Chapter 5 - Marco’s Warning
Marco walked slowly down the narrow aisle, his footsteps echoing in the cavernous room. He stopped beside the fallen ledger, looking down at the exposed headlines with a dark, hardened expression. He didn't pick it up immediately. Instead, he looked up at Sophia, and for the first time, she saw a flicker of genuine human exhaustion beneath his ruthless exterior.
"You shouldn't have opened that," Marco said, his voice low and devoid of threat—which somehow made it far more terrifying. "The Don keeps his ghosts locked away for a reason. When you start opening doors he sealed himself, you invite them in."
"I didn't mean to—it was an accident," Sophia stammered, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. "Are you going to kill me?"
Marco let out a short, humorless breath. "If I were going to kill you, Miss Carter, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You’d already be feeding the fish in Lake Michigan. But the Don... the Don is complicated."
"Complicated?" Sophia scoffed bitterly, panic overriding her fear. "He’s a monster who keeps records of his own tragedies to feed his paranoia, while terrorizing everyone under his roof!"
"He’s a man who had his entire world ripped out from under him in four seconds," Marco snapped back, his voice suddenly sharp, stepping close enough that Sophia could see the jagged scar running along his jawline. "You think he’s cold? You think he’s made of ice? Three years ago, Lorenzo Moretti smiled. He laughed. He had a family that loved him. And then the men who wanted his empire decided to send a message through a baby's car seat. He hunted every single one of those bastards down in six months. But revenge doesn't bring the dead back, Miss Carter. It just leaves you sitting in a dark room with a key and nothing left to lock up."
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Sophia stared at him, the harsh reality of the mafia world crashing down around her. The anger melted away, replaced by a cold, heavy dread.
"He thinks someone in this house is helping them," Marco added quietly, turning his gaze toward the dark window overlooking the courtyard. "And every time your little girl walks into his study and looks at him without fear... she reminds him of what he lost. That’s why he’s terrified of her."
