Chapter 13 - Damian’s Version of Justice
Sophie met Damian in the estate greenhouse.
Marco’s team listened through a transmitter hidden beneath her coat.
Massimo hated sending her.
Sophie had insisted.
“You want him talking,” she said. “He called me.”
“You don’t owe me this.”
“No. I owe myself answers.”
Damian waited among winter roses.
“You came.”
“You threatened me.”
“I warned you.”
“You helped forge documents in my name.”
Damian’s expression shifted.
“So Massimo told you.”
“He showed me the footage.”
That startled him.
“Footage?”
“Your locker-room performance wasn’t subtle.”
Damian looked toward the glass walls.
“You’re recording me.”
Sophie’s stomach tightened.
Then Damian smiled.
“Relax. If Massimo wanted me arrested today, police would already be here.”
He understood his cousin well.
Perhaps too well.
“Why frame me?”
“To protect Vivian.”
“By destroying me?”
“Initially the documents were supposed to make you leave quietly.”
“You don’t create a fake six-million-dollar corporation to encourage someone to resign.”
Damian looked tired.
“No.”
“Then tell me.”
He touched a rose petal.
“When Vivian discovered who you were, she panicked.”
“Because I’m Rebecca’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“She thought I knew about Thomas Bell.”
“She thought Rebecca might have given you his records.”
“My mother wanted nothing to do with them.”
“I know that now.”
Sophie stared.
“So you were searching me.”
“Yes.”
“My apartment?”
“I ordered a records search.”
“Someone broke in.”
“That wasn’t my instruction.”
“Convenient.”
Damian’s jaw tightened.
“You think I’m the monster in this story.”
“I think there are several candidates.”
He almost smiled.
“That sounds like Rebecca.”
“You barely knew her.”
“She was kind to me when I was a child.”
Sophie had not expected that.
“After my parents separated, she visited twice. She told my father to stop letting Uncle Enzo define his life.”
“What happened?”
“My father never listened.”
“Neither did Thomas.”
“No.”
For a moment they shared something strange.
Children and grandchildren of adults who could not release a grievance.
Then Sophie asked, “Why Vivian?”
“Because she had the records.”
“And because you loved her?”
Damian looked away.
“Yes.”
“You sent the woman you loved to seduce your cousin.”
Pain crossed his face.
“That was never the original plan.”
“What was?”
“She was supposed to meet Massimo once. Learn whether he knew about Harbor Point. Instead he called her.”
“And she kept seeing him.”
“Yes.”
“You allowed it.”
“I thought it gave us access.”
Sophie shook her head.
“You all have the same disease.”
“What disease?”
“Calling betrayal strategy.”
Damian flinched.
She continued.
“Did you know Vivian withheld Lucia’s heart medication?”
Silence.
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you know she drugged Massimo’s tea?”
His face changed again.
“I knew about a mild sedative.”
Sophie’s anger rose.
“That is not better.”
“He was never supposed to be harmed.”
“You wanted doctors to call him incompetent.”
“Temporarily.”
“So you could steal two hundred forty million dollars.”
“Recover.”
“Steal.”
“It belonged to my father.”
“Some of it.”
Damian stepped forward.
“Do you know what Enzo did to him?”
“Yes.”
“No, you read documents. I watched it.”
His voice cracked.
“My father went from owning half a future empire to asking Enzo for permission to pay legal bills. I watched him drink himself unconscious because every newspaper called Enzo a visionary while Carlo Moretti became the unstable brother who couldn’t be trusted.”
Sophie’s anger softened but did not disappear.
“That was wrong.”
Damian stared.
“You admit it.”
“Of course.”
“Massimo won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He has everything to lose.”
“So did my mother when she walked away from Thomas.”
Damian looked at her.
“And she still did it.”
Sophie stepped closer.
“You had a legitimate grievance. Maybe even a legitimate legal claim. But somewhere along the way, justice stopped being enough.”
Damian said nothing.
“You wanted Massimo humiliated. Vivian wanted Lucia afraid. You wanted the family to feel powerless.”
“That family made us powerless.”
“Then you became them.”
Damian’s face hardened.
That sentence landed.
Sophie turned to leave.
“Sophie.”
She stopped.
“Don’t go to the wedding.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the greenhouse entrance.
“Because Vivian changed the plan.”
Massimo leaned toward the surveillance speaker.
Sophie asked, “Changed it how?”
Damian’s voice lowered.
“The sedative dose.”
Sophie went cold.
“What about it?”
“I told her enough to create symptoms. Nothing more.”
“And she wants more.”
Damian did not answer.
That was answer enough.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Damian.”
“She said if Massimo is hospitalized, the incapacity clause becomes cleaner.”
Sophie’s face drained.
“Hospitalized how?”
“I told her no.”
“But did you stop her?”
Silence.
Massimo stood.
Marco grabbed his arm.
“Wait.”
Sophie stared at Damian.
“You’re afraid of her.”
Damian laughed bitterly.
“You should be too.”
“Why?”
“Because for me this was always about taking back what Enzo stole.”
“And for Vivian?”
Damian looked toward the house where Lucia lived.
“For Vivian, money is just proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That she can make a Moretti beg.”
Sophie remembered Vivian holding Lucia’s medication.
She understood.
Damian moved closer.
“If Sunday collapses, Vivian has a contingency.”
“What contingency?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
He swallowed.
“Because she stopped telling me everything months ago.”
Sophie stared at him.
“Then help us.”
Damian looked almost tempted.
Then his face closed.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if I walk away now, my father lost everything for nothing.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No, Damian.”
She opened the greenhouse door.
“If you keep going, he loses you too.”
She left him among the roses.
In the surveillance room, Massimo was already calling Marco.
“Find Vivian’s contingency.”
Marco nodded.
“And the wedding?”
Massimo looked at the calendar.
Saturday tomorrow.
Then Sunday.
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“The wedding stays.”
But for the first time, Massimo was no longer certain he controlled what would happen there.
