Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN SOPHIA COULDN'T REPLACE
Sophia Reynolds had spent eight years imagining her return to Chicago.
In every version of the story, Vincent Moretti welcomed her back.
He would realize he had never stopped loving her.
He would leave his wife.
And Sophia would become Mrs. Moretti.
It had almost worked.
Until Claire Bennett handed her the red envelope.
Inside was a copy of a confidential agreement dated eight years earlier.
Sophia stared at the signature.
Her own.
Beneath it was a payment record.
$2,500,000.
The amount Vincent's grandmother had paid Sophia to leave Chicago and never contact her grandson again.
Sophia had believed the arrangement would remain secret forever.
But Claire had found it.
Not through Vincent.
Not through his attorneys.
Through an old estate accountant who had been dismissed after Vincent's grandmother died.
The accountant had kept copies of every transaction.
Including the one that bought Sophia's silence.
Now Sophia sat across from Vincent in his private office.
He held the document.
His expression was unreadable.
“You took money to leave me?”
Sophia swallowed.
“Vincent—”
“Answer me.”
She looked down.
“Yes.”
He stared.
For eight years, he had believed Sophia abandoned him because she couldn't accept his dangerous life.
She had told him she wanted freedom.
A normal future.
A man who wasn't born into organized crime.
Now he discovered she had been paid to disappear.
Vincent laughed once.
A terrible sound.
“And you came back after my grandmother died.”
Sophia's eyes filled.
“I still love you.”
He looked at her.
“Do you?”
She nodded quickly.
“Of course.”
Vincent placed another document on the desk.
A recent bank statement.
Sophia froze.
He pointed at a transfer.
“Then why did you contact my grandmother's former attorney before returning?”
Sophia said nothing.
Vincent continued.
“You wanted to know how much I inherited.”
Her face went pale.
“Vincent, please.”
He leaned back.
For the first time, he saw the woman he had spent years idealizing.
Not the girl he loved at twenty-seven.
Not the woman he imagined he had lost.
But someone who had returned because his fortune had grown larger than the payment she accepted to leave.
He closed the folder.
“Get out.”
Sophia began crying.
“Vincent—”
“Leave.”
She stood.
At the door, she turned.
“Claire knew.”
Vincent looked up.
Sophia swallowed.
“She knew everything before the divorce.”
His expression changed.
“What?”
“She found the agreement weeks ago.”
Vincent stared.
“Then why didn't she tell me?”
Sophia smiled bitterly.
“Maybe because she wanted to see whether you'd choose her without being told the truth.”
The door closed.
Vincent sat alone.
May you like
And for the first time, he wondered whether the woman he had divorced had been waiting for him to prove that their marriage mattered.
He had failed.
