Chapter 13 - The Woman They Forgot to Watch
Sofia sat on the kitchen counter at three in the morning wearing Diego's oversized sweater.
Her maid uniform had been taken by police as evidence.
The sweater reached halfway down her thighs.
Diego stood across from her.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I wasn't kidnapped today.”
“Neither was I for very long.”
He stared.
Sofia added, “He never took me outside the estate.”
“That is not the useful distinction you think it is.”
She looked down at her hands.
They were still trembling.
Diego noticed.
He stepped closer.
“You were afraid.”
“Obviously.”
“You looked calm.”
“I've spent years serving wealthy people at dinner. Same survival skill.”
That made him smile slightly.
Then he became serious.
“I put you in danger.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Valli chose me.”
“Because of me.”
“Because of himself.”
Diego leaned against the counter.
“He said you ruined his experiment.”
“I have that effect on people.”
“You stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“We've already had this conversation.”
“I don't think I believed your answer.”
“And now?”
“I want to.”
Sofia's expression softened.
Before she could reply, Carlo entered carrying a laptop.
“Sorry.”
Diego turned.
“What?”
“Prosecutor's office contacted our attorneys.”
The room chilled.
Valli's final release included years of records.
Some were falsified.
Some were not.
Diego had spent his twenties building Ramos power through methods that would not survive legal scrutiny.
Intimidation.
Unreported transactions.
Bribery through intermediaries.
Nothing as dramatic as legend suggested.
Enough for prison.
Sofia looked at him.
“Are they real?”
“Some.”
Carlo said, “Lawyers think we can challenge the source.”
“No.”
“Diego.”
“No.”
He looked at Sofia.
If he destroyed legitimate evidence because it hurt him, he would become exactly what Valli claimed.
“We cooperate.”
Carlo stared.
“Completely?”
“Yes.”
“You could lose everything.”
“I almost did anyway.”
The next morning, Diego called the board.
Then the family.
Then the senior staff.
He stood in the grand salon where his return from the hospital had been staged less than two weeks earlier.
This time there were no wheelchairs.
No blindfolds.
No lies.
Reporters waited beyond the gates.
Diego addressed the room.
“Effective immediately, I am stepping aside from operational control of Ramos Holdings during the investigation.”
Shock.
Claudio looked up sharply.
Marco remained silent.
Diego continued.
“An independent management team will oversee the legitimate companies.”
A director protested.
“This is unnecessary.”
“It isn't.”
“What about the family?”
“Exactly why it's necessary.”
Cecilia had already entered a cooperation agreement.
Valli faced kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder, financial crimes, and more.
Claudio faced fraud-related charges but his cooperation would matter.
Marco voluntarily provided testimony.
Everybody was paying something.
Now Diego would too.
After the meeting, Aunt Teresa cornered him.
“You're throwing away your grandfather's legacy.”
Diego looked at her.
“My grandfather's legacy nearly got me killed.”
“What will people say?”
“For once, they can say what happened.”
She left furious.
Sofia watched from the doorway.
“You realize half these people hate honesty.”
“Yes.”
“Probably because it makes accounting difficult.”
He laughed.
Sofia had become the only person who could make him laugh during disaster.
That frightened him in a different way.
By afternoon, the villa staff began changing.
Not because Diego dismissed them.
They resigned.
Some feared scandal.
Some feared lost salaries.
Some simply followed Cecilia's earlier prediction: servants leave when the money stops.
Sofia stayed.
So did Carlo.
The elderly cook, Maria, stayed.
Two gardeners stayed.
An old driver named Enzo stayed because, according to him, he had already survived three Ramos scandals and wanted to see how this one ended.
By sunset, the enormous villa felt nearly empty.
Sofia stood beside Diego on the terrace.
“Everyone abandoned you twice.”
“Not everyone.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
The moment stretched.
Sofia broke eye contact first.
“Don't.”
“Don't what?”
“Look at me like that.”
“How am I looking?”
“Like you're thinking something inconvenient.”
He almost smiled.
“Maybe I am.”
“Your life is on fire.”
“I've noticed.”
“You don't need another complication.”
“Is that what you are?”
“Potentially.”
Diego stepped closer.
“Sofia.”
She lifted a hand.
“No.”
He stopped.
“I stayed because you needed someone, not because I wanted you to owe me something.”
“I know.”
“And I'm still your employee.”
“Technically.”
“Very technically.”
He understood.
Power complicated everything.
Wealth.
Employment.
Gratitude.
Fear.
If something existed between them, he refused to build it on imbalance.
“You're right.”
Sofia looked almost disappointed.
Then annoyed at herself for being disappointed.
Diego continued.
“You're no longer my maid.”
Her mouth opened.
“You're firing me?”
“Yes.”
“That is an unbelievably bad romantic strategy.”
He stared.
She covered her face.
“I did not just say that.”
“You did.”
“Forget it.”
“No.”
She climbed off the terrace rail.
“Diego.”
He was smiling now.
“Why am I fired?”
“Because if you choose to stay in my life after today, I never want you wondering whether your paycheck had anything to do with it.”
Sofia stopped.
The humor faded.
“That was almost thoughtful.”
“Almost?”
“Don't become arrogant.”
“Too late.”
He handed her an envelope.
Inside was severance pay far beyond what her contract required and a letter guaranteeing her sister's remaining tuition through a scholarship fund, not a personal gift.
Sofia looked up.
“I won't accept—”
“Your sister's scholarship has no conditions and cannot be revoked by me.”
“You planned this.”
“This afternoon.”
“Why?”
“Because whatever happens to me, your family shouldn't pay for helping mine.”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
Sofia hated them.
She blinked them away.
“You're improving.”
“Painfully.”
She folded the letter.
“I'm still staying tonight.”
“Why?”
“You're terrible at making coffee.”
“That's your reason?”
“Currently.”
The next morning, investigators searched Diego's offices.
He handed over keys himself.
And while lawyers prepared for what could become the biggest public scandal in Ramos history, Sofia did something nobody expected.
She contacted every former employee Cecilia had dismissed.
The gardener.
The nurse.
Two housekeepers.
A driver.
A cook.
Not to rebuild the staff.
To ask what they had seen.
Valli had spent years watching Diego.
But he had forgotten something important.
The powerful rarely notice the people cleaning the rooms after they leave.
By evening, Sofia had collected nine witness statements.
One came from a former chauffeur who remembered driving Valli to a rural garage days before the crash.
Another came from a cleaner who saw Valli copying Claudio's signatures.
A third remembered Cecilia arguing with Valli months before Diego's accident.
Sofia placed the statements before Diego.
“You did this today?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I asked.”
He stared.
“My investigators missed these people.”
“Your investigators questioned executives.”
“And you questioned servants.”
“People talk to us.”
Diego looked through the statements.
One contained the breakthrough.
A former housekeeper remembered Valli meeting secretly with a bank director.
Name: Paolo Ferretti.
Ferretti managed the shell accounts.
And unlike Valli, Ferretti had not disappeared or been arrested.
He was preparing to leave Italy that night.
The forgotten maid had just found the witness who could prove which financial crimes belonged to Valli—
May you like
and which belonged to Diego.
---
