Chapter 11 - The Enemy Sitting at Julian’s Table
Thomas stood beneath the old clock tower.
Alive.
Unrestrained.
Sophie stopped twenty feet away.
“Dad?”
He raised his hands.
“It’s me.”
“Where’s Dominic?”
“Not here.”
“You called me alone.”
“I had to.”
Julian and police teams were hidden several blocks away.
Sophie wore a microphone beneath her coat.
Thomas knew none of that.
Or at least she hoped he didn’t.
He stepped closer.
“I’m sorry.”
“Fifteen years requires a longer sentence.”
“I know.”
“Start talking.”
Thomas looked older than sixty-two.
Guilt had carved deep lines across his face.
“After the crash, I realized Dominic knew everything.”
“So you faked your death.”
“The crash wasn’t fake.”
Sophie frowned.
“Someone hit my car. I survived. A homeless man who had climbed into the back after I stopped at a gas station didn’t.”
Sophie covered her mouth.
“The body…”
“Was his.”
“And Daniel?”
“I mailed him instructions. I knew Dominic would watch Elizabeth and you.”
“So you abandoned us.”
“To keep you alive.”
“My mother died without you.”
Pain crossed his face.
“I watched the funeral from across the cemetery.”
Sophie stepped back as if struck.
“You were there?”
“I wanted to come to you.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Then stop calling that protection.”
Thomas lowered his head.
“You’re right.”
That mattered.
No defense.
No excuse.
Just acknowledgment.
Sophie’s anger cracked enough for grief to enter.
“Why come back now?”
“Because Dominic found me.”
“How?”
“Samuel Price.”
Sophie stiffened.
“Samuel betrayed you?”
“No. Samuel saved me.”
Thomas explained.
After disappearing, Thomas and Samuel had continued gathering evidence separately.
For years they built a case.
Then Isabella Romano died.
They believed the danger had ended.
It hadn’t.
Dominic had inherited everything.
“Where’s Samuel?” Sophie asked.
Thomas’s face darkened.
“Dominic killed him.”
The blood found in Dominic’s car.
Samuel Price.
Sophie closed her eyes.
“Why did Dominic let you call me?”
“He didn’t.”
Thomas looked toward the dark terminal.
“I escaped.”
A slow clap echoed from inside.
Dominic stepped from the shadows.
Vittorio Romano beside him.
Sophie’s stomach dropped.
Dominic smiled.
“No, Thomas. You were allowed to escape.”
Several men appeared.
Sophie’s microphone transmitted everything.
But Julian’s teams did not move.
Why?
Dominic held up a small device.
“Signal jammer.”
Sophie’s pulse jumped.
He knew.
“Did you really think Julian wouldn’t teach you better?”
Dominic asked.
Sophie said nothing.
Vittorio stepped closer.
“Where is my nephew?”
“Probably wondering why his uncle became a discount villain.”
Vittorio’s face reddened.
Dominic laughed.
“I understand why Julian likes you.”
Sophie looked at him.
“Where are the original files?”
“With people you can’t reach.”
“Everyone can be reached.”
“Not my third graders.”
Dominic’s smile disappeared.
Sophie had hit something.
Good.
Then another voice sounded behind Dominic.
“You always underestimate teachers.”
Julian.
He stepped from the far entrance.
Alone.
Dominic frowned.
“How?”
Julian tapped his watch.
“Old-fashioned radio.”
Sophie almost smiled.
Dominic’s men moved.
Julian stopped.
“I wouldn’t.”
Police lights exploded outside.
Dominic looked toward Vittorio.
For the first time, fear crossed his face.
Vittorio panicked.
He shoved Dominic.
Everything happened at once.
Men scattered.
Police entered.
Marco reached Sophie.
Thomas pulled her behind a concrete pillar.
Julian moved toward Dominic.
No gunfire.
Just shouting.
Running.
Chaos.
Vittorio tried to flee through a side entrance.
Police caught him.
Dominic disappeared up a metal staircase.
Julian followed.
Sophie shouted, “Julian!”
He stopped.
Turned.
That one second saved him.
A section of rusted railing crashed down where he would have stepped.
Dominic had cut it earlier.
Julian looked at Sophie.
Then toward the empty upper walkway.
Dominic was gone.
Again.
But Vittorio wasn’t.
Under questioning, Julian’s uncle broke quickly.
He admitted helping Isabella and Dominic move money.
He admitted covering up Alessandro’s poisoning.
He admitted Thomas Carter’s crash had been arranged.
Then Morales asked who controlled the network now.
Vittorio laughed bitterly.
“You still don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Dominic doesn’t control it.”
Julian stared.
“Who does?”
Vittorio looked directly at Sophie.
“The person Thomas protected by disappearing.”
Sophie’s blood went cold.
“My mother?”
Vittorio smiled.
“Elizabeth Carter wasn’t the innocent piano teacher you remember.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
Sophie turned toward him.
“Dad?”
He would not look at her.
May you like
And suddenly Sophie realized there was one secret her father had been more afraid to tell her than all the others.
A secret about her mother.
