Chapter 3 - The Uncle Who Never Died
Adrian did not move.
The voice from the device continued.
"I wondered how long it would take you to recognize me."
Sophia stared at him.
"That's Vittorio?"
Adrian's eyes remained fixed on the device.
"Yes."
A soft chuckle came through the speaker.
"Still cautious. Good."
Adrian picked up the device.
Marco reached toward him.
"Don't."
Adrian ignored him.
"What do you want?"
"I already have most of what I want."
"Then why are you calling?"
"Because the young woman beside you took something she doesn't understand."
Sophia stiffened.
Adrian glanced at her.
"What?"
"Ask her about file seventeen."
Sophia looked down at the scattered documents.
"I don't know what that means."
Vittorio laughed.
"Of course you don't."
Adrian's voice lowered.
"If you want something, come get it."
"That temper."
"You're hiding behind a speaker."
"I'm staying alive."
"You've been doing that for eleven years."
"Because unlike your father, I knew when the family was collapsing."
Sophia listened.
This was no longer only her nightmare.
She had stepped into history.
Vittorio continued.
"Daniel was supposed to keep her from reaching anyone important."
Sophia's face tightened.
"You put him in my life."
"I introduced you."
"Why?"
"You were useful."
Adrian's expression darkened.
"Watch yourself."
"Already protective?"
Sophia looked at Adrian.
He didn't react.
Vittorio did.
"Interesting."
Adrian's voice became colder.
"Leave her out of whatever this is."
"She was never out of it."
Sophia stepped closer to the device.
"What did Daniel want from me?"
"Not Daniel."
"Then who?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
The device clicked.
Silence.
Marco swore.
Adrian turned to Sophia.
"File seventeen."
She knelt beside the papers.
"There are numbered folders."
They searched.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
Sixteen.
Eighteen.
Sophia stopped.
"Seventeen is missing."
Adrian stared at her.
"Was it in the bag?"
"I don't know."
"You carried these out yourself."
"I grabbed everything from my locked drawer."
"Could Daniel have taken it?"
"He didn't get the bag."
Marco looked at the torn lining.
"Maybe someone put the tracker in and removed the file."
Sophia shook her head.
"The bag never left me after I escaped."
Adrian looked at her.
"What about before tonight?"
Her face changed.
"Daniel had access to my apartment."
"Anyone else?"
"No."
"Work?"
She hesitated.
"My supervisor."
"Name?"
"Robert Halpern."
Adrian picked up his phone.
Marco was already typing.
Sophia gathered the remaining folders.
"What if file seventeen is something I never saw?"
Adrian looked at her.
"Then Vittorio wants us to believe you did."
"Why?"
"To make us search for it."
"And?"
"Searching exposes what people know."
Sophia stared at him.
"You've done this before."
"Different context."
She almost smiled.
Almost.
Marco turned his phone around.
"Halpern owns a lake house in Wisconsin."
Adrian frowned.
"So?"
"Purchased through Bellweather Holdings."
Sophia went still.
"My boss?"
"Apparently."
She backed away.
"No. Robert helped me."
"Maybe."
"He told me to document everything. He helped me find an attorney."
"Maybe he meant to."
"You're saying everybody is lying."
"I'm saying somebody is."
Sophia looked angry now.
Good.
Anger was better than fear.
"I need to talk to Robert."
Adrian shook his head.
"No."
"You don't get to decide that."
"No. But if he works for Vittorio, calling him tells Vittorio where you are."
"They already know."
"Then don't make it easier."
Sophia folded her arms.
"I have a hearing at nine."
"You aren't going."
Her expression snapped.
"Excuse me?"
"The courthouse is exposed."
"I spent months getting to that hearing."
"And Daniel knows about it."
"I am not disappearing because he wants me afraid."
Adrian stepped closer.
"You think walking into a predictable location proves you're not afraid?"
"Don't psychoanalyze me."
"I'm not."
"It sounds like it."
