Reborn to Marry the Rival Mafia Boss

Chapter Two

Footsteps sounded in the corridor. I laid my hand across Granddad's refusal as Tessa Marino passed the open door with a canvas work bag over her shoulder. She stopped when she saw me.

"Morning, Sofia," she said. "I thought everyone was busy with the wedding today." Tessa supervised dispatch at the Bellandi depot and came to the house only when my father needed physical records. She had seen me handle missing shipments and angry drivers while Marco sat in meetings upstairs. In the first life, she'd warned me about an altered route. I'd asked her to wait until after the wedding before we challenged it.

I had no idea whether she had ever discovered what was in those altered records.

"Beatrice isn't here yet," I told her. "Are you looking for Dad?"

"He asked me to bring the revised dispatch sheets." Tessa lifted her bag. "His assistant said I could leave them on his desk. I need to get back to the depot."

"He'll be home at lunch. You can give them to me if you want them signed in." Tessa glanced at the open file. She was careful about who saw company paperwork, and I didn't want to push her into trusting me because I knew what she'd done in another life.

"It's all right," she said. "I'll leave them with his assistant."

"I'll let him know you're here."

She thanked me and went toward the small office my father used when he worked from home. I waited until her footsteps faded before I photographed my grandfather's refusal and the memo behind it. Then I put the blue file back in order.

I wanted to take it upstairs. My father would notice if the whole file disappeared, though, and I needed to know what else was in his papers before he realized I was looking. I removed my own share certificate and the trust distribution copy. I left the originals of the remaining documents in place, closed the drawer, and locked it.

My phone buzzed with a message from Marco.

Looking forward to seeing you. I'll be over after lunch. Dad wants to talk about tomorrow.

I stared at his name. That morning in the first life, he'd arrived with flowers and kissed me in front of my mother. Valentina had gone upstairs ten minutes earlier to change. I'd thought she was avoiding him because she didn't approve of the wedding.

The affair had already begun.

I put the phone facedown on the desk. I could tell Marco I knew and watch him deny it. I could show my mother the messages I remembered finding after we married, except those messages hadn't been sent yet. What I remembered would not prove the affair had begun already. I needed something they could not dismiss before I challenged either of them.

Beatrice arrived just before ten with two garment bags and a younger assistant carrying a case of pins. My mother had cleared the front sitting room. She stood beside Valentina, discussing the alterations to her bridesmaid dress when I came in.

"There you are," my mother said. "Beatrice can start with you."

Beatrice greeted me and unzipped the larger bag. The wedding gown was ivory silk with narrow straps and a fitted bodice. I remembered wearing it while my mother adjusted my veil, telling me I was lucky Marco had agreed to such a short engagement.

I had liked the gown. Now I remembered Marco standing behind me in it at our reception, one hand at my back while he told a guest that our families would control the new port contracts together.

"Would you prefer the bedroom or the screen?" Beatrice asked, gesturing toward a folding screen she'd set up in the corner.

"The bedroom," I said. "I'll be back in a minute."

I changed upstairs and put the certificate and trust copy inside the locked drawer beneath my folded clothes. Then I stepped into the gown and called Beatrice in to fasten the back. The silk was cool against my legs. It still fit, though I'd spent the past hour with my stomach clenched.

When I returned to the sitting room, Valentina stood before the full-length mirror in her pale blue bridesmaid dress. She had found another necklace, smaller and less noticeable. My mother adjusted the fabric at her shoulder.

Beatrice crouched to check my hem. "You've kept the same shoes?"

"Yes," I answered.

My mother came over and studied me. "The neckline needs to sit higher."

"It will once I take it in," Beatrice told her, placing a pin near my left shoulder. "Sofia, can you turn a little?"

I turned as she asked. The assistant marked the length near my shoes while Beatrice adjusted the strap. As they discussed fabric and measurements, I kept my hands at my sides and watched Beatrice work. She noticed the strap pulling against my shoulder and moved the pin without my mother having to ask. Beatrice could finish her work. I could still cancel the wedding.

