Chapter 14 - Sophie Disappears
The plan should have excluded Sophie.
Every adult agreed.
Sophie disagreed.
“I heard him.”
Elena crouched.
“You are staying with me.”
“But I know the clicking.”
“We know what the ring looks like now.”
Sophie frowned.
“He doesn’t always wear it.”
That stopped me.
“What?”
“The clicking man.”
“Dominic?”
She nodded.
“Sometimes he doesn’t have the bird ring.”
“When?”
“When he wears gloves.”
Children.
Tiny details adults filtered away.
“Anything else you remember?”
She thought.
“He smells like Grandpa’s church.”
Elena looked confused.
“What church?”
Sophie shrugged.
“Smoke.”
“Incense,” Gabriel said.
Dominic attended morning mass daily.
Or claimed to.
I crouched beside Sophie.
“You helped us more than anyone should ever have needed to.”
She smiled.
“But now your job is to stay with your mother.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
Her face hardened.
Elena almost laughed.
I corrected myself.
“Because your mother needs you.”
That worked better.
Sophie took Elena’s hand.
“Okay.”
I stood.
We prepared for the docks.
Then the house alarm sounded.
Again.
I almost ignored it.
That was the mistake.
“North gate,” Marco’s radio said. “Vehicle breach.”
We ran to monitors.
A delivery van had smashed through the outer checkpoint.
Guards surrounded it.
Empty.
Diversion.
“Safe room,” I said.
Elena grabbed Sophie.
They moved.
Thirty seconds later, lights flickered.
One minute.
Then stable.
No attack.
No intruder.
Van remotely controlled.
“Dominic,” Marco muttered.
I agreed.
Then Elena screamed from the hallway.
We ran.
She stood beside the safe room door.
“Sophie.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“She was right beside me.”
“Where?”
“I turned when the lights went out.”
“How long?”
“Seconds.”
Sophie was gone.
Again.
But this time there was no open panel.
No vent.
No pink bow.
Nothing.
Then Gabriel looked upward.
Ceiling hatch.
Open.
We entered the crawlspace.
Small footprints in dust.
Alongside larger ones.
Someone had been hiding above us before the alarm.
Dominic had never left the estate.
Or one of his men had stayed.
The footprints led toward the west greenhouse.
We followed.
A rear door stood open.
Outside, tire marks.
Sophie had been taken.
The dock meeting was no longer a choice.
My phone rang.
Dominic.
“You’ve become predictable.”
“If you hurt her—”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you keep touching children.”
“A weakness I admit has become distasteful.”
“Then let her go.”
“Bring Gabriel.”
“Why?”
“Because he knows the ledger.”
“Bring the stolen drives.”
“I already have them.”
“Then what do you want from me?”
Dominic paused.
“Your signature.”
I almost laughed.
“On what?”
“Transfer documents.”
“For?”
“Everything.”
My legitimate companies.
Shipping.
Real estate.
Private holdings.
He wanted to strip me.
“You think I’m signing away an empire?”
“For Sophie?”
I looked at Elena.
Her face told me the answer.
“Yes.”
Dominic knew it too.
“Eleven o’clock.”
“Let me hear her.”
A shuffle.
Then Sophie.
“Mr. Adrien?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m sorry.”
My chest broke.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“He took my doll.”
“You’re getting another one.”
“I want that one.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
“I’ll get it back.”
Dominic returned.
“Bring no army.”
“Leon Vieri will already have one.”
“He has been redirected.”
“What?”
“Meeting changed.”
“Where?”
A location arrived.
Old Moretti winery.
Abandoned.
Where my father once hosted dinners with Dominic.
Of course.
Full circle.
We drove there with a small team hidden at distance.
Elena tried to come.
I refused.
This time she did not strike me.
She put both hands around my face.
“Look at me.”
I did.
“If there is a choice between money and Sophie—”
“There is no choice.”
“If there is a choice between your secrets and Sophie—”
“There is no choice.”
“If there is a choice between killing Dominic and carrying Sophie out—”
That one took half a second longer.
Elena saw it.
“Adrien.”
“I carry Sophie out.”
She released me.
“Then go.”
The winery was dark.
Gabriel walked beside me.
“You really signing?”
“Yes.”
“He’ll take everything.”
“No.”
“How?”
“I already transferred controlling shares.”
“To who?”
I looked at him.
“Elena.”
Gabriel stopped walking.
“What?”
“Temporary trust.”
“When?”
“An hour ago.”
“You gave your companies to your maid?”
“I gave them to someone Dominic did not expect.”
Gabriel laughed despite himself.
“Your father would have had a stroke.”
“My father made enough decisions for this family.”
At the main hall, Dominic waited.
Sophie sat at the long dining table.
Not tied.
Two armed men stood nearby.
Damien was absent.
Ethan said Dominic employed more people.
Apparently, he had been right.
Dominic smiled.
“This room used to impress you.”
“I was ten.”
“You were ambitious even then.”
“I was bored.”
His smile faded.
“Documents.”
I placed them down.
He checked signatures.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“These companies are no longer yours.”
“You told me to sign what I owned.”
Dominic looked up.
“Who owns them?”
I smiled.
“For a man obsessed with secrets, you ask a lot of questions.”
His gunman struck Gabriel.
Sophie screamed.
“Enough,” I said.
Dominic moved toward me.
“You think this is clever?”
“I think you have no leverage once she walks out.”
“Then she doesn’t.”
Sophie stared at him.
Suddenly she said, “Your ring is fake.”
Everyone looked at her.
Dominic frowned.
“What?”
“The bird.”
She pointed.
“Daddy’s card had the real one.”
Dominic’s face changed.
Gabriel stared at Sophie.
“What are you talking about?”
She reached into her shoe.
And pulled out something tiny.
The original memory card.
My heart nearly stopped.
Elena must not have known.
Neither had I.
Sophie held it up.
“You wanted this.”
Dominic’s composure vanished.
He lunged.
Sophie ran.
I moved.
Gunfire exploded.
Gabriel tackled one guard.
I struck the other.
Sophie disappeared beneath the table.
Dominic grabbed for her.
Then another man entered from the side door.
Damien.
His injured shoulder was bandaged.
He aimed directly at Dominic.
“Enough.”
Dominic stared.
“You.”
“Yes.”
“You betrayed me.”
Damien laughed bitterly.
“I learned from the best.”
For several seconds, four lives balanced on one trigger.
Then Dominic smiled.
“You won’t shoot.”
Damien’s hand shook.
“No.”
He lowered the weapon slightly.
Dominic was right.
But that was not weakness.
Because police sirens were approaching.
Real ones.
Leon Vieri had given the entire ledger exchange location to a federal investigator who had been chasing Dominic for years.
Dominic looked toward me in disbelief.
“You involved law enforcement?”
“I involved consequences.”
His face twisted.
Then he grabbed Sophie.
A knife appeared at her throat.
Everything stopped.
And suddenly, the war, the money, the betrayals, and the secrets vanished.
May you like
There was only a frightened four-year-old girl.
And a man who had finally run out of places to hide.
