Chapter 5 - The Web of Sterling
The silence in the library grew so heavy that the crackling of the fire sounded like popping firecrackers. Sophia gripped the arms of the leather chair, her knuckles turning white.
"Placed me here?" she repeated, her voice shaking with a mixture of fear and rising fury. "Mr. Moretti, are you saying I’m a spy? That I came into your home to betray you?"
"I’m saying that coincidences of this magnitude do not exist in my world," Alessandro replied, his tone remaining infuriatingly calm. "Viktor Sterling has been trying to penetrate the inner ring of my estate for six months. He knows my security codes, he knows my patrol routes, and he knew my weak spots—until today."
"My daughter and I were starving!" Sophia stood up, unable to contain her outrage any longer. "We were living in a studio apartment with a broken heater and a landlord threatening to throw us into the snow! I took the only cleaning job the agency offered me! If I knew this house belonged to a mafia boss, I would have run the other way!"
She turned toward the door, her chest heaving, ready to walk out into the night even if it meant freezing on the streets.
"Where do you think you're going?" Alessandro asked, his voice cutting through the room like a whip.
"To pack my things," Sophia snapped over her shoulder. "I won't be accused of being a pawn in your gang wars. Keep your mansion, keep your vicious dog, and keep your paranoia."
"Sit down, Mrs. Carter," Alessandro said, standing up from his desk with a quiet, menacing authority that made her freeze in her tracks.
He didn't yell. He didn't threaten her. But as he rounded the desk and walked slowly toward her, the sheer physical presence of the man commanded obedience. He stopped a mere two feet away, towering over her.
"If I thought you were Sterling’s spy," Alessandro said softly, his face inches from hers, "you and your daughter would already be outside the gates, and not in a pleasant way. But Bruno doesn't lie."
Sophia blinked, caught off guard. "What?"
"That dog has ripped the throats out of three men sent by Sterling over the years," Alessandro said, his eyes searching hers. "He smells corruption the way a shark smells blood in the water. If you were working for Sterling, Bruno would have torn through that door and ripped you apart while you slept. Instead, he’s currently guarding your child like she’s a queen."
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Sophia swallowed hard, her anger fading into a dizzying confusion. "So... what happens now?"
"Now," Alessandro said, turning back toward his desk, "you stay. Not as a maid, but under my direct roof as a protected guest until I find out who authorized your placement here. And if Sterling thinks he can use your husband’s death to get to me... he’s about to find out why they call this estate the iron fort."