Valentina came to stand beside my mother. "Marco will love it."

I met her eyes in the mirror. She had said the same thing before. Later, when I found the photographs on Marco's phone, I recognized the hotel room from the weekend of this fitting. He'd taken Valentina there after dinner with my parents.

"He hasn't seen it," I said.

"I know." Valentina looked at the dress. "I just meant you're beautiful."

"Thank you."

My mother touched the back of the gown. "The veil will make it look finished. Beatrice, can we try it?" Beatrice reached for the veil. I stepped down from the fitting platform before she could place it on my head.

"I don't need to try that today," I said. "You have the measurements."

My mother frowned. "Sofia, we have people here. Don't rush them."

"They've done their work. I need to change before Marco comes over."

Beatrice straightened, pins held between her fingers. "I have everything I need for the alterations. We can fit the veil next time."

"See?" Valentina said to my mother, with a small shrug. "It's fine."

I thanked Beatrice and went upstairs. Behind me, my mother began discussing Valentina's dress again. I shut my bedroom door and took off the gown. I hung it on the wardrobe door, where Beatrice's assistant could collect it once I opened the room, then dressed in the clothes I had worn that morning.

The certificate remained where I'd left it. I put it and the trust copy in a plain document envelope, then slipped the envelope into my work bag. I took the necklace from my pocket and returned it to its box. The chain had left a faint mark across my palm; I shut the lid and locked it in the drawer before taking my bag.

A car pulled into the drive below my window. I looked down and saw my father's sedan. He was early. I took the work bag downstairs. My father came through the front door, speaking to someone on his phone. He saw me on the landing and finished the call with a promise to ring back.

"Your mother says you've been in my father's office," he said. He wore a dark suit and carried a folder beneath one arm. When he was pleased with me, it was Granddad's office. When I went through the papers without permission, it became his father's.

"I was checking my share documents," I told him, coming down the last steps.

"Those are handled." His gaze dropped to my work bag. "What did you take?" I stopped with one hand on the banister. If I lied, he'd know where to look first. If I told him about the memo, he'd remove the file before I got another chance to read it.

"The certificate Granddad left me," I said. "And a copy of the trust distribution. They're my documents."

My father held out his hand. "I'll put them back. We need the originals together."

"I'll keep them safe."I told him.

"Sofia." He lowered his hand, but his voice stayed firm. "Marco's father will be here tomorrow. The two families are finalizing the expansion, and I don't need missing papers causing trouble." I thought of Granddad's signed refusal and the unanswered question about the Rinaldis' money. My father had never told me either existed.

"I want to read the agreement before anyone asks me to sign it," I said. He looked toward the sitting room. My mother and Valentina were still with Beatrice; I could hear their voices through the closed door.

"We've discussed this," he said, turning back to me. "Your grandfather gave you a stake so you could benefit from the business. He expected you to trust me to run it."

"Then it won't take long for me to understand the agreement." He went quiet as Tessa came out of his home office with her empty work bag. The guard opened the front door for her. My father watched her cross the drive, then stepped aside so I could pass.

"Come to my office at nine tomorrow," he said. "I'll have everything ready." I nodded and went toward the side door that led to the garage. Behind me, he called my name.

"Don't make Marco think there's a problem," he said. "He needs to know we stand together."

I opened the door. "I'll speak to Marco." Inside my car, I took the envelope out of my bag. My certificate and the trust distribution were still there. When I reached for my keys, I saw a notification from the family company's document portal: a new file had been shared in the folder marked Bellandi–Rinaldi expansion.

I opened it.

The first page was an internal authorization giving my father the right to vote my shares on the expansion. It was marked effective immediately, although the separate agreement he wanted me to sign was still sitting on tomorrow's calendar. My name was printed at the bottom.

Someone had signed on the line above it.

The signature looked like mine. I had never seen the page before.