Chapter 5 - The Weakness Revealed
A week passed. The manor had fundamentally changed.
The cold, silent halls were now occasionally filled with the sound of cartoons playing in the East Wing. Lucia had taken to following Victor around the house whenever he was home, asking him endless questions about his suits, his cars, and his "scary friends."
Sofia, however, remained distant. Despite the rest and the food, her cough was worsening. One evening, Victor found her in the library, reading a book by the fireplace. The firelight danced across her face, highlighting a delicate, haunting beauty he had never allowed himself to notice before.
“You shouldn’t have paid him,” Sofia said quietly, not looking up from the pages. “I can never repay you.”
“I didn’t ask for repayment,” Victor said, sitting in the leather armchair opposite her.
“Men like you never do things for free,” she replied, her dark eyes finally meeting his. There was no fear in them now, only a tragic resignation. “What is the price, Victor?”
He flinched at the sound of his first name on her lips. It felt electric.
“The price is that you get well,” Victor said softly. “The price is that Lucia grows up safe. That’s it.”
Sofia closed the book. “Moretti won’t let this go. You humiliated him. He knows I am your weakness now.”
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“I have no weaknesses,” Victor stated, though the lie tasted like ash in his mouth. If Moretti touched a hair on Sofia’s head, Victor knew he would tear the world apart.
Before Sofia could argue, she doubled over, a violent, hacking cough ripping through her lungs. She gasped for air, her face turning pale. Victor caught her as she collapsed, shouting for Dante to call the doctor.
