Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO NOTICED THE SMALL THINGS
Sophia had always been observant.
It was a skill she'd developed through necessity.
Growing up in a crowded apartment in San Juan, she learned to recognize when her mother was worried about money.
Later, after moving to New York, she learned to read the moods of employers who could dismiss her without explanation.
Now she began noticing things about Alessandro.
He drank coffee but rarely finished it.
He answered phone calls even when exhausted.
He stood near windows without looking outside.
And he always checked the locks before leaving a room.
One afternoon, she found him in the library.
He was staring at a photograph.
A woman with dark hair stood beside a younger Alessandro.
Sophia hesitated.
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt.”
He looked up.
“It's all right.”
She glanced at the photograph.
“Your wife?”
Alessandro shook his head.
“My sister.”
Sophia looked surprised.
He continued.
“Her name was Lucia.”
Lucia had died seven years earlier.
She had been twenty-nine.
A talented pianist.
The only person in the family who could make Alessandro laugh when he was angry.
“What happened?” Sophia asked.
He looked down.
“A car accident.”
She nodded.
“I'm sorry.”
Alessandro studied the photograph.
“She used to paint.”
Sophia smiled faintly.
“Like Emma?”
He nodded.
“Like Emma.”
He continued.
“She said the house needed color.”
Sophia looked around the dark library.
“She wasn't wrong.”
Alessandro laughed softly.
For the first time, he told someone outside his family about Lucia.
About her music.
Her terrible cooking.
Her habit of leaving flowers in unexpected places.
Sophia listened.
She didn't offer easy comfort.
She didn't tell him everything happened for a reason.
She simply stayed.
When she finally stood to leave, Alessandro said:
“Thank you.”
Sophia turned.
“For what?”
“For listening.”
She smiled.
“Sometimes that's all people need.”
As she walked away, Alessandro looked at Lucia's photograph.
For the first time in years, the memory brought warmth instead of only pain.
But downstairs, Nicholas had discovered something that threatened to destroy that fragile peace.
A second hidden account.
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One that had been used to access the estate's emergency security controls.
And the access credentials belonged to someone Alessandro trusted even more than Vincent.
