Chapter 3

Before I could say a word, he grabbed my left hand, shock he couldn't hide in his voice. "Sophia, where's your ring? Don't tell me you left it at home."

A flicker of panic crossed his eyes.

That ring was custom-made when he proposed to me. It was one of a pair with the one Luca had.

Back then, he'd had eyes only for me.

He'd said, "Sophia, I promise you'll be the only Donna of this family. I'll give you the grandest wedding there ever was, and everyone will be there to witness our love."

But at some point, he'd stopped wearing his.

I stayed silent, and the unease in Luca's eyes grew.

"Answer me! Sophia!"

I was about to speak when Nina suddenly screamed.

She was standing by the conference table, holding an open file, her face white as a sheet.

She looked up and said urgently, "There's a zero missing here. This is the ammunition order for the Delorme family. If we ship this amount, they'll come after us for breach of contract."

Luca took the file, and his face darkened as he read.

I'd checked that order myself the day before, and I knew for a fact the numbers had been correct.

But now, on the page, that glaring zero really was gone.

Nina shrank into Luca's arms and shot several frightened looks my way.

"If I remember right, Sophia was in charge of this file... But Sophia wouldn't make such a basic mistake, would she? It's just that she's the only one who handled it..."

Luca turned to look at me. "Sophia. Explain."

I held his gaze. "I checked it three times before I handed it off yesterday. I'm certain the numbers were right."

"So you're saying someone secretly changed it?" Luca slammed the file down on the table, anger spreading across his face. "Who would take that kind of risk and tamper with the family's books just to set you up?"

"I'll say it again. It wasn't me."

"If not you, then who? You're the only one who touched this file!"

"This morning, Nina took this file. She said she was bringing it to you to check."

Luca froze for a second. Then he threw the file to the floor and roared at me, "Sophia, you screw up and then try to pin it on Nina? When did you become so vicious?"

He'd already decided it was me. He was never going to listen to my explanation.

Luca turned to Marco. "Punish her according to family rules."

"Boss, we haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet," Marco said urgently.

"I said family rules."

The conference room went dead silent.

The family had an old rule: if a senior member's negligence put an important deal at serious risk, they received three lashes. Luca had set that rule himself when he first became Godfather. But every time it had been carried out before, responsibility had been confirmed first. Never had anyone been condemned like today, on nothing but a doctored document.

When two guards came up behind me, I didn't struggle, and I didn't explain again.

They forced me to the floor, and I watched Luca take the whip from Marco's hand.

He stood over me, whip in hand, looking down. Then he brought it down on me hard.

I flinched on instinct, but that only made the lash land right on my old wound. I let out a muffled groan, my brows knitting tight.

Luca looked at me, and something like heartache flickered in his eyes. But he didn't stop. He raised his arm and lashed me twice more, just as hard.

Stinging pain tore through my body. My vision blurred, but I bit back a scream.

When it was done, he handed the whip back to Marco and turned to face me again.

"Sophia, as my secretary, you shouldn't be making mistakes like this, and you definitely shouldn't be trying to shift the blame onto Nina. This is your punishment. Think long and hard about what you did!"

With that, Luca turned to the outside guests who hadn't yet left the conference room.

His voice was back to the steady authority of a Godfather.

"Everyone, I have an announcement."

He beckoned to Nina.

She clicked over to him in her heels at once and slipped her arm through his like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"As you all know, Sophia has been my chief secretary. For five years, she's been... reasonably competent.

"But today made me realize something. Sophia may not really be fit to be my secretary."

He glanced down at Nina, the corners of his mouth curving up.

"But Nina's different. She spotted the error in this file at a glance. There were over a dozen people in this room, Marco included, and not one of them noticed that missing zero.

"So she's better suited to be my secretary than Sophia."

The room was quiet for two seconds.

Then several of the family representatives started clapping, and someone chimed in with a laugh, "You've got a sharp eye, Don Moretti!"

"Miss Bianchi really is brilliant."

Nina leaned against Luca's shoulder, smiling shyly and sweetly. She tilted her head just slightly, and her gaze landed squarely on my face.

Luca didn't look back at me.

I smiled. Nina really was better suited to be his secretary than I was.

I'd been right to leave.

My phone buzzed. It was a confirmation from the airline: Your flight departs in ten hours.