by Keene, Susan
“Not at this point, but don’t insult my intelligence. All one has to do is hear you talk to know you don’t belong here. When Tony gets up here, I suggest you tell the truth.” She spoke with a thick Italian accent.
I gulped. “Who’s Anthony?”
She pointed her finger at me. “He is my son and Sophia’s protector and best friend. It would be in your best interest not to lie to him. He knows her better than anyone.”
The door opened without the courtesy of a knock. A tall, Navy Seal sort of man dressed in expensive clothes stepped in. He closed the door and locked it behind him. He walked over to me and looked me up and down. His mouth curved into a cynical smile. “You must be Sophie’s twin, Kate. It is you isn’t it Kate?”
I lowered my head and let it rest in my hands. “Yes, but I didn’t come to scam anyone. How do you know about me? I thought Sophie having a sister was the biggest secret in the country.” I had a tendency to ramble when I was scared, but I didn’t care. “Three men, dressed like you picked me up as I was on my way to meet Sophie at an address she gave me. They drugged me and I woke up here. I don’t even know what day it is.”
He looked at his mother who shook her head in agreement. “She’s telling the truth. I got a call from the office that told me she was home. Of course, they wouldn’t know she’s a fake.”
Tony turned away from his mother and looked my way. “What day were you supposed to meet her?”
Before I could answer, someone else was at the door. Tony answered the door, talked quietly with whoever it was for a moment before turning his attention back to me. “To keep both you and Sophie safe, you’ll have to be Sophie until we can find her. I believe, if she was supposed to meet you and you didn’t show up, she’ll put together what happened, and she’ll come home immediately. In the meantime, you’ll have to be her.”
I stood and walked closer to him. “There is more to it. I found a dead man in the bathroom at the house where we were to meet and Sophia was nowhere around.”
I watched the color of the man’s face changed from tan and healthy to white and concerned. “Again, I need to ask when that was.”
“Tuesday evening the seventeenth.”
He looked toward his mother. “Two days ago I don’t like this.”
I fell back into my chair. “I don’t either; can’t I just wait in the room until she shows up?” I obviously hadn’t fooled Tony or his mother. How in the world could I fool anyone else?
Tony came and sat next to me. “It isn’t that simple. Right now, your soon to be husband is in the study with your father and they’re waiting for you.” He looked at his mother. “Mom lay out something for Kate to wear.”
He turned his attention back to me. “The biggest difference between you two is the way you speak. She was raised in New Jersey and has a distinct dialect. Your best bet is to say little or nothing. If you must talk, try to mimic her. I’ll give you a quick background. Your fiancé is Johnny Lombardi. Your father, Dominic De Marco, thinks a marriage between the two of you will create a lasting peace between the two organized crime families, one of which Sophie was born into. You better change and go down. The study is the first door on the right at the bottom of the stairs. I’ll be back later to talk about what we’re going to do.”
He paused at the door and walked back to me. “The other noticeable difference is how you move. Your moves are casual. You’re loose. Sophia carries herself with a regal air” He stepped closer to me and put a hand on each of my shoulders. He gently pressed my arms close together. She’s more closed up. She always sits with her hands on her lap. Like this.” Tony sat without crossing his legs. He moved them closer together and tucked them under the chair. He rested both hands on his knees, one on top of the other. “She also walks and sits ramrod straight. The only other glaring difference is; Sophie is left-handed. It’ll be difficult for you, but try to remember to reach and eat with your left hand. I doubt there will be any food to worry about tonight. This is all a lot to remember. Good luck. We can only pray Sophie gets here soon. You’d better hurry.”
The clothes Rosa laid out were fine. With them, she included a pair of flat-heeled Mary Janes. I dressed quickly and went downstairs. Someone was engaged in a conversation and it wasn’t cordial. I followed the sound. When I stepped into the room, I saw two men. I had to lock my knees to keep them from banging together.
One man wore an expensive silk smoking jacket, the other in a black suit. He looked like he was dressed to attend a funeral. I took a chance and walked toward the man in the lounging coat and kissed his cheek. “Father.” I almost choked on the word as it left my mouth.
“Glad you graced us with your presence, Sophia.” He didn’t hide his contempt for my tardiness. “Johnny has been chomping at the bit to see you.”
For the first time, I gave my attention to the man who sat on the other side of the room, where he sucked on a fat, smelly cigar. He smiled at me. He had to be in his late sixties and it was now clear to me why Rosa had laid out low heeled shoes. When he stood to take my hand, he came to my shoulder. A man who was shorter than me, it was a first.
He took a seat on the couch and patted the space beside him. “Come, sit by me, dear.”
My mind spun, but my lips smiled. The next hour was torture. I had heard about the short man syndrome or the Napoleon complex as Ryan called it. Now I saw it firsthand. He was a bully and a braggart. I didn’t have to worry about what to say or how to say it, he monopolized the entire conversation. Dominic said no more than a polite yes or no now and then.
No wonder Sophia had run away.
Johnny wanted to go to Italy on our honeymoon. I decided to agree to anything. I was sure I could never have married him. If Sophie was anything like me, I couldn’t see her married to him either.
