"Please, sit. Let me start with yesterday afternoon and then I will tell you about Sofia. After that you can decide for yourself what you want to do, and I will respect that decision."
Isabel stood still for longer then he would have liked, but eventually pushed one of her suitcases aside and sat on the opposite bed.
"Yesterday afternoon while I was on a conference call one of the new hires walked into my office. Since I was on the call I had no idea what she wanted. I pointed at the chairs in front of my desk. but as you saw she decided that wasn't where she wanted to sit. Isabel, I am telling you the god's honest truth, she wasn't in my office for more than ten minutes and her actions were beyond inappropriate. I don't know how long you saw us but I promise you that it was ended with her getting fired. I hung up the phone and instructed her to pack up her desk."
"Who was she?"
"Someone Andrea hired to work in marketing. I hadn't even met her until yesterday afternoon."
“You’re not lying?”
"You can ask Andrea yourself. She was pissed when she found out."
"Fine."
"You believe me?"
"No. But hand me my phone and I will check with Andrea."
Micah handed her the cell phone sitting on the table and watched as she powered it on and sent off a text message. He sat there quietly until she looked back up at him."
"Okay, I'll wait to see what she says. Now who is Sofia?"
Micah took a deep breath. “There are a lot of things about my family that you don’t know. I’m going to start with Sofia, but there is a lot I need to explain to you. I met my cousin that night, but the meeting wasn’t what I expected. Dante told me he had uncovered some information about our fathers and, after following a lead, he located Sofia. My father had an affair with her mother and she was born here in Miami. It was obviously a shock, and what was even more surprising was that he had arranged for her to come meet me at dinner. He left to meet with Anton when she came. I stayed with her for a while to try to get to know her. That must be when they took the picture.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Neither could I. I haven’t seen her since, but from what I learned about her that night, I think you’d like her. When I texted her and told her you left me, she offered to drive up here and help me explain. The whole situation is honestly insane, but I should have told you about it sooner.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know how you would take it.”
“Micah, why would that matter? She is your sister, your family. I’d accept her regardless of how she came into your life.”
“I know that, and I wasn’t too worried at first. But Luca, he flipped out, and I thought maybe I was crazy welcoming her into the family so easily. What I was really worried about was telling you the rest of the story."
Isabel's phone buzzed on the table and he watched as she picked it up and responded to her text message. "Fine, I believe you about the red skirt."
"Good."
"So, what's the rest of the story that you are so worried about?"
"My father was a terrible person for a number of reasons. Cheating on my mother was just one of them. When my family lived in New York, they had a business that is something I don’t talk about. Actually, they had a lot of businesses but they all fall under the umbrella of what my cousin now calls ‘The Family Business’. When my mother died, I spent a lot of time growing up with my cousin Dante and his two best friends. My father moved to Miami for a fresh start after an argument with my Zio Carlo. He was Dante’s father. He built the firm with dirty money. Money that was earned by illegal means. It’s why Luca never wanted to have anything to do with it.”
“This is crazy.”
“There is so much to the story it would be impossible to explain all of it, but I want you to know about the parts that affect me. My Zio was murdered a few years ago, and Dante runs the business now. He’s been cleaning up a lot of it, but he I don’t think he will never really get out of the gambling and drugs. The money is too good, and he’s greedy.”
“The other things that he no longer does were what?”
“You name it, they did it. Smuggling, counterfeiting, robbery, weapons dealing, murder for hire...my dad and Zio were into all of it.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, wow.”
“Dante does all that now?”