Chapter 14 - The Offer Sofia Refuses
Three days after the gala, Sofia returned to work.
Dominic found her in the laundry room.
Not scrubbing his shirts. Not panicked. Not hiding.
Folding towels.
He stood in the doorway for several seconds before she looked up.
“Don’t start,” she said.
“I didn’t speak.”
“You were about to.”
He entered slowly.
“You’re supposed to be recovering.”
“I am recovered enough to fold towels.”
“You have paid leave.”
“I know.”
“And yet.”
She placed a towel onto the stack with unnecessary precision.
“I needed to see if the room still scared me.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Does it?”
She looked at the sink where Mia had stood on the stool.
“Yes.”
Honesty sat between them.
Then Sofia added, “But less.”
Dominic nodded.
On the counter, the ruined shirt lay cleaned, pressed, and folded.
He stared at it.
“You kept that?”
“Mia asked.”
The stain was faint but still visible on the cuff. A pale shadow of red where fear had spread it.
Sofia touched it lightly.
“She thinks she failed.”
“She didn’t.”
“I told her that.”
“Did she believe you?”
“She’s four. She believes half of what I say and all of what cookies say.”
Dominic’s mouth softened.
Then he placed an envelope on the counter.
Sofia looked at it.
“What is that?”
“Back wages. Medical compensation. Illegal deductions. Housing adjustment. Preliminary amount. Auditors may increase it.”
She did not touch it.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“That is not a number.”
“No.”
“Mr. Castellano—”
“Dominic.”
She gave him a tired look.
“Dominic. I am not taking hush money.”
His eyes flashed.
“Do you think I would offer that?”
“I think powerful men call money many things.”
That landed.
He accepted it.
“This is not silence money. It comes with documents. You can have your own attorney review it. Priya already has one. I’ll pay for yours, but not choose them.”
Sofia stared at him.
“You thought of that?”
“I am trying to think of what men like me usually don’t.”
She looked down at the envelope.
Her fingers trembled once.
“What happens if I take it?”
“You pay bills. You rest. You decide what you want next.”
“And if what I want is to keep working?”
“Then you keep working.”
“Here?”
“If you want.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you don’t.”
Sofia laughed softly, but her eyes shone.
“You say that like choices are easy.”
“No,” Dominic said. “I say it like you deserve some.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Mia ran in wearing socks that did not match and holding a cookie in each hand.
“Mr. C! Mama said one cookie but Mrs. Alvarez said healing needs two.”
Sofia sighed.
“Mrs. Alvarez is undermining my parenting.”
Dominic looked solemnly at Mia.
“Healing is serious.”
Mia nodded.
“See?”
Sofia pointed at him.
“Do not join her team.”
“I suspect she drafted me.”
Mia handed him one cookie.
“You can be on Mama’s team too.”
Dominic accepted it like an oath.
Sofia watched him.
Something unspoken shifted.
Not romance. Not yet. Something more dangerous in its own way.
Trust beginning before anyone had agreed to allow it.
That afternoon, Sofia opened the envelope alone.
She sat at her kitchen table and cried without making a sound.
Not because the number solved everything.
May you like
Because for once, what had been taken from her had a name.
And someone powerful had written it down as wrong.
