Chapter 7 - Sophia's Uninvited Entrance
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Adrian whipped his head around toward the brass-framed security monitor mounted beside the foyer closet.
Down in the marble lobby thirty floors below, Sophia Reynolds was stepping into the secondary guest elevator, which Adrian had foolishly keyed to her thumbprint three months ago after she claimed she needed somewhere safe to go whenever paparazzi followed her in the city.
She was wearing an oversized cream turtleneck sweater, minimal makeup designed to make her look fragile and exhausted, and carrying a small white paper pharmacy bag in one hand.
"What is she doing here?" Adrian muttered, his jaw clenching as he took a step toward the elevator lock switch. "I told her last night to stay at her apartment!"
"Don't you dare lock that elevator, Adrian," Victoria commanded coldly, stepping in front of the wall panel and crossing her arms over her black wool coat. "Let her come right through that door. I haven't seen Little Miss Milan since she left you standing at the altar of your engagement party ten years ago for an Italian count with a fake title. I’d love to say hello."
Ten seconds later, the private elevator chimed softly.
The bronze doors slid open, and Sophia stepped directly into the penthouse foyer, already drawing in a shaky, theatrical breath with tears glistening on her lower lashes before she even raised her head.
"Adrian, I’m so sorry to come over so early, I just couldn't sleep a wink knowing Claire might be upset with me, and I brought her some stomach medicine from the pharmacy—"
Sophia stopped dead on the marble threshold.
Her carefully rehearsed speech died in her throat as her eyes swept past Adrian’s bruised jaw and landed on Lorenzo and Victoria Moretti standing ten feet away like two marble statues of judgment.
"Mr. and Mrs. Moretti!" Sophia gasped, her hand flying to her throat as her pale face turned bright crimson. "I—I didn't know you were in Chicago! How wonderful to see you both!"
"Save the performance for someone who doesn't know your history, Sophia," Victoria said, her voice dripping with aristocratic disdain as she looked at the white pharmacy bag in Sophia’s hand. "Did you really come up here at eight in the morning pretending to bring stomach medication to the wife whose husband and family jewels you borrowed yesterday afternoon?"
Sophia shrank back half a step, her eyes darting instantly to Adrian with that helpless, wounded-deer look that had worked on him every single week for the past six months.
"Mrs. Moretti, please, I swear to you it wasn't like that!" Sophia cried softly, letting a tear spill down her cheek as she looked at me. "Claire, you have to believe me! When Hannah’s bridesmaid got sick yesterday, I was in a total panic because I didn't have any fine jewelry in Chicago to wear with the gown! Adrian just offered to lend me the bracelet for four hours because it happened to be in his briefcase after picking it up from the jeweler! I didn't even know it was Grandmother Eleanor’s bracelet until Mr. Walker yelled at me at dinner!"
In the corner of the foyer, Adrian looked relieved by her explanation, nodding quickly toward his father.
"That’s true, Dad," Adrian said, grasping at the lifeline. "I had taken the bracelet to Laurent & Sons on Oak Street six months ago because the safety clasp was loose. They finally finished the repair on Friday afternoon, so it was sitting in my car when I picked Sophia up for the wedding. It was a stupid judgment call on my part, nothing more."
I looked from Sophia’s tearful eyes to Adrian’s hopeful face.
"Friday afternoon?" I asked softly. "Laurent & Sons finished repairing the clasp on Friday afternoon?"
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"Yes," Adrian said firmly. "You can ask Henrik Laurent himself."
"I don't need to ask him, Adrian," I said, pulling a folded cream invoice out of my robe pocket and handing it directly to Lorenzo. "Because Henrik Laurent called my personal cell three days ago to ask if I still wanted my annual insurance appraisal done before November—since according to his vault logs, neither you nor anyone else has brought Eleanor’s bracelet into his shop in the last two years."
