Chapter 7 - The Little Girl by the River
They found Sophie alive.
That mattered more than anything else.
The vehicle had been abandoned near an old riverside storage facility. Alfred's men surrounded the property, but Mina made him promise one thing before he entered.
“Bring her home. Don't turn this into revenge.”
Alfred looked at her for a long moment.
Then nodded.
The rescue took eleven minutes.
To Mina, waiting inside the SUV, it felt like eleven years.
Finally the warehouse door opened.
Alfred emerged carrying a tiny girl in a pink sweater.
Sophie had her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.
Mina started crying before she realized it.
Pauly, brought from the hospital against medical advice, collapsed when he saw his daughter.
Sophie ran to him.
“Daddy!”
The sound changed Alfred.
Mina saw it happen.
He watched Pauly hold his child and seemed to understand for the first time what fatherhood could cost.
One of the captured kidnappers gave them a name.
Victor Moretti.
Not the head of the family.
The ambitious younger brother who wanted to become one.
Victor had orchestrated the warehouse attacks, manipulated Pauly, and obtained Mina's medical information.
But he had another source.
Someone inside Alfred's inner circle.
Someone who had known about the forgotten safe.
Lev went pale when he heard that detail.
“Only three people knew about that safe.”
Alfred looked at him.
“You.”
Lev nodded.
“You.”
Another pause.
“And your uncle Raymond.”
Alfred's face changed.
Raymond Costello had helped raise him after his father's death.
He had taught Alfred how to drive.
How to negotiate.
How to survive.
Mina understood before Alfred said anything.
“Family again.”
Alfred looked toward Pauly and Sophie.
“Yes.”
But this betrayal was different.
Raymond wasn't acting to save a child.
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He wanted Alfred's empire.
And Victor Moretti had promised to help him take it.
