Chapter 4 - THE PRICE OF BEING KIND|
By the time Sofia reached the hospital that afternoon, the story of the mysterious payment had spread through the billing office. A supervisor offered her a chair, a printed receipt, and a careful explanation that the funds had come through a charitable trust.
Sofia did not believe in coincidences anymore.
She asked for the trust's name.
“Ferrara Family Medical Fund,” the supervisor replied.
“Of course.”
The woman seemed embarrassed.
“Your brother's treatment is covered for the next several weeks. There are no conditions attached.”
“Then why did the donor request that I be told?”
“I don't know.”
Sofia thanked her and left before anger could turn into an argument.
Mateo was sitting up when she entered his room.
“You look like you're about to throw a chair through a window.”
“I'm considering it.”
“Good. Pick the expensive window. Maybe they'll give you a refund.”
She sat beside him and explained the meeting with Eleanor, the photograph, and the strange reference to a boy. She left out the more frightening details of Dante's reputation, though Mateo had already guessed that their benefactor was not an ordinary businessman.
“Do you trust him?” he asked.
“No.”
“Do you think he can help?”
Sofia looked at the hospital bill in her hand.
“Yes.”
“Then maybe you don't need to trust him yet.”
She stared at her brother.
“When did you become wise?”
“During the three years you've been treating me like a child.”
She squeezed his shoulder.
“Don't get used to it.”
At five o'clock, Sofia received a message from an unknown number.
You should have kept walking last night.
She read it twice.
A second message arrived.
Rich men protect their own. They don't protect girls like you.
Her fingers went cold.
She called Dante.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“How do you know something happened?”
“Because you called me instead of sending a message telling me to stay out of your life.”
She forwarded the texts.
His reply came almost instantly.
“Stay inside the hospital. Marcus is on his way.”
“No.”
“Sofia—”
“I said no. You don't get to send armed men into a hospital because someone frightened me.”
“This isn't about frightening you. Someone knows you spoke to my mother.”
“And that means I should surrender my freedom?”
“No. It means we need to understand who is threatening you.”
She walked to the window. A black sedan sat across the street, its headlights off. A man in a baseball cap leaned against the driver's door, staring toward the hospital entrance.
“There's a car outside,” she whispered.
Dante's voice changed.
“Describe it.”
She did.
“Do not leave the building. I'm sending someone who can approach without drawing attention.”
“Dante, I can't have this following Mateo.”
“Neither can I.”
The line went quiet for a moment.
Then he said, “I need you to listen to me. I will not force you to accept protection. But if someone is using your brother to reach you, pretending the danger isn't real won't make it disappear.”
Sofia hated that he was right.
Ten minutes later, a woman wearing hospital scrubs entered Mateo's room and introduced herself as a patient advocate. She had a legitimate badge and a calm manner, and she never mentioned Dante. She simply asked Mateo whether he would like assistance arranging transportation between appointments.
Sofia watched her closely.
“Who sent you?”
“The medical fund asked whether you needed practical support. I can leave if you'd prefer.”
Mateo looked at his sister.
“Let her explain the options.”
Sofia exhaled.
“All right. But no one makes decisions for us.”
The advocate nodded.
“Agreed.”
Later that evening, Sofia returned to the Meridian Club to give Dante her answer about the protection. He was waiting in an office with the curtains open and the lights low. On his desk sat the old photograph and the sealed envelope.
“I'll accept a security escort when Mateo has appointments,” she said. “No surveillance inside our home, no access to his medical information, and no decisions made without asking me.”
Dante listened without interrupting.
“Agreed.”
“And the money?”
“Consider it a donation to the medical fund. The fund will cover the treatment. You can repay it if that makes you comfortable, but no one will ask you to.”
“I don't want charity.”
“Then don't call it charity. Call it what it is: a chance for your brother to receive treatment while you decide what comes next.”
Sofia studied him.
“You make everything sound like a negotiation.”
“It's how I was raised.”
“Maybe that's your problem.”
To her surprise, he smiled faintly.
“Maybe.”
She glanced at the photograph.
“Have you found out who the man is?”
“Not yet. The hospital listed on the back closed years ago. Its records were transferred, but someone requested the file before we could access it.”
“Who?”
Dante's expression hardened.
“A company controlled by Senator Graff's family.”
Sofia felt the room tilt around her.
The senator had been in the ballroom when she defended Eleanor. He had watched the humiliation and laughed.
Now his family name was attached to a missing hospital record.
Dante stood.
“Someone is trying to stop us from discovering what happened eighteen years ago.”
Sofia looked down at the threatening messages on her phone.
“Then perhaps they should have picked a girl who knows how to keep her head down.”
For the first time that night, Dante laughed.
It was brief, rough, and almost unfamiliar.
May you like
And somewhere in Manhattan, a man who had been paid to frighten Sofia Navarro received a new instruction.
Make sure she never reaches the old hospital.
