Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHO REFUSED TO RUN
Ryan reached for Emma.
Sophia stepped between them.
“You will not touch her.”
The FBI agent raised his voice.
“Ms. Bennett, we have a court order.”
“Based on lies.”
Ryan held up the document.
“You ignored legal notice.”
“You sent it to an address where you knew I no longer lived.”
“That is for a judge to decide.”
Emma hid behind Alessandro.
Ryan saw it.
His face darkened.
“Come here.”
Emma shook her head.
“I said come here.”
Alessandro moved one step forward.
The agent pointed his weapon at him.
“Do not move.”
Lucia stood near the doorway, hidden from the agent’s view.
Her gun remained beneath her coat.
Sophia looked at the agent’s badge.
“Agent Cole.”
He nodded.
“You visited Saint Catherine’s Hospital two years ago.”
Cole’s expression changed.
“How do you know that?”
“I saw your name in the stolen records.”
Ryan glanced at Carlo’s man standing near the hallway.
It was a small mistake.
But Sophia noticed.
“There,” she said.
“That man is not FBI.”
Cole looked toward the stranger.
The man reached inside his jacket.
Lucia fired from the doorway.
The bullet struck his arm.
He dropped a pistol.
Agent Cole turned on Ryan.
“What is this?”
Ryan ran toward Emma.
Alessandro hit him once.
Ryan fell across the table.
Cole raised his weapon again.
Alessandro did not move.
Sophia grabbed Ryan’s custody papers.
“These were issued by Judge Harper.”
Cole nodded.
“His signature is right there.”
“Judge Harper died three days ago.”
Cole stared at her.
Sophia had cleaned the guest wing where Moretti lawyers discussed the judge’s funeral.
She had remembered the name.
“These papers are forged.”
Cole took the document.
Ryan struggled to stand.
“She is lying.”
Cole examined the seal.
His face hardened.
“Turn around.”
Ryan laughed nervously.
“You cannot arrest me.”
Cole handcuffed him.
“I can detain you for bringing an armed civilian into a federal operation.”
Ryan looked toward Alessandro.
“This is his fault.”
“No,” Sophia said.
“For once, this is yours.”
Emma stepped from behind Alessandro.
Ryan stared at her.
“I am your father.”
Emma’s lower lip trembled.
“You hurt Mama.”
“I was angry.”
“You put me in the dark.”
Ryan’s face went pale.
“Emma.”
“You said monsters would eat me.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
She had not known that part.
Alessandro did.
His expression became terrifying.
Agent Cole stepped between them.
“Whatever you are thinking, don’t.”
Alessandro’s voice was calm.
“I was thinking the law should have protected them.”
Cole looked at Sophia’s bruised wrist.
“The law failed.”
“It often does.”
“But killing him will not fix it.”
Emma touched Alessandro’s hand.
“Make a good choice.”
Everyone fell silent.
Alessandro looked down at her.
Then he stepped away from Ryan.
Cole exhaled.
Sophia stared at Alessandro.
He had listened to a three-year-old when no adult could have stopped him.
That frightened her.
And moved her.
Agent Cole took Ryan and the wounded impostor into custody.
But before leaving, he turned to Sophia.
“The kidnapping report remains active.”
“I am not kidnapped.”
“You will have to say that officially.”
“I will.”
Cole looked at Alessandro.
“And the charges against him?”
Sophia hesitated.
Alessandro saw it.
“Tell the truth.”
She looked at the agent.
“He did not take me.”
“He protected my daughter.”
Cole nodded.
“That will help.”
After the vehicles left, the doctor treated Vincent’s shoulder.
Lucia stood at the window.
Alessandro approached her.
“You knew the impostor.”
“One of Carlo’s men.”
“You saved Agent Cole.”
“I saved Sophia.”
He accepted the correction.
“Why?”
Lucia looked at Emma sleeping on the sofa.
“She stood between me and Marissa.”
“She did not know me.”
“She did not have to.”
Alessandro’s voice lowered.
“Your mother was like that.”
Lucia turned sharply.
“Do not use her to reach me.”
“I am not.”
“You abandoned her.”
“I loved her.”
“Then why was she alone in that warehouse?”
The question struck him.
He looked away.
Lucia pressed.
“Why did she go there?”
Alessandro answered after a long silence.
“She wanted me to leave New York.”
“I told her I needed one final meeting.”
“She said my family would never let me go.”
“She was right.”
Lucia’s eyes glistened.
“She came to stop you.”
“Yes.”
“And your father killed her.”
“Yes.”
“You chose the family before you chose her.”
Alessandro did not defend himself.
“Yes.”
Lucia looked surprised.
Perhaps she expected excuses.
He gave her none.
“I made the choice that killed your mother.”
“I did not know what would happen.”
“But I made it.”
Lucia’s face tightened.
“That does not make it better.”
“No.”
“It does not.”
Across the room, Sophia listened.
Alessandro had finally said sorry without using the word.
Emma woke from the sofa.
She looked around.
“Where are we going now?”
Alessandro looked at Sophia.
She answered first.
“We are going to tell the truth.”
The next morning, Sophia walked into the FBI field office voluntarily.
Cameras crowded the sidewalk.
Reporters shouted questions.
“Were you kidnapped?”
“Is Alessandro Moretti Emma’s father?”
“Did the Moretti family threaten you?”
Sophia stopped at the entrance.
Alessandro remained inside the car.
He had agreed not to follow her.
She turned toward the cameras.
“My name is Sophia Bennett.”
“I was not kidnapped.”
“My daughter and I were placed in danger by men seeking control of the Moretti family.”
A reporter shouted.
“Are you romantically involved with Alessandro Moretti?”
Sophia looked toward the dark car window.
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Inside the vehicle, Alessandro’s face remained expressionless.
But Lucia saw the disappointment.
Then Sophia continued.
“However, he is Emma’s biological father.”
The crowd erupted.
At that exact moment, Isabella Moretti appeared on every television screen in the city.
She stood beside Carlo in the Moretti library.
A gun was pointed at her back.
She read from a prepared statement.
“My son is mentally unstable.”
“He kidnapped his employee.”
“He fabricated the existence of two daughters.”
“And effective immediately, he is no longer head of the Moretti family.”
Carlo smiled beside her.
Then Isabella looked directly into the camera.
And said one sentence that was not in the script.
“Sophia, do not trust Vincent.”
May you like
The broadcast went black.
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