CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 4
The Ghost of Sophia Rossi
Lorenzo Rossi had spent two months trying to forget the sound of his wife's voice.
Not because he wanted to.
Because he had to.
Every memory of Sophia was a knife.
The way she laughed when she was angry.
The way she touched his arm whenever she wanted him to stop being stubborn.
The way she stood barefoot in their kitchen at midnight eating strawberries because she claimed pregnancy gave her permission to break every rule.
The way she looked at him the night before she died.
That memory was the worst.
Because Lorenzo still remembered the feeling.
The certainty.
The belief that tomorrow would come.
He had believed he would have more time.
Men like Lorenzo Rossi always believed they had more time.
Until they didn't.
The first thing Hunter noticed about Lorenzo after Leo began improving was that he became quieter.
Before, the entire mansion changed when he entered a room.
Guards stood straighter.
Employees stopped speaking.
Even the air seemed to become heavier.
But now?
Now Lorenzo spent hours sitting beside Leo's crib.
Not touching him.
Not speaking.
Just watching.
Like he was afraid that if he looked away, his son would disappear.
Hunter understood that feeling.
She had lived it.
Every night after Lily died, she had stared at the empty space beside her bed.
Waiting.
Hoping.
Knowing.
The worst part of losing someone was not the moment they left.
It was every moment afterward when your brain forgot they were gone.
When you woke up and expected them to still exist.
Then reality returned.
Again.
And again.
And again.
"Hunter."
She turned.
Lorenzo stood in the doorway.
His expression was unreadable.
"Yes?"
"I need to ask you something."
She waited.
"Why did you stay?"
The question surprised her.
"What?"
"You could have left."
His eyes moved toward Leo.
"After saving him, you could have demanded money. A reward. Protection."
Hunter looked down.
"I didn't save him for those things."
"I know."
That answer surprised her.
Because Lorenzo Rossi rarely admitted knowing anything he couldn't control.
"Then why?"
Hunter was quiet.
Finally, she said:
"Because nobody came when Lily needed someone."
The words hung between them.
Lorenzo said nothing.
Hunter continued.
"When my daughter was born, there were doctors. Nurses. Machines."
Her voice became softer.
"But when things went wrong..."
She swallowed.
"I remember holding her."
A pause.
"I remember everyone telling me they were sorry."
Her fingers tightened.
"But sorry doesn't help when your baby is gone."
Lorenzo looked away.
Because he knew.
People had told him sorry too.
After Sophia.
Thousands of times.
Every apology felt empty.
"That night in the nursery..."
Hunter looked toward Leo.
"When I heard him crying, I thought..."
She stopped.
"What?"
She looked at Lorenzo.
"I thought maybe God gave me one more chance to hold a baby."
The sentence broke something inside him.
Because Lorenzo was not a religious man.
He didn't believe in miracles.
He believed in decisions.
Actions.
Consequences.
But Leo surviving because of Hunter?
It felt dangerously close to something he couldn't explain.
That evening, Lorenzo entered the old room.
Sophia's room.
No one had touched it since the funeral.
The mansion staff avoided it.
The guards avoided it.
Even Lorenzo avoided it.
The room remained exactly as she left it.
Her books.
Her perfume.
Her clothes.
Her favorite chair by the window.
A ghost preserved in expensive furniture.
Lorenzo stood there for a long time.
Then he noticed something.
A small wooden box on the dresser.
He frowned.
He had never seen it before.
Inside was a collection of papers.
Medical documents.
Notes.
And one envelope.
His name was written on it.
Lorenzo.
His hands froze.
Because he recognized the handwriting.
Sophia.
His wife.
His heart stopped for one impossible second.
He opened it.
The letter was short.
But every word destroyed him.
Lorenzo,
If you are reading this, something happened.
I hope I'm wrong.
I hope I'm sitting beside you laughing because you are being dramatic again.
I hope Leo is in your arms.
I hope you finally understand that he doesn't need a perfect father.
He needs you.
Not the man everyone fears.
Not the man everyone obeys.
Just you.
I know you think power protects people.
But sometimes love protects them more.
Promise me something.
Don't let revenge become the only thing you leave our son.
He deserves a father.
Not a weapon.
I love you.
Sophia.
Lorenzo read it twice.
Then a third time.
His hand shook.
Because Sophia had known him better than anyone.
She knew exactly what he would become.
A man consumed by revenge.
A man who destroyed everything around him because he couldn't destroy his pain.
A man who protected his son from enemies...
but forgot to protect him from himself.
The next morning, Dr. Halloran arrived with unexpected news.
"We reviewed the security footage from the night Leo improved."
Lorenzo looked up.
"And?"
The doctor hesitated.
"Before Hunter entered the room, Leo's condition was declining rapidly."
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning he was close."
A pause.
"Very close."
Silence.
Then:
"But after she held him..."
The doctor looked at the medical records.
"We saw immediate changes."
Lorenzo leaned back.
"Why?"
The doctor sighed.
"Sometimes premature babies experience extreme stress responses."
"And?"
"And sometimes they respond to familiar sensations."
Lorenzo frowned.
"Familiar?"
"Heartbeat. Warmth. Smell. Voice."
The doctor looked toward the nursery.
"Things babies associate with safety."
Lorenzo understood.
Or at least he thought he did.
Then the doctor said something that stayed with him.
"Your son lost his mother before he knew her."
A pause.
"But somehow..."
His eyes moved toward Hunter.
"He found comfort in another mother."
Lorenzo looked through the glass.
Hunter was holding Leo.
Again.
His son was asleep.
Safe.
And for reasons he hated admitting...
Lorenzo was relieved.
That afternoon, Marcus entered Lorenzo's office.
The security chief looked serious.
"We confirmed the connection."
Lorenzo looked up.
"Between Thomas Vance and the Morettis?"
Marcus nodded.
"Yes."
"What did you find?"
Marcus placed a file on the desk.
"Thomas Vance was working as a courier for Moretti interests."
Lorenzo opened the folder.
Photos.
Financial records.
Connections.
Everything.
Then he saw one image.
A man standing near Sophia's car the night she died.
The quality was poor.
But the face was visible.
Lorenzo stopped breathing.
Because he knew that face.
He had seen it before.
A man he trusted.
A man who stood beside him during the funeral.
A man who cried with him.
The file slipped slightly from Lorenzo's hand.
"Impossible."
Marcus watched him carefully.
"Boss?"
Lorenzo stared at the photograph.
The truth was beginning to surface.
The enemy he hunted for two months...
might never have been the real enemy.
And the person responsible for taking Sophia away...
might have been standing beside him all along.
That night, Lorenzo stood outside Leo's nursery again.
Hunter was inside.
Reading to his son.
A woman his enemies could easily destroy.
A woman who had no idea she was connected to the darkest secret in his life.
Lorenzo looked at her.
Then at Leo.
And for the first time in years, he felt something stronger than anger.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For them.
Because the world he lived in had rules.
And the first rule was simple:
Anyone close to Lorenzo Rossi eventually became a target.
He had spent his entire life protecting people with violence.
Now he had to learn something harder.
How to protect them without destroying them.
And somewhere in the shadows of the Rossi empire...
someone was already watching.
Waiting.
May you like
Because Hunter Higgins had saved the heir.
And that made her the most dangerous woman in the house.
