Chapter 3 - THE SILVER ROSARY
Sophia stared at the silver beads gleaming in the dim streetlights that flashed through the tinted windows.
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “My father was a good man. He ran a bakery. He—”
“He was the best assassin the Rossi family ever had,” Adrian interrupted, his voice void of malice, only heavy with an ancient exhaustion.
Elena whimpered in the corner of the seat, clutching her stomach. “Marcus told me Adrian killed his own parents to take power. He told me if I disrupted the wedding and ruined Adrian’s alliance, he would let me keep my baby.”
“Marcus is the father?” Sophia asked, looking at the terrified woman.
Elena nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I’ve been his prisoner for three years. He threatened to kill my older son if I didn’t do this.”
Sophia felt a sudden, sharp twist of empathy. This woman wasn’t an enemy; she was a victim of the same world that was currently swallowing Sophia whole.
“And my father?” Sophia demanded, turning back to Adrian. “If he was an assassin, why am I alive? Why are you?”
“Because when he came to kill my parents, he found them already dead,” Adrian said softly. “Marcus’s father got there first. Your father found me hiding in the closet. And he found you.”
“Me?” Sophia’s heart hammered against her ribs. “I wasn’t there.”
“You were,” Adrian said. “You just blocked it out.”
He pointed to the heavy silver crucifix on the rosary in her lap. “Twist the bottom.”
Sophia’s hands trembled as she picked up the cross. She gripped the bottom edge and twisted. There was a tiny click. The bottom of the cross slid out, revealing a hollowed-out chamber inside.
A tightly rolled piece of paper dropped into her palm.
She unrolled it. It was a list of names, written in her father’s cramped handwriting.
Thomas Rossi.
Vincent Vance.
Marcus Rossi.
Claire Rossi.
Next to Claire’s name was a date. Today’s date.
Sophia felt the blood drain from her face. “Who is Claire Rossi?”
Elena let out a choked gasp from the corner of the car. She stared at the paper as if it were a poisonous snake.
“You don’t know?” Elena whispered.
Adrian looked out the window into the passing darkness. “Claire Rossi was Marcus’s older sister. The true heir to the Rossi syndicate.”
“Was?” Sophia asked.
“She faked her death twenty years ago to escape her family,” Adrian said. “Your father helped her disappear. He spent his whole life protecting her.”
Sophia’s mind spun. “Where is she now?”
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Adrian finally turned to look at her. The expression in his eyes broke Sophia’s heart before he even spoke the words.
“She’s sitting right in front of me.”