I left my father in the study. I had never uttered the word father in relation to myself. I walked Johnny to the front door. He stood on his tip toes and kissed my cheek before he left. I wanted to wipe it off.
When I got back to the study, my father looked at me. I got nervous. I prayed he didn’t want to talk about something I knew nothing about. Was there something about me he recognized that made him know I wasn’t Sophia?
He’d moved while I was gone, and was seated behind his desk with his hands one on top of the other. “Have a seat, Sophia, we haven’t spoken in awhile.”
I perched on the edge of the chair closest to him and folded my hands in my lap. I sat up as straight as I could. I remained silent. He never moved his gaze from my face. It was obvious we were in a negotiation. I didn’t know much about them, but the one who spoke first, lost, so I sat.
After what seemed like an eternity, he smiled at me. “Very good, Sophia. Some of what I taught you seems to have stuck. My dear girl, I don’t think you trust me. I told you the marriage between the two families is a necessity. I will see that it doesn’t last one more day than it has to. You need to behave like an adult and stay here until you fulfill your commitment.”
This was where I knew I could get into real trouble.
“Because you are my only child, I’m going to try to approach this in a different way. There aren’t many families left, and none as profitable as ours. When you were growing up, it was known that we, the De Marco’s, were the ones in charge. It’s not that way anymore. It hasn’t been since Johnny’s father passed away. Stephan and I could work together―we never had a war between us. Johnny’s a hot head. In order to keep our businesses together, we have to join the two families into one. Do you not get that?”
“Yes.” I didn’t trust my accent to say more. I wanted to. He slammed his hand on the desktop.
I either said it in a defiant tone or looked at him some way I shouldn’t have. He slammed his hand on the desk with such force it moved his paperweight. “I’m only going to tell you this one more time. If you do not cooperate, I will keep you under lock and key until the wedding.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks. I didn’t care if it wasn’t m
e, it was horrible.
“Sophia, Johnny will have us all murdered in our sleep if he thinks this wedding won’t happen. As soon as the rest of the Lombardi family realizes who and what he is, I will earn their trust and loyalty and he will no longer present a problem for us. He is an evil man.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and stayed determined not to lash out. “I understand.”
He stood. “For the next month, until the wedding, you’ll not leave your room without a bodyguard. If you run away one more time, I’ll make good on my threat to lock you up. I have already lost one good man because you were in St. Louis instead of here.” With that, he was gone.
I sat back in the chair and took a deep breath. I took another breath and used the side arms of the chair to help me up. I was afraid.
I prayed that the other night when I didn’t make it home, Ryan went to look for me. He had the address, and my car most likely sat in the same place I left it. I remembered the dead body. Sophia might have needed to be rescued too.
CHAPTER 18
T ony was in my room when I got back. “It must have gone all right, you’re still alive.”
I walked past him and sat at the table. “I don’t find any of this funny. Is it possible to get something to eat? It’s been at least two days. My stomach is about to rebel. I don’t think I can keep up this charade. I am sure people are searching for me. What if Sophie doesn’t make it back here?”
He sat next to me. “One thing at a time, yes, I’ll have a tray sent up. There’s no doubt in my mind that Sophie will know exactly what to do. She’ll be here when she can get here.”
He took his phone out and called for someone to bring a dinner tray to Miss Sophie’s room. While we waited, he talked to me about how to stay out of trouble. “You have no choice here. I’m not sure what Dominic would do if he realized you aren’t Sophia. It would be easier for us all if we knew why they separated you in the first place.” In a softer voice, he added. “I can’t let myself believe he would do any harm to you if he did find out.”
“You’re the only one of us that thinks that. He has mean eyes. Do you think Sophie will call?”
Hard to say, the entire estate’s covered with recording and surveillance equipment. It’s difficult to have a conversation with no one listening in.”
He sat with me while I ate. The way he stared at me, I guessed he tried to find more differences between my sister and me. I was curious myself. “So aren’t you worried about someone listening in and finding out I’m not Sophie? Do you see the differences?”
He smiled at me. “Your first question, I swept the room for bugs earlier. The answer to your second question, there are subtle differences. Only someone as close to her as I am could tell the difference.”
I didn’t want to be nosey, but I had to ask. “Just how close are you?”
He leaned his chair back so it balanced on the two back legs. He fidgeted like a twelve-year-old. “As close as two people can be. Until Dominic came up with the idea to save The Family by forcing a marriage between her and Johnny, we were to marry next year.”
“And Dominic was going to allow that to happen?”
He laughed but it sounded anything but happy. “The only job Sophia does here are some petty court cases when one of the soldiers gets too rough with someone or Dominic wants to buy or sell real estate. He has kept her out of the criminal enterprises. We were going to ask him if we could go. She thought he would let us. I believed he would never let it happen.”
“So she’s an attorney?”
“Yes, we both went to Rutgers.”
“Talk to me about her.”
“I went to school when she was three. She waited patiently by the door every day for me to come home and play with her. She always wanted to play school. I wasn’t crazy about it, but all she had to do was smile at me and she got her way.”
“Even when she was a child?” I asked.