"I'm telling you someone planted a device in your bag, tracked you to this building, photographed you through a window, and called you by name. A courthouse schedule isn't bravery. It's an itinerary."
Sophia opened her mouth.
Closed it.
He was right, and she hated it.
"What do you suggest?"
"Remote filing."
"My attorney has originals."
"We'll get them."
"You think you can just—"
"Yes."
She stared at him.
"Right. Mafia boss."
Adrian's mouth twitched.
"Your words."
"Chicago's words."
"Chicago talks too much."
For one strange second, the tension broke.
Sophia looked at him.
Adrian looked back.
Then Marco cleared his throat.
"Sorry to interrupt the romantic comedy."
Sophia flushed.
Adrian did not.
"Finish that sentence and you'll be unemployed."
Marco smiled faintly.
"Daniel's moving again."
"Where?"
"South."
"Alone?"
"No."
"Kerr?"
"No. Different car."
Marco zoomed in on a traffic camera image.
The passenger was Robert Halpern.
Sophia stopped breathing.
"No."
Adrian watched her.
Marco continued.
"They're heading toward the river."
Sophia walked to the monitor.
"Maybe Daniel forced him."
"Possible," Adrian said.
"Then we have to help him."
"Also possible."
Adrian pulled on his coat.
Sophia looked at him.
"Where are you going?"
"To find out."
"I'm coming."
"No."
She glared.
"Stop saying that."
"Stop suggesting terrible ideas."
"Robert might be in danger because of me."
"Which is why you stay here."
"I know Daniel."
"So?"
"I know when he's bluffing."
Adrian paused.
Sophia saw her opening.
"And if Robert is working with him, I know Robert too."
Marco looked between them.
Adrian sighed.
"You're staying in the car."
"Fine."
"You'll listen to instructions."
"Probably."
"That's not reassuring."
"It's the best you're getting."
Fifteen minutes later, they were moving through downtown in a dark SUV.
Sophia sat in the rear seat beside Adrian.
Marco drove.
Two other security vehicles followed.
Rain streaked the windows.
Sophia kept looking at her dead phone.
Adrian noticed.
"Family?"
"My sister."
"Does Daniel know where she lives?"
"Yes."
"Call her."
"From what?"
Adrian handed her a phone.
She hesitated.
"It's clean."
She dialed.
A woman answered on the second ring.
"Soph?"
Sophia's face changed immediately.
"Megan."
"Where are you? Daniel called me. He said you had some kind of episode."
Sophia closed her eyes.
"I'm okay."
"Are you?"
"Yes."
"Where are you?"
Sophia looked at Adrian.
He shook his head once.
"I can't say."
Megan became quiet.
"Is he there?"
"No."
"Who are you with?"
Sophia almost laughed at the absurdity.
"Someone helping me."
"Police?"
"No."
"Sophia."
"I'll explain later."
Megan exhaled.
"Daniel said you stole from him."
"I didn't."
"I know."
Sophia blinked.
"You do?"
"I've been waiting three years for you to say that."
Sophia looked out the window.
Her eyes filled.
Adrian turned away, giving her privacy even though there was nowhere to go.
"Lock your doors," Sophia said. "Don't answer Daniel. Don't answer anyone from his company."
"You're scaring me."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Soph?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't go back."
Sophia's voice broke.
"I won't."
She ended the call.
For a while, no one spoke.
Adrian finally said, "She loves you."
"Yes."
"Good."
Sophia looked at him.
"Do you have siblings?"
"No."
"Parents?"
"Mother died eight years ago."
"I'm sorry."
"Thank you."
"Father?"
Adrian looked forward.
"Dead."
Sophia understood from his tone not to continue.
The SUV slowed.
Marco pointed ahead.
"Daniel's car."
They had reached an abandoned industrial stretch near the river.
Warehouses.
Loading docks.
Dark water beyond a chain-link fence.
Daniel's sedan sat near a brick building.
Another car beside it.
Robert Halpern's.
Sophia leaned forward.
"I know that building."
Adrian looked at her.
