Chapter 9 - The Ambush at the Chapel|
Massimo moved before Sophie understood what was happening.
He pulled her behind the stone wall as a shot shattered the chapel window. Rafael returned fire from behind the car, forcing the attackers to take cover.
Sophie pressed both hands over her ears.
“Get down!” Massimo ordered.
“I am down!”
“Stay behind me.”
A second shot struck the car's windshield.
Rafael shouted that the driveway was blocked. Massimo looked toward the trees, calculating their options.
“Can you run?” he asked Sophie.
“Yes.”
“Then run when I tell you.”
She stared at him.
“I'm not leaving you.”
His expression hardened.
“This is not a discussion.”
“Neither is abandoning you.”
For one absurd second, he looked almost furious that she had answered him.
Then Rafael created an opening by driving the car into the SUV blocking the entrance. Metal screamed against metal. The attackers scattered.
Massimo grabbed Sophie's hand.
“Now!”
They ran through the trees toward a narrow service road. Rafael caught up with them seconds later, bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow but still standing.
They reached a second vehicle hidden near the property line.
Only after the doors locked did Sophie realize her hands were shaking.
Massimo sat beside her, breathing hard.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He examined her face anyway.
“I said I'm fine.”
“I heard you.”
“Then stop looking at me like I'm about to disappear.”
Something in his expression changed.
He leaned back.
“I'm sorry.”
Sophie looked down at their joined hands. Neither of them had noticed that they were still holding on.
She let go.
At a safe location, Rafael examined the remaining documents. The original evidence was missing, but Sophie had photographed several pages before the ambush.
The bank records pointed to a chain of shell companies connected to a construction group owned by Vittorio. Money had been diverted from the foundation into property acquisitions, then transferred through accounts controlled by Dominic Shaw.
The final document contained a handwritten note.
If anything happens to me, find Daniel Reed's daughter. She has the original ledger.
Sophie read it twice.
“My sister has the ledger?”
“Possibly,” Massimo said.
“Then we need to find her.”
Rafael began contacting the school listed in the photograph. By evening, he learned that the school had closed years ago. Its archived enrollment records had been transferred to a district office.
A name appeared in the records.
Clara Reed.
Not Clara Miller.
“She was given her father's surname,” Sophie said.
A current address appeared beside the name, but it belonged to an apartment building in Milwaukee that had been demolished three years earlier.
They had another dead end.
Massimo paced the room.
“Someone is moving her from place to place.”
“Or she changed her name,” Sophie said.
“Why would she?”
“Because she might have grown up believing our family was dangerous.”
Massimo stopped.
“You think Vittorio told her about us?”
“I think someone has spent years making sure neither of us could find the other.”
Rafael received a call.
A witness from the old school remembered Clara. She had been adopted by a couple who later moved to Wisconsin. The couple's surname was Hayes.
The trail was finally alive.
Before they could celebrate, Sophie's phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
It showed a young woman with Sophie's eyes standing in front of a flower shop.
The message read:
STOP SEARCHING FOR YOUR SISTER. SHE DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW YOU.
Sophie stared at the screen.
Massimo took the phone.
“It's a lie.”
“How do you know?”
“Because whoever sent it wants you to stop.”
She looked at him.
“What if she's afraid of me?”
“Then we give her a reason not to be.”
He returned the phone.
For the first time, Sophie believed him.
May you like
Then a second message arrived.
ASK YOUR BOYFRIEND WHY HIS FAMILY PAID FOR YOUR FATHER'S SILENCE.
