Chapter 14 - The Housekeeper’s True Identity"You missed your transport to Canada, Sophia," I said, keeping the gun steady, though my finger relaxed slightly off the trigger. "What are you doing here? How do you even know about this escape route?"
Sophia climbed up the rocky ladder steps, her expression completely devoid of the frightened, subservient maid routine she had played for two years in my home. She moved with the fluid, calculated grace of a high-level operative.
"Canada was a convenient lie to satisfy Vance’s security logs," Sophia said, her voice dropping the meek, trembling tone she used around Isabella. It was clear, sharp, and carried the refined accent of upper-crust European intelligence. "If I had taken the train north, Vance would have had me sniped before I crossed the state line."
I lowered the gun an inch, narrowing my eyes. "Who the hell are you?"
"My name is Sophia Vance," she said calmly, stepping onto the cliff ledge.
The name hit me like a physical blow. "Vance? You're related to the head of my internal security?"
"Sister," she corrected, wiping a smudge of dirt from her cheek. "Twin sister, to be exact. And before you pull that trigger, Alessandro, you should know that my brother didn't just betray you. He murdered our father twenty-five years ago, right alongside your mother and my uncle, to take control of the European syndicates."
The pieces of the puzzle clicked together with terrifying clarity.
"You didn't infiltrate my house as an ordinary housekeeper," I realized, the cold reality settling over me. "You were hunting your brother the entire time."
"I spent three years tracking him across Geneva, Marseille, and finally New York," Sophia said, stepping closer, her eyes holding mine without a trace of fear. "I knew he had embedded himself deep inside the Moretti syndicate. But I couldn't touch him without blowing my cover. I needed an apex predator to do the heavy lifting. I needed you, Alessandro."
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I let out a dark, humorless laugh, the irony burning in my chest. "So you used your own daughter as a pawn? You let Isabella terrorize little Emma just to manipulate me into investigating the library footage?"
"Emma is my niece," Sophia said sharply, her voice finally cracking with real emotion. "And Isabella threatened her life because my daughter accidentally saw Isabella signing the transfer papers with my brother. I didn't plan for Emma to speak to you on your wedding day, Alessandro. But when she did... I knew you were the only man ruthless enough to burn my brother's empire to the ground."
