Chapter 5 - Victor Revealed Why He Had Been Watching Sophie for Fifteen YearsVictor did not attack.
He simply stood there.
Smiling.
Adrian raised his weapon.
Victor laughed.
“You won't shoot me.”
“Try me.”
Victor glanced at Sophie.
“She knows you won't.”
Sophie stepped forward.
“Why me?”
Victor's smile faded.
“Because your mother made a promise.”
“What promise?”
“To protect Caroline's daughter.”
“She protected Emma.”
“She delayed the inevitable.”
Sophie held Emma tighter.
Victor's eyes moved to the child.
“Do you know why you were chosen?”
“No.”
“Because Caroline knew your family was invisible.”
“My family?”
“Your grandfather worked in the old Drake warehouses.”
Sophie stared.
Victor continued.
“Your mother cleaned the hospital rooms.”
“She was never part of the organization.”
“No.”
He smiled.
“She was better.”
Sophie frowned.
“She was trusted by everyone because nobody saw her.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Get to the point.”
Victor looked at him.
“Caroline discovered the money.”
“Why was she killed?”
“She tried to expose your father.”
“My father ordered it?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Victor smiled.
“Your uncle.”
Adrian went still.
“My uncle died before Caroline.”
“He didn't.”
“What?”
“He staged his death.”
Victor explained.
Fifteen years earlier, Adrian's uncle had become the real power behind the family's criminal operations.
Caroline discovered him.
She planned to expose him.
Victor had been ordered to stop her.
But Victor wanted the organization for himself.
So he betrayed his own employer.
He created chaos.
He arranged Caroline's disappearance.
He stole the evidence.
Then he convinced everyone the child had died.
He had spent fifteen years hunting for the ledger because it contained proof of everything.
Including his own betrayal.
Sophie asked:
“Then why didn't you kill us years ago?”
Victor looked at her.
“Because I needed the child to reveal the ledger.”
Emma stirred.
Sophie stepped back.
Adrian moved in front of both.
Victor laughed.
“You think the ledger is hidden inside the rabbit.”
Adrian froze.
“It isn't.”
Victor nodded.
“That was only the first clue.”
“Where is it?”
Victor pointed toward Sophie.
“Ask her what her mother taught her.”
Sophie frowned.
Then remembered.
Her mother had always told her one strange thing.
Never throw away old recipes.
Sophie had thought it was sentiment.
Now she understood.
“The cookbook.”
Victor smiled.
Adrian looked at Thomas.
“Get the cookbook.”
They returned to the estate.
Sophie opened her mother's old recipe book.
A page had been cut open.
Inside was another card.
A list of names.
Dates.
Amounts.
And one line.
Caroline Drake — October 14.
Adrian's hands shook.
“This proves it.”
Thomas read the pages.
“There are enough names here to destroy Victor.”
Victor's voice suddenly came through the speakers.
“You're assuming he is the final target.”
Everyone turned.
The security system screens activated.
Victor appeared on camera.
“Adrian.”
“You broke into my system.”
“Of course.”
“What do you want?”
Victor smiled.
“You have the evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Then you also have a choice.”
“What choice?”
“Expose me and lose Sophie.”
Sophie went pale.
“What does that mean?”
Victor continued.
“I arranged a second meeting.”
“With whom?”
“Your daughter's father.”
Silence.
Sophie looked at Adrian.
“My daughter's father is dead.”
Victor smiled.
“You don't know that.”
Sophie stopped breathing.
For three years, she had told everyone Emma's father had disappeared.
She had never admitted that she didn't know whether he was alive.
She had only known he left.
Victor's words cracked open a wound she had buried.
Adrian saw it.
“Sophie?”
She whispered:
“His name is Daniel.”
Victor smiled.
“Exactly.”
Adrian stared.
“You know where he is?”
“I do.”
“Then tell me.”
“Bring me the ledger.”
“No.”
Victor smiled.
“Then Daniel dies.”
The screen went black.
Sophie was shaking.
Adrian reached toward her.
She flinched.
He immediately stopped.
“I'm sorry.”
She looked at him.
“I thought I knew what losing meant.”
Adrian's expression softened.
“You don't have to do this alone.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
For the first time, they stood together not because he ordered it.
But because she chose to.
They had until midnight.
And for the first time, Adrian understood the true stakes.
Victor wasn't trying to destroy the Drake family.
May you like
He was trying to control its future.
And Emma was at the center of it.
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