Chapter 7 - THE DRIVER WHO DELIVERED HER INTO ADRIANA'S TRAP
At four thirty, Rachel called.
She had been contacted by federal investigators reviewing suspicious financial transfers connected to the Vitali businesses.
She wanted me to come to her office.
I agreed.
A licensed security driver picked me up outside the warehouse.
I climbed into the back of the SUV.
My phone was in my handbag.
My laptop sat beside me.
Rain streaked the windows.
We drove toward the expressway.
Then the driver received a call.
He glanced at the screen.
His face changed.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Traffic issue.”
He turned toward an industrial road.
I frowned.
“Rachel’s office is the other direction.”
“Alternate route.”
“Then tell me why we’re going south.”
He didn’t answer.
I reached for my phone.
The driver accelerated.
My stomach dropped.
“Pull over.”
He kept driving.
“Pull over now.”
His eyes met mine in the rearview mirror.
There was something terrible in them.
Not cruelty.
Fear.
“I’m sorry, Miss Miller.”
I grabbed my phone.
Before I could dial, a second vehicle appeared behind us.
Then a third.
The driver slowed near a warehouse gate.
Someone outside opened it.
We drove through.
The gate closed behind us.
I looked at the unfamiliar building.
Then at the driver.
“Who paid you?”
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t have to.
A woman stood beneath the warehouse awning, dressed in a cream coat, watching the SUV approach.
Adriana Vitali.
She smiled when I climbed out.
“Sophie.”
I stared at her.
“What are you doing?”
“Finishing something that should have been simple.”
The driver stood nearby, unable to meet my eyes.
Adriana gestured toward the building.
“Come inside.”
“No.”
Her smile disappeared.
“You don’t understand how serious this is.”
“I understand perfectly. You’re involved in stalking me, damaging my business, and fabricating financial records.”
Adriana looked almost amused.
“You think those were the worst things we could have done?”
I felt my heartbeat in my throat.
Then I noticed something beyond the loading doors.
Two workers were standing beside a table covered in papers.
One wore a gray suit.
Vincent D’Amato.
Massimo’s adviser.
He saw me.
And looked away.
Everything began connecting.
The false engagement.
The surveillance.
The bedroom.
The bank records.
The people who wanted Massimo distracted, suspicious, and emotionally compromised.
But there was one question I couldn’t answer.
Why had they gone to so much trouble instead of simply attacking him?
Adriana noticed my expression.
“You’re beginning to understand.”
“Explain it.”
She folded her arms.
“Massimo’s organization controls shipping interests my family has wanted for years.”
“So marry him.”
“He was already questioning the agreement. He suspected Vincent.”
I looked toward the man in the gray suit.
He remained silent.
Adriana continued.
“We needed to know how far his investigation had gone. We needed him distracted while certain records were transferred.”
“And you chose me?”
“You were convenient.”
The word hit harder than I expected.
Convenient.
A woman with a small business.
An ordinary life.
A mother in Oak Park.
Employees who depended on her.
All of it reduced to convenience.
“Elena deliberately sent me upstairs.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted his family to find me.”
“Yes.”
“And the photographs?”
“We needed to know whether you would be believable.”
I stared.
“You planned to make me his girlfriend?”
“Initially, we planned to make you a scandal.”
“Then?”
Adriana’s expression hardened.
“Then he developed feelings for you.”
I said nothing.
“We didn’t anticipate that.”
“You don’t know what he feels.”
She smiled without warmth.
“He moved you into his house. Put security around your business. Delayed meetings to see you. Refused to finalize agreements that would have benefited both families.”
I looked away.
Adriana stepped closer.
“You became useful in a different way.”
“As leverage.”
“Exactly.”
I took a slow breath.
“Then why invent the bank transfers?”
“To make him distrust you.”
“And why would you want that if you planned to use me?”
“Because suspicion makes people careless. Massimo becomes dangerous when he trusts someone. He becomes predictable when he thinks they’ve betrayed him.”
I looked toward Vincent.
“You’re helping her?”
He finally spoke.
“You don’t understand the pressures involved.”
I almost laughed.
“That’s what every coward says when he’s done something terrible for money.”
His face reddened.
Adriana raised a hand.
“Enough.”
She looked at me.
“You will call Massimo. You’ll tell him you need to see him alone.”
“No.”
“He’ll come.”
“No.”
“Sophie, this doesn’t have to become unpleasant.”
I looked directly at her.
“You’ve been making my life unpleasant for months.”
Her expression cooled.
“You really don’t understand what kind of people you’re dealing with.”
I thought of my father.
The garage.
The smell of motor oil.
The way he taught me to change a tire because he said independence wasn’t a feeling—it was knowing what to do when something broke.
I looked at Adriana.
“You’re right.”
She smiled faintly.
“Finally.”
“I don’t understand people who have everything and still need to ruin somebody else’s life to feel powerful.”
For a moment, her composure cracked.
May you like
Then she turned away.
“Put her in the office.”
