Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN WHITE
Valentina dragged Sophia into the laundry room and locked the door.
Carlo remained outside.
“No marks on her face,” he warned.
Valentina laughed.
“Why? You worried HR will complain?”
“I’m worried Lorenzo will notice.”
At the sound of his name, Valentina’s smile disappeared.
Sophia noticed.
That fear mattered.
Lorenzo Moretti might not know what was happening inside his estate.
And Valentina clearly wanted to keep it that way.
Sophia forced herself to stay calm.
“What do you want?”
Valentina turned slowly.
“I want to know exactly what you heard.”
“Nothing.”
Valentina slapped her.
Sophia staggered into a washing machine.
“Try again.”
“I heard you talking about shipping.”
Another slap.
“About what?”
Sophia tasted blood.
“Medical supplies.”
Valentina studied her.
Then she grabbed Sophia by the collar.
“Did you hear the word vault?”
Sophia said nothing.
That was enough.
Valentina shoved her to the floor.
“You people always make the same mistake.”
Sophia looked up.
“What people?”
“People who think being near wealth makes them important.”
Sophia’s fear hardened into anger.
“I clean your house. I don’t want your life.”
“No. You just listen at doors.”
“You had a picture of my daughter.”
Valentina crouched in front of her.
“And now you understand why you’re going to forget everything you heard.”
“Stay away from Mia.”
“You’re not in a position to give orders.”
Sophia lunged.
She grabbed Valentina’s wrist.
“You touch my child and I swear—”
Valentina smashed Sophia’s hand against the tile.
Pain shot through her fingers.
“You swear what?”
Sophia gasped.
Valentina leaned closer.
“You’re a single mother with overdue bills and no family within three hundred miles. If Mia disappeared tomorrow, people would assume her father took her.”
Sophia went still.
Mia’s father, Daniel, had been dead for two years.
A warehouse accident at the Port of Newark.
Or at least that was what Sophia had been told.
Valentina saw the reaction.
Interesting.
Too interesting.
“What?” Sophia whispered.
Valentina stood.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You knew Daniel.”
Valentina’s eyes flickered.
Just once.
Sophia saw it.
“My husband worked at the docks,” Sophia said. “Did you know him?”
“You’re confused.”
“Did you know him?”
Valentina slapped her again.
Harder.
“Shut up.”
That answered everything.
Sophia’s mind raced.
Daniel had called her the night before his death.
He had sounded scared.
He said he had seen something he wasn’t supposed to see.
The next morning, police told Sophia a cargo lift had malfunctioned.
Case closed.
Accident.
Two years of grief suddenly cracked open.
Sophia whispered, “You killed him.”
Valentina stepped backward.
“That’s a very dangerous accusation.”
“Daniel found out about your shipments.”
Valentina’s face went cold.
“You should have learned from your husband.”
Sophia stopped breathing.
Outside, Carlo knocked.
“We need to move. Lorenzo’s car just passed the south gate.”
Valentina spun around.
“What?”
“He’s home.”
“He’s not supposed to be back until tomorrow.”
“He’s here.”
For the first time, Sophia saw panic on Valentina’s face.
Valentina grabbed Sophia.
“You will wash your face. You will go upstairs. You will smile. And if you say one word to Lorenzo…”
She pulled Sophia close.
“…Mia won’t make it home from school.”
The laundry-room door opened.
And from somewhere in the hall, a child screamed.
“Daddy!”
Valentina went pale.
Because the child wasn’t Mia.
It was Lorenzo Moretti’s eight-year-old daughter, Emma.
May you like
And Emma had seen the blood on Sophia’s uniform.
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