He let his chair down with a thud. “Oh yes, even then. She went to parochial girl’s school, Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child for elementary and St. Vincent’s Academy for high school. She was chauffeured there, walked inside and they picked up at the door at the end of the day.
“I’d better go. We’ll talk more tomorrow. Try to relax. I’ll coach you through this until she shows up. I tried to call her earlier. Her phone goes straight to voicemail. It makes my stomach hurt to wonder why she doesn’t answer.”
Tony didn’t linger. I sat for a while and thought about my sister, where she could be, and how different our childhoods had been.
I knew it wasn’t right, but I searched the room. I peeked in her desk drawers. Her day planner was open wide. She hadn’t recorded much, just outings with Tony, dinners with Johnny and Dominic, and times she needed to be in court.
Rose came in with a tray. She put it on the table and walked out.
In the center drawer of her desk I found a box of business cards-
Sophia De Marco. Esquire.
Representing De Marco Enterprises, Inc.
Her high school and college transcripts were in a package in the bottom drawer as well as some personal cards for her early birthdays and holidays. They were signed, with all my love, Roxy. The return addresses were all the same, Roxy Watkins, c/o Ritz-Carlton, New York, Battery Park.
I looked around the room for some sort of electronic device I could use to research what I now knew. It was hopeless; I had no phone, no iPad or laptop. Maybe it was for the best. If the place was as secure as Tony made it out to be, I could get myself in a mess of trouble for digging into things that were none of my business.
It was difficult to sleep. I missed Ryan, my precious Chili, Amy, my bed, and everything familiar to me. It had been three days, where were they? I couldn’t believe it could be difficult for Sophie to come home. I would think she could walk directly through the front gate. The longer this went on, the more chance there would be that my true identity could be discovered. I tossed and turned, sleep never came.
Dominic made it clear he didn’t expect Sophie to remain married to Johnny. Chills ran down my back as I thought of the different scenarios that could play out. My imagination ran away with me. Dominic was domineering and cold. I couldn’t believe he was my father.
Rosa brought my breakfast in the next morning. I asked her where Tony was. “He will come up when he can.” The phone in my room rang. I watched it for a few seconds as though it would entertain me with a trick. I picked it up.
“Your father wants you to join him in the dining room at eight this evening for dinner.” The man on the other end of the conversation didn’t give me time to answer. I guessed no was not an option. The clock on the wall indicated it was only one. I prayed Tony made it back to talk to me before I had to go downstairs.
The confidence I had when I first got there had been replaced with fear and questions. Where was Sophie, and Ryan, and Amy? My churning stomach convinced me something was wrong, very wrong. I was in a role completely out of my range. I was an investigator. Part of my job had always been to be strong and in control to help someone who was out of control and scared. Now I was the one who got hung up in a situation where all I could do was to get pulled along.
There was a light tap on my door at five-forty. I rushed to open it hoping Tony stood on the other side. He did. I stuck my head out and looked both ways, before pulling him inside. “I have to be in the dining room in at eight to join Dominic for dinner. I don’t know what to wear, what to do, or what to say.”
He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “Calm down. It‘ll be fine. There’s a simple blue dress in the closet. Put it on, pull your hair back, or maybe in a bun if you can manage it. I would get Mom to help you, but there isn’t time and I am all thumbs. When you enter the dining room, walk to the chair nearest him on his right. Don’t sit until he sits and Randle pulls the chair out for you. I don’t think he’ll talk to you. He often would have dinner with Sophie and never say a word. Other times he was t
alkative and almost normal.
“If he says anything, think before you answer. Make sure you use your New Jersey voice. Her resonance is much lower than yours. Try to remember that. If he orders a drink after dinner, there is something he wants to tell you or ask you. Best agree with him. It’ll shorten the evening. If he doesn’t order a drink, he’ll abruptly leave without a word to you. Don’t get up until he is gone and Randle comes over to help you up. Do you have it?”
“I think so.” I rubbed my head, trying to soak it all in.
“Remember, you’re a southpaw.”
He put one of his hands on each of my shoulders and smiled. “I know you do. Now get dressed and go. You have ten minutes to meet Randle at the bottom of the stairs. I’ll see you when you get back.”
Breathe I told myself. Before I opened the door, I took two more calming breaths.
When I reached the top of the staircase, Randle stood at the bottom. His face remained expressionless.
The first part went as Tony described. Once I was seated, a maid brought soup. Dominic and I ate in silence. The quiet gave me an opportunity to focus on how I ate and sat. I strived not to make any more noise than necessary. I gutted my way through the soup, salad, meatloaf, baked potato and green beans. My shoulders relaxed a little with the realization it would soon be over. Desert was my all time favorite, Cherries Jubilee. But tonight it was just one more thing to draw out the torture. I wasn’t used to using my left hand. The only good thing was it slowed down my eating and made me pay more attention.
When a servant came in to clear the dessert dishes from the table, I breathed a sigh of relief. Dominic didn’t summon anyone to pour him a drink.
I heard a noise and looked toward the door. When I looked back he was gone.
Randle appeared and touched the back of my chair. He escorted me to the bottom of the staircase where he had met me earlier. For the first time, he spoke. “Have a pleasant night, Miss Sophia.”