"What is it?"
"Mercer bought it six months ago."
"Why?"
"They said redevelopment."
Marco gave a humorless laugh.
"Of course they did."
Adrian's men spread out.
Sophia remained in the SUV.
For approximately forty seconds.
Then she saw Robert.
He stumbled from a side door.
Blood on his forehead.
Sophia grabbed the handle.
Adrian caught her wrist.
Not hard.
The second she tensed, he released it.
"Wait."
"He's hurt."
"That's why you wait."
Daniel emerged behind Robert.
He held something in his hand.
Not a gun.
A folder.
Sophia stared.
"File seventeen."
Adrian looked at her.
"You're sure?"
"The labels. That's ours."
Daniel shoved Robert toward the car.
Robert fell.
Adrian opened the SUV door.
"Stay."
He and Marco moved into the shadows.
Sophia watched through the windshield.
Daniel shouted at Robert.
She couldn't hear the words.
Robert shook his head.
Daniel kicked him.
Sophia flinched.
Adrian appeared behind Daniel.
Daniel froze.
Marco helped Robert away.
Daniel slowly turned.
Adrian spoke.
Sophia couldn't hear him.
Daniel laughed.
Then held up the folder.
He said something.
Adrian stopped.
Daniel pointed toward the river.
Sophia's stomach tightened.
A second figure stepped from the warehouse.
Older.
Gray hair.
Vittorio.
Even from a distance, she recognized him.
Adrian did too.
He stood completely still.
Uncle and nephew faced one another across twenty feet of wet pavement.
Sophia forgot every instruction.
She opened the SUV door.
She stepped out.
Adrian turned sharply.
"Sophia!"
Vittorio looked toward her.
And smiled.
"There's our accountant."
Adrian moved in front of her.
"Back in the car."
Vittorio laughed softly.
"You always did collect strays."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"What do you want?"
"File seventeen."
"You have it."
Vittorio looked down at the folder Daniel held.
"This?"
He opened it.
Empty.
Sophia's pulse jumped.
Vittorio looked directly at her.
"You don't know, do you?"
"Know what?"
"The real file was never paper."
Sophia stared.
Vittorio pointed toward her.
"Your father gave it to you."
Everything inside Sophia went quiet.
"My father died when I was twelve."
"I know."
Adrian looked at her.
Sophia shook her head.
"I don't know what he's talking about."
Vittorio smiled.
"Ask your mother."
"My mother is dead."
"Then that's inconvenient."
Adrian took a step forward.
"Enough."
Vittorio's eyes shifted to him.
"You still don't see it."
"See what?"
"Why she was chosen."
Sophia's heart pounded.
Daniel stood beside Vittorio.
Robert was being helped toward Marco's car.
Vittorio continued.
"Daniel didn't meet Sophia because I needed a forensic accountant."
Sophia felt cold.
"Then why?"
"Because of her name."
Adrian looked at her.
Vittorio's smile disappeared.
"Reed wasn't always her family's name."
Sophia couldn't breathe.
"My father was Thomas Reed."
"No."
She shook her head.
"No."
Vittorio reached into his coat.
Adrian's men immediately raised their weapons.
"Easy."
Vittorio slowly removed a photograph.
He tossed it onto the wet pavement.
It landed near Sophia.
She bent before Adrian could stop her.
The photograph showed three men standing outside a warehouse twenty years earlier.
A younger Vittorio.
Adrian's father.
And another man.
Sophia recognized him immediately.
Her father.
But beneath the image, someone had written three names.
Vittorio Moretti.
Carlo Moretti.
Thomas Marino.
Sophia stared at the last name.
Then she looked up.
Vittorio said, "Your father wasn't Thomas Reed."
A door slammed behind them.
Marco shouted.
Adrian turned.
Three black vehicles had entered the lot.
Their headlights surrounded them.
Vittorio stepped backward toward the warehouse.
May you like
"Now," he said, "let's talk about what your father stole."
Then every light in the building went out.
