CHAPTER 4 The Enemy Inside #4
Enzo looked at her.
“It means you were never chosen for Dante because of genetics.”
Silence.
Sofia frowned.
“What?”
“The files.”
Enzo’s smile faded.
“They lied about the reason.”
Dante stepped closer.
“Who is they?”
Enzo looked at him.
“The Circle.”
“The symbol?”
“Yes.”
“Vescari?”
“Partly.”
Dante’s voice became cold.
“What did they want with Sofia?”
Enzo looked toward the altar.
Then back.
“Not Sofia.”
Sofia’s stomach tightened.
“Then who?”
Enzo smiled.
“Dante.”
Silence.
Dante did not move.
“What do you mean?”
Sofia asked.
Enzo looked at her.
“You were the bait.”
Her heart stopped.
Dante’s expression changed.
“For what?”
“To control the Moretti heir.”
Dante laughed once.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“You were impossible to control.”
Enzo continued.
“Your father knew it. Vescari knew it. Everyone knew it.”
“So they chose a wife?”
“No.”
Enzo’s eyes shifted toward Sofia.
“They chose the only woman you would burn the city down to protect.”
Sofia stopped breathing.
Dante’s face emptied.
The chapel became silent.
Enzo leaned back.
“That was the real compatibility test.”
Not blood.
Not wealth.
Not politics.
Love.
Sofia looked at Dante.
He did not look at her.
“Seven years before the engagement?”
she whispered.
Enzo nodded.
“They were watching both of you.”
“But we barely knew each other.”
“You barely knew him.”
Enzo smiled faintly.
“He knew you.”
Sofia’s pulse raced.
She turned to Dante.
“What does he mean?”
Dante remained silent.
“Dante.”
Enzo laughed.
“He never told you?”
“Shut up.”
Dante’s voice was lethal.
Enzo ignored him.
“He saw you at a Bellini fundraiser when you were nineteen.”
Sofia stared at Dante.
He looked furious.
Not at her.
At Enzo.
“You were there?”
she asked.
“Yes.”
“You spoke to me?”
“No.”
“Then—”
“You were arguing with a waiter.”
“I was not arguing.”
“You were defending him.”
She remembered.
A wealthy guest had humiliated a young server for dropping a glass.
Sofia had intervened.
She barely remembered the night.
Dante did.
Every detail.
Her chest tightened.
Enzo watched them.
“That was when they noticed.”
Dante’s eyes snapped toward him.
“Noticed what?”
“That the future Don had a weakness.”
Sofia looked at Dante.
He finally met her eyes.
Seven years.
Before the engagement.
Before their families made a deal.
Before Sofia had ever wondered whether Dante wanted her.
He had.
The realization changed something inside her.
Enzo’s voice cut through it.
“They did not create Matteo because he was genetically valuable.”
Dante turned.
“Then why?”
Enzo’s expression lost all humor.
“Because a man like you can lose money.”
He looked at Dante.
“Power.”
Then at Sofia.
“Even a wife.”
His voice became quieter.
“But a son?”
Sofia felt sick.
Enzo leaned forward.
“A son makes a king obedient.”
Dante’s eyes became black.
“You’re saying Matteo was created as leverage.”
“Yes.”
“Against me.”
“Yes.”
Sofia’s hands curled into fists.
“And Marina?”
Enzo looked down at the blood on his shirt.
“She found me before I could reach you.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No.”
“Then whose blood?”
Enzo’s eyes lifted.
“The man who did.”
Silence.
Dante stepped forward.
“Where is he?”
Enzo looked toward the chapel door.
“Already gone.”
“Name.”
Enzo smiled grimly.
“I don’t know his real one.”
“What do you know?”
“He called himself Vale.”
Sofia stopped breathing.
Adrian Vale.
The doctor who delivered Matteo.
Dante looked at her.
Enzo saw the reaction.
“You know him.”
Sofia could barely speak.
“He delivered my son.”
For the first time, Enzo looked shocked.
Then afraid.
Truly afraid.
“That’s impossible.”
Dante grabbed him by the jacket.
“Why?”
“Vale doesn’t deliver babies.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Enzo shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
Dante tightened his grip.
“Then explain.”
Enzo stared at Sofia.
“If Vale was there when the boy was born, then this was never only about leverage.”
Sofia’s blood chilled.
“What else could it be?”
Enzo said nothing.
Dante pulled him closer.
“Talk.”
Enzo looked at him.
“The Circle has one rule.”
“What rule?”
“They never personally attend a birth unless the child is designated.”
Sofia felt sick.
“Designated for what?”
Enzo’s face had gone pale.
He looked toward the chapel door where Matteo waited somewhere beyond the stone walls.
Then he whispered:
“Succession.”
Dante released him.
Silence.
Sofia could hear her own heartbeat.
“Succession to what?”
she asked.
Enzo met her eyes.
“The Circle.”
The answer settled like ice.
Matteo had not been created merely to control Dante.
He had not simply been watched.
He had been chosen.
Before he could speak.
Before he could walk.
Perhaps before he had even been conceived.
Sofia turned toward Dante.
He was already looking at her.
This time, neither had to say it.
They had been manipulated.
Their marriage.
Their separation.
Their son.
Every piece had been moved by someone else.
But the people behind it had made one mistake.
They had believed Dante Moretti’s love for Sofia and Matteo would make him controllable.
They had forgotten what love could make a dangerous man willing to destroy.