Chapter 5 - SOFIA’S TRUTH
Roman did not move.
His hands remained raised while Sofia held the gun on him.
Four years had changed her.
The woman from the photograph had looked confident and polished, with glossy hair and a bright smile. The woman in the corridor was thinner, her hair cut unevenly near her shoulders. A pale scar crossed one eyebrow.
But her eyes were unmistakably Roman’s.
Captain Cole slowly turned toward her.
“Sofia, lower the weapon.”
“You first.”
“You’re confused.”
“No. I was confused four years ago. Then you buried my report and told Adrian where to find me.”
Detective Bennett shifted her aim toward Cole.
The other officers hesitated.
One of them lowered his weapon slightly.
Cole noticed.
“Keep your guns up,” he ordered.
Sofia’s hands trembled.
“Claire, bring me the red bag.”
Roman looked at me.
“Don’t.”
She tightened her grip.
“Don’t listen to him.”
I remained in the wheelchair, clutching the duffel.
“Sofia, why did you warn me not to let Roman open it alone?”
“Because he would destroy what was inside.”
Roman’s face hardened.
“I spent four years looking for you.”
“You spent four years protecting your company.”
“That isn’t true.”
“You announced a reward. You hired private investigators. You gave interviews. But when your own investigator found the warehouse where Adrian held me, you paid him to stay quiet.”
Roman stared at her.
“I never knew about a warehouse.”
Sofia laughed bitterly.
“That’s what you always say.”
Captain Cole took one slow step toward her.
“Sofia, you need help.”
She swung the gun toward him.
“I needed help when I came to your office with evidence.”
Cole stopped.
Detective Bennett looked at him.
“She reported this to you?”
“She was unstable.”
“She was pregnant,” Roman said.
Sofia’s expression broke.
The corridor became painfully still.
Roman lowered his hands slightly.
“What happened to the baby?”
“Don’t.”
“Sofia—”
“I said don’t.”
Her gun returned to him, but tears now ran down her face.
I understood that the weapon was not what held us prisoner.
Grief did.
I opened the red bag.
“Sofia, tell me what you want.”
“The silver drive.”
There were three hard drives inside. One was black, one blue, and one silver.
I removed the silver one.
“What’s on it?”
“The full payment ledger. Videos. Emails. Everything Adrian and Cole did.”
“And Roman?”
She looked at her father.
“Enough to destroy him.”
Roman nodded slowly.
“Then give it to the detective.”
“You think I trust police?”
“You called Claire because you wanted help.”
“I called Claire because Adrian chose her as his next shield.”
That word again.
Shield.
Sofia explained that she had discovered Adrian’s system years earlier. He attached fraudulent companies to women close to him, manipulated them into signing documents, then discarded them when the risk became too high.
Elena Cross had threatened to speak.
She died.
Sofia had threatened to speak.
She disappeared.
Now I had found the suitcase.
Adrian had locked me in the bathroom because he intended to stage my death as an accidental fall caused by alcohol and prescription medication.
The bottles were already in his study.
My medical records had been altered to show a history of anxiety and substance misuse.
“He was preparing it for months,” Sofia said.
I thought about the appointments Adrian had scheduled with a psychiatrist I did not choose. The pills he insisted I take. The stories he told friends about my memory becoming unreliable.
He had not lost control tonight.
He had moved ahead of schedule.
“Why are Roman’s initials in the notebook?” I asked.
Sofia’s gaze sharpened.
“Because he approved the payments.”
Roman shook his head.
“I approved project expenses based on forged reports.”
“You knew Adrian was lying.”
“I suspected he was overbilling. I did not know people were going to die.”
“You told me to fix it quietly.”
“I was wrong.”
Sofia’s voice rose.
“Three men died!”
“Yes.”
Roman’s answer echoed down the corridor.
He lowered his hands completely.
“I was wrong.”
Nobody spoke.
Roman looked at his daughter.
“I cared more about protecting the company than understanding what you were trying to tell me. I thought I could control Adrian. I thought I could contain the damage.”
His voice became rough.
“I was arrogant. Men died because I signed papers I did not read carefully enough. You suffered because I dismissed your fear. I cannot undo that.”
Sofia’s gun lowered by an inch.
Roman continued.
“But I did not pay anyone to abandon you. I did not know where you were. And if someone using my name ordered that investigator to stay quiet, I want to know who.”
Captain Cole suddenly moved.
He reached for Sofia’s arm.
Detective Bennett shouted.
A gunshot exploded through the corridor.
People screamed in the terminal beyond the doors.
Sofia fell backward.
Roman lunged toward her.
Cole grabbed the red duffel from my lap and ran.
Detective Bennett fired once, striking the wall beside him as he disappeared through the maintenance stairwell.
The other officers froze.
“Call an ambulance!” Bennett yelled.
Roman dropped beside Sofia.
Blood spread across her upper arm, but the bullet had passed through without striking her chest.
Her pistol lay several feet away.
“I’m all right,” she gasped.
Roman pressed his hand against the wound.
“You’re not.”
Sofia looked at me.
“The drive.”
Cole had taken the bag.
But the silver drive was still in my hand.
I had hidden it beneath the hospital blanket across my lap when the gunfire began.
I held it up.
Sofia laughed weakly.
For the first time, she looked almost like the woman in the photograph.
Detective Bennett used her radio to report Cole as armed and fleeing. The four officers surrendered their weapons after claiming they had believed they were responding to a stolen-evidence call.
Roman lifted Sofia carefully.
She resisted at first, then allowed her head to rest against his shoulder.
“Where have you been?” he whispered.
Sofia closed her eyes.
“Surviving.”
“Who helped you?”
“A nurse named Lena found me after I escaped. She hid me.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
“Because I learned someone inside your company was still sending Adrian information.”
Roman’s face tightened.
“Who?”
“I don’t know. Every time I tried to contact you, Adrian found out.”
Detective Bennett came back toward us.
“Cole reached the lower platform. Transit police are searching.”
Sofia’s eyes opened.
“He’ll go to Adrian.”
“Adrian is in custody.”
“He won’t be for long.”
Bennett shook her head.
“The judge denied immediate release.”
Sofia looked at her.
“You don’t understand. Adrian never needed bail.”
My phone vibrated.
It was a notification from the security system at my house.
Front entrance opened.
Adrian’s house was still an active crime scene.
Only police should have been there.
Then another notification appeared.
Basement door opened.
Sofia stared at the screen.
“He’s not going home,” she whispered.
“Then who is?”
Roman answered before she could.
“The person inside my company.”
The live camera feed loaded.
A figure wearing a dark hood entered Adrian’s basement and approached the furnace.
The person removed the hood.
Roman staggered backward.
I had never seen the woman before.
But Sofia clearly had.
“That’s impossible,” she said.
Roman’s voice barely carried.
“Isabella.”
He looked at me.
“My wife.”
May you like
Sofia’s mother, who had supposedly died six years earlier, was standing alive inside Adrian’s basement.
And she was holding the missing red duffel bag.
