Chapter 8
Anthony stood so quickly his chair struck the wall.
“You brought her?”
Dominic removed his coat.
“She brought herself.”
Anthony looked at Sophia.
“You have five minutes to stop humiliating yourself.”
Six months earlier, those words would have destroyed her.
Tonight, they irritated her.
“That’s interesting,” she said. “I was about to offer you the same opportunity.”
Several men looked down to hide reactions.
Anthony’s face reddened.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
Sophia placed a leather folder on the table.
“I think drugging a woman for two years is fairly serious.”
Silence.
Vincent Caruso slowly stood.
“What did you say?”
Anthony’s eyes flicked toward Dominic.
There.
Fear.
Dominic saw it.
So did Sophia.
She opened the folder.
“Fraudulent prescription records. Laboratory results. Messages from Anthony’s phone discussing the pills.”
Anthony laughed too quickly.
“This is insane.”
Sophia slid copies across the polished table.
“You replaced my thyroid medication with sedatives.”
“No.”
“You paid a doctor through a clinic you financed.”
“I didn’t.”
“You texted Lauren Whitaker that I was easier to manage after you changed the dosage.”
Vincent picked up one of the printed messages.
His hands began shaking.
Anthony turned toward him.
“Mr. Caruso, this is being twisted.”
Sophia nearly smiled.
For three years Anthony had called her father Vince.
Now he was Mr. Caruso.
Interesting what fear did to manners.
Vincent looked at his daughter.
“Is this true?”
Sophia nodded.
“All of it.”
Her father’s face collapsed.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried to tell everyone something was wrong.”
That sentence hurt more than she expected.
“You told me marriage was difficult. You told me alliances required sacrifice. You told me Anthony was under pressure.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
Sophia continued.
“So I kept sacrificing.”
“I didn’t know.”
“No.”
Her voice softened.
“You didn’t.”
Then sharpened.
“But you also didn’t ask.”
Anthony slammed a hand onto the table.
“This meeting is about Dominic.”
Everyone turned.
Anthony pointed at his uncle.
“He seduced my fiancée.”
Dominic looked almost bored.
“Former fiancée.”
“You took her into your bed before the engagement was formally dissolved.”
Sophia’s face heated.
Dominic’s eyes turned lethal.
But Sophia touched his wrist.
“I’ve got this.”
He looked at her.
Then sat back.
Sophia faced Anthony.
“You had another woman pregnant while you were engaged to me.”
Anthony hesitated.
“That situation is irrelevant.”
A man at the far end of the table actually laughed.
Anthony glared at him.