Chapter 5 - THE VAULT OF SINS
Sophia stared at the scratched gold lighter resting on the polished oak table. The faint engraving of her mother’s initials—*E.V.*—caught the amber light of the room.
The air in her lungs evaporated. For over a decade, she had visited a cold marble gravestone, placing lilies on empty dirt. She had cried herself to sleep as a teenager, mourning a mother who was breathing, suffering, locked in a cage orchestrated by the man who kissed her forehead every night.
"She's alive," Sophia whispered, her voice fragile as spun glass.
Adrian stood perfectly still, his eyes filled with a dark, heavy guilt. "She is. I found out two years ago when I finally hacked your father's encrypted servers. He’s been keeping her heavily sedated in a private facility in the Swiss Alps."
"You knew," Sophia took a step toward him, a sudden, blinding rage igniting in her chest. The confusion was gone, replaced by a terrifying clarity. "You knew my mother was alive, and you said nothing. You knew my son was alive, and you let me believe I was empty."
"I had to keep you in the dark, Sophia!" Adrian argued, stepping forward, his hands pleading. "If you showed even a fraction of suspicion, your father would have realized your memories were surfacing. He would have killed you, he would have killed Leo, and he would have killed your mother. The only way to save them all was to play the loyal soldier until I had the power to dismantle his empire!"
"Mommy?"
Leo’s small voice pierced through her anger.
Sophia looked down. The little boy was standing by her skirts, his green eyes wide with fear as he sensed the hostility between the two adults. He called her Mommy. Not confused. Not hesitant.
Adrian had told the boy who she was.
Sophia’s rage fractured, melting into a fierce, protective maternal instinct. She knelt down, ignoring the mud and tearing lace of her wedding dress, and pulled Leo into a fierce hug. She breathed in the scent of him—baby shampoo and warm cotton.
"I'm here, baby," she whispered fiercely into his curls. "I'm not going anywhere. Nobody is ever taking you from me again."
Suddenly, the heavy iron knocker on the front door pounded.
Three slow, deliberate strikes.
Adrian instantly drew his gun, shoving Sophia and Leo behind him toward the hallway. "Get in the panic room beneath the stairs. Now."
"Adrian, who is it?" Sophia panicked, grabbing Leo’s hand.
"It's not your father," Adrian said, his eyes locked on the heavy door. "Marcus wouldn't knock. He’d blow the hinges off."
The knocker sounded again. Then, a woman's voice echoed through the thick wood.
"Open the door, little brother. It's freezing out here, and my dress is ruined."
Elena.
Adrian’s jaw tightened. "Take the boy. Go."
"No," Sophia said, her voice suddenly hardening. She stood up, holding Leo’s hand tightly. "I'm done hiding in the dark while my family makes deals for my life."
Before Adrian could stop her, Sophia marched to the front door and threw it open.
Elena stood on the porch, flanked by two massive armed guards. Her black evening gown was soaked from the rain, her mascara slightly smudged, but her posture was as arrogant and commanding as a queen.
Elena’s eyes widened slightly in surprise as she saw Sophia standing there instead of Adrian. Then, her gaze dropped to Leo. A flash of genuine possessiveness crossed her cold features.
"Hello, Leo," Elena purred, stepping forward. "Did you miss your Auntie Elena?"
Leo shrank back behind Sophia’s legs, clutching his blue elephant tighter. "You're the bad lady."
Elena’s smile tightened. She looked back up at Sophia. "Well. It seems Adrian finally told you the bedtime story. I assume you hate me now?"
"I want you off my property," Sophia said, her voice shaking with an adrenaline she had never felt before. "Before my husband shoots you."
Adrian stepped up behind Sophia, leveling his weapon directly at Elena’s chest. "Give me one reason not to put a hollow-point through your heart right now, Elena."
Elena didn't flinch. She reached into her wet evening bag. Adrian tensed, ready to fire, but she slowly pulled out a thick, black leather-bound ledger and tossed it onto the floor at their feet.
It hit the ground with a heavy thud.
"Because I didn't come here to kill you," Elena said, her voice dropping the theatrical mocking tone. "I came here to make a trade."
Adrian stared at the book. "That’s the ledger you gave the High Commission. The one proving I stole from them."
"It’s a copy," Elena sneered. "I kept the original. I also kept the cipher to decode Marcus’s private accounts. The accounts that prove your darling father-in-law has been skimming billions from the High Commission for a decade."
Sophia stared at the woman. "Why are you giving this to us? You tried to destroy Adrian at the wedding."
"I tried to force Adrian to give me the boy!" Elena snapped, her composure cracking for a second. "Marcus betrayed me! After the wedding stunt, the Commission didn't side with me. Marcus bought them off. He convinced them that I was working with you, Adrian. Marcus put a bounty on my head too."
Elena stepped closer, the rain dripping from her hair. She looked at her brother.
"Marcus isn't coming to negotiate for the boy, Adrian. He sent an execution squad. They are ten minutes behind me. He’s going to wipe us all out and tell the Commission we killed each other."
Adrian’s grip on his gun didn't waver. "So you want to hide behind my guns."
"I want to survive," Elena said coldly. "You want to save your wife's mother. We both want Marcus dead. I have the cipher. You have the firepower. We work together tonight, or we all die in this house."
Sophia looked down at the heavy black ledger on the floor. It was the key to destroying her father. The key to freeing her mother.
She leaned down and picked it up. It felt heavy with blood and secrets.
As she stood back up, the headlights of five black SUVs cut through the dark forest, illuminating the heavy rain. The vehicles violently breached the iron gates of the estate, tearing up the gravel driveway.
"They're here," Elena whispered, genuine fear finally coloring her voice.
May you like
Sophia looked at Adrian. Her husband. The assassin. The father of her child.
"Give her a gun," Sophia said, her green eyes burning with a fire that had been suppressed for six years. "And let's welcome my father to the wedding."
