guilt of fucking his brother's woman," Bruno snaps. "That was his to carry."
Luna's breathing hard now, processing everything. "Riccardo has a son. Had a son. A son he never knew about."
"A son who's better off not knowing his father betrayed his uncle and died in a hail of bullets at a wedding," Bruno says coldly.
"That's not your choice to make," I tell him.
"Like Giuseppe's secret wasn't yours to keep?" Bruno throws back. "At least I was protecting an innocent kid. You were protecting a man who betrayed his marriage vows for twenty-three years."
Pietro slams his hand on the desk. "Enough. Both of you."
But Bruno's not done. "You want to judge me, Lorenzo? Fine. But don't pretend you're any better. We all make choices in this family. We all decide what truths to bury."