“No.”
“Then what exactly do you think you are?”
Sophie felt every year of humiliation pressing against her answer: professors who remembered her brilliance, landlords who saw only unpaid rent, employers who heard an accent and assumed uncertainty, wealthy guests who treated service workers like invisible machinery.
She could have delivered a speech.
Instead she said, “Your waitress.”
Then she lifted the bottle of sparkling water.
“Would anyone like more?”
The simplicity of it devastated Camilla more than an insult would have.
Alessandro almost smiled.
Almost.
But the paper had changed him too much for the moment to become light.
“Laurent,” he called.
The maître d’ approached cautiously.
“Yes, Monsieur Moretti?”
“How long has Sophie worked here?”
“Seven months.”
“Any complaints?”
Laurent looked at Camilla, then at Sophie.
“No, monsieur.”
“Any reason to fire her tonight?”
Laurent understood exactly what he was being asked.
“No.”
Camilla stood.
“You cannot be serious.”
Alessandro looked at her at last.
“I asked you to find a bottle.”
“That’s what this is about?”
“No.
This is about what you did when you couldn’t.”
Camilla grabbed her handbag.
“You’re choosing a waitress over me.”
“I’m choosing dinner without cruelty.”
Her face hardened.
For one dangerous second Sophie thought Camilla might throw the water glass.
Instead she leaned close to Alessandro and whispered something Sophie could not hear.
Whatever it was, Alessandro’s expression became glacial.
Camilla straightened, turned, and walked toward the oak doors alone.
Nobody stopped her.
When the doors closed, the restaurant slowly began breathing again.
Sophie expected Alessandro to order his wine and dismiss her.
Instead he said, “Sit down.”
She stared at him.
“I’m working.”
“Then stand.
But listen.”
One of his bodyguards moved farther away, giving them a measure of privacy without leaving the room.
Alessandro lowered his voice.
“Your father was not destroyed only because he gambled.”
Sophie’s fingers tightened around her notepad.
“What does that mean?”
“He owed money.
That part was true.
People used the debt to discredit him when he began keeping records he wasn’t supposed to keep.”
Sophie felt suddenly unsteady.
“Records of what?”
“Payments moving through ports, contractors, intermediaries, political offices.
