Chapter 5 - The Secret Sophia Buried
Adrian Vale had been dead to Dominic long before the world believed he was actually dead.
Seven years earlier, Adrian had vanished after a violent ambush that nearly destroyed the Vale organization. Evidence suggested he had sold Dominic’s movements to rivals. Three men Dominic trusted had died that night.
Adrian disappeared.
Dominic survived.
And after enough time passed without answers, Dominic had stopped looking.
Now Adrian sat beside Vincent Caruso, alive and smiling.
“You’re sure?” Vincent asked.
Adrian looked at a photograph on his phone.
Sophia walking through the estate garden with Emma.
“I’m sure.”
“What exactly is she hiding?”
Adrian’s smile turned cold.
“She doesn’t know the full truth herself.”
Back at the estate, Sophia was packing.
Not much.
A few clothes for Emma. A framed photograph of her mother. A worn children’s book with a torn cover. A small tin box she kept at the bottom of a suitcase.
Dominic stood in the doorway.
“You’re leaving tonight?”
“Evelyn found a temporary apartment.”
“You should wait until morning.”
“No.” Sophia kept folding Emma’s pajamas. “Every extra night here makes things more complicated.”
“Because you think I’ll stop you?”
“No.” She hesitated. “Because Emma is starting to feel safe.”
Dominic looked toward the child, asleep beneath a pink blanket in the next room.
“That’s a bad thing?”
“It is if safety disappears.”
The words were not an accusation.
That made them worse.
Dominic stepped inside.
“Tell me something.”
Sophia did not look up.
“What?”
“Why did Vincent come after you?”
“I already told you.”
“You told me he was Emma’s father.”
“That should be enough.”
“It isn’t.”
Sophia stopped folding.
For a moment, Dominic thought she would refuse him again.
Then she opened the tin box.
Inside was an old newspaper clipping, folded so many times the edges were soft.
She handed it to him.
The headline read:
LOCAL ACCOUNTANT DIES IN HIT-AND-RUN; POLICE SEEK WITNESSES
The article was fourteen years old.
The dead man’s name was Samuel Bennett.
Sophia’s father.
Dominic read it once.
Then he saw the smaller detail near the end.
Samuel Bennett had worked for a Chicago shipping company under investigation for financial fraud.
Dominic looked up.
“Who did your father work for?”
Sophia’s face had gone pale.
“Caruso Freight Logistics.”
Vincent’s company.
“Your father knew Vincent?”
“He kept books for him.” Her voice trembled. “At first, he thought it was ordinary business. Then he found money moving through fake accounts. He tried to leave.”
“And Vincent killed him?”
“I don’t know.” Sophia’s eyes filled. “The police said hit-and-run. My mother said it was an accident. But before he died, my father gave her a box of records and told her never to trust anyone named Caruso.”
Dominic’s grip tightened on the clipping.
“What happened to the records?”
“My mother hid them. When she died, I found them.” Sophia swallowed. “I didn’t understand most of it. I only knew Vincent started looking for me after Emma was born.”
“Why would he think you had them?”
“Because he knew my father gave my mother something.”
Dominic stared at her.
“So Vincent thinks you have evidence against him.”
“Yes.”
“And do you?”
Sophia looked toward Emma’s room.
Then back at him.
“I did.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“Did?”
“I gave it to someone.”
“Who?”
Sophia hesitated.
“A man named Adrian Vale.”
The room went silent.
Dominic did not move.
His voice dropped to almost nothing.
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
“Where?”
“In Chicago. I was twenty-three. I had just found the records. Adrian told me he knew what Vincent had done to my father. He said he could protect me.”
Dominic’s face became unreadable.
“He took the files,” Sophia continued. “Then he vanished.”
“Did he tell you who he was?”
“He said his name was Adrian. That was all.”
Dominic walked to the window.
Outside, snow covered the grounds in a thin white layer.
His brother had not simply betrayed him.
He had known about Vincent’s records.
He had known about Sophia.
And he had disappeared with evidence powerful enough to destroy both Caruso and the Vale organization.
Luca entered without knocking.
“Boss.”
Dominic turned.
“We intercepted a message,” Luca said. “From Caruso to an unknown contact.”
Luca handed him a printed page.
It contained one line.
Bring the girl to the old harbor warehouse. Midnight tomorrow. She has what belongs to us.
Sophia saw it.
“He thinks I still have the records.”
“Let him think that,” Dominic said.
“No.” Sophia stepped forward. “I’m not bait.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to decide this for me.”
Dominic looked at her.
For once, he did not argue.
“What do you want to do?”
Sophia’s hands shook, but her voice did not.
“I want Vincent to stop hunting my daughter.”
“That is what I want too.”
“Then we go to the police.”
Dominic’s mouth tightened.
“The police cannot protect you from every man Vincent knows.”
“Neither can you.”
“Maybe not.”
“Then stop trying to solve everything the way you were taught.”
He stared at her.
Sophia took a breath.
“My father died because he was alone with the truth. I’ve been running because I was alone too. But I’m not doing that anymore.”
Dominic looked down at the newspaper clipping.
Then at Emma’s drawing of the yellow house.
Finally, he nodded.
“We do it your way.”
Sophia blinked.
“Really?”
“Mostly your way.”
Despite everything, a small laugh escaped her.
It was the first time Dominic had ever heard her laugh.
And he realized he wanted to hear it again.
But before they could contact federal investigators, an alarm sounded through the estate.
Luca’s voice came over the intercom.
“Security breach. South entrance.”
Dominic reached for his weapon.
Then stopped.
Because a woman’s scream echoed down the hallway.
Mrs. Romano.
May you like
And when Dominic ran downstairs, he found the front door open, two guards unconscious on the floor, and Emma’s bedroom empty.
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