Chapter 4 - Sophie Recognized the Man Who Had Kidnapped Her Before the Shooting, and Adrian Realized the Attack Was an Inside JobThe man outside ran.
Adrian's guards chased him.
They caught him near the elevator.
Sophie refused to look at him.
I sat beside her.
I signed:
You're safe.
She nodded.
The man was brought into the room.
Adrian asked:
“Who hired you?”
Silence.
Adrian's expression darkened.
I expected violence.
Instead, he asked again.
The man finally spoke.
“Your family.”
“Which family?”
He looked at me.
“The woman you're protecting.”
My blood went cold.
“What?”
“He wanted her alive.”
“Who?”
The man shook his head.
“He said she knew where the archive was.”
Adrian stared.
My mother's archive.
The man revealed that someone had been searching for me for months.
Not because of Sophie.
Because my mother had left a secret.
An archive.
Evidence against powerful people.
The same evidence that could destroy Adrian's enemies.
The same evidence that could expose corruption inside his own organization.
My mother had hidden it.
And apparently, only I knew how to find it.
I didn't even know I knew.
Then I remembered something.
My mother's old sewing box.
She never let me touch it.
I had inherited it after she died.
I carried it everywhere when I was younger.
Adrian ordered it brought from my apartment.
Inside was a hidden compartment.
A key.
A photograph.
And a letter.
Emma,
If you're reading this, they have found you.
I started crying.
My mother continued:
Trust Adrian Moretti.
I looked at him.
He stared at the letter.
Then:
He will protect you because he owes me a debt he doesn't know about yet.
Adrian frowned.
“What debt?”
I kept reading.
I saved his daughter once.
I looked at Sophie.
She was watching.
The letter explained that years earlier, Adrian's wife had discovered a traitor.
My mother helped her.
Sophie was saved.
Then Adrian's wife died.
My mother went into hiding.
She never told me.
Because someone was still hunting her.
The final sentence broke me.
When Adrian learns the truth, he will have to choose between his empire and his daughter.
Adrian stared.
Then asked:
“What truth?”
Before I could answer, the hospital alarm sounded.
May you like
Someone had breached the compound.
The enemy was coming.
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