“I don’t think I can be a weak link to Rafael,” I said, unsure even as I spoke. “I’m Italian. I don’t think my own people would target me just to reach him.”
The confidence didn’t quite hold.
“They won’t see you that way,” he said after a pause. “It won’t matter where you’re from. If taking you gives them leverage over Rafael, that will be enough.”
My throat tightened so sharply it almost hurt to speak.
“So if Marcelo exposes my marriage to Rafael... I become the weak point?” I said slowly, the realization settling in. “A target.”
“Yes,” Ramiro said without hesitation.
My stomach dropped so violently it felt like something inside me had been yanked downward.
I clenched my fist so hard my nails dug into the leather seat beneath me.
God, I should have been more careful.
My phone.
So small. So ordinary.
And yet it had just become a weapon against me.
It hadn’t even occurred to me—how easily something could be taken without sight to guard it.
How a simple distraction could become exposure.
How quickly my privacy could vanish in a world built on watching.
If I could see...
That man wouldn’t have been able to get close enough.
That thought made my chest tighten even more.
Blindness wasn’t just absence.
It was exposure.
“I’ll speak to Rafael about it,” he said. “I hope he gives the order for the man to be silently executed. That way, the secret stays buried.”
My breath caught.
“Executed?” I repeated sharply, my head turning toward him instinctively. “You can’t just kill an innocent man.”
There was no hesitation in my voice now.
“He stole from me and invaded my privacy, but that doesn’t make him disposable—especially since he hasn’t even revealed anything.”
“So you suggest we wait until he leaks it before we act?” Ramiro replied. “You underestimate what exposure like that would do—not just to you, but to everyone. Tess and Rafael included. No one can know Rafael has a new family. It’s dangerous for all of you.”
My chest tightened as I looked away from him.
He made sense... and yet the idea of Marcelo being dealt with so permanently unsettled me more than I expected.
The car slowed slightly, then turned with less force.
A few seconds later, the vehicle eased forward, then finally decelerated.
