Chapter 2 - The House That Was Already Watching
"Call my mother."
I didn't realize I'd spoken until Alexander reached for his phone.
"What's her number?"
I recited it.
He dialed.
My mother answered on the fourth ring.
"Hello?"
"Mom!"
"Sophia? Honey, why are you calling from a strange number?"
"Are you home?"
"Of course I'm home. What's wrong?"
"Is Mateo there?"
"He's doing his homework. Sophia, you're scaring me."
I closed my eyes.
Their voices were so normal.
I could hear the television in the background, and the old ceiling fan clicking the way it always did when someone turned it above medium.
"Mom, lock the door."
There was a pause.
"What?"
"Please. Lock the door and don't open it for anyone."
"Sophia."
"Just do it."
I heard her walking.
Then the dead bolt slid into place.
"All right."
"Check the windows."
"Sweetheart, what happened?"
I looked at Alexander.
He was watching me with an expression I'd never seen on his face before.
Fear, perhaps.
Not for himself.
For the people on the other end of the line.
"There's been a problem at the hotel," I said.
"What kind of problem?"
"I'll explain when I get home."
Alexander shook his head.
I ignored him.
"Mom, listen carefully. Don't let Mateo go outside."
"He's already getting his shoes."
My stomach dropped.
"Why?"
"He says he's going downstairs for a package."
"What package?"
"He got a text from a delivery driver."
Alexander held out his hand.
I gave him the phone.
"Mrs. Reyes, my name is Alexander Ashford."
My mother stopped speaking.
He continued.
"I own the hotel where Sophia works. I need you to tell your son not to leave the apartment."
A long silence followed.
Then my mother said something I had never expected to hear.
"Alexander?"
He went rigid.
"Elena."
My mother's voice changed.
"Don't you ever call this house again."
She hung up.
I stared at him.
"You know my mother?"
Alexander lowered the phone.
"Yes."
"How?"
He didn't answer quickly enough.
I took one step toward him.
"How?"
"She knows who I am."
"That's not what I asked."
Daniel's phone rang again.
He answered, listened, then looked at Alexander.
"The building security camera is down."
I felt the floor tilt.
"What building?"
"Your mother's building."
"How do you know where she lives?"
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
Alexander didn't.
"Because I have been quietly helping pay the mortgage on that property for the last four years."
I stared at him.
"We don't have a mortgage."
"I know."
"Our landlord does."
"Not anymore."
He spoke without pride.
As though the words were another confession.
"I bought the building through a holding company."
I could barely breathe.
"Why?"
"To keep your family there."
"By charging us rent?"
"I instructed the manager to keep your rent below market rate."
"Our rent went up last spring."
His head turned sharply toward Daniel.
"Who authorized that?"
Daniel was already typing.
"Finding out."
I almost laughed.
The man owned a hotel worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but he apparently didn't know what his employees were doing to a family he claimed to be protecting.
"Nobody gets to buy my life without telling me," I said.
Alexander's face tightened.
"You're right."
"You keep saying that."
"Because you keep being right."
"Then stop hiding things."
He looked at Arturo.
The old man nodded.
Alexander turned back to me.
"Six years ago, your father saved me from an assassination attempt. I was not an innocent bystander. I had made enemies. He intervened because he saw a knife and couldn't leave a man to die."
"Who attacked you?"
"We believed the killer worked for a rival organization."
"Believed?"
"There's evidence we were wrong."
I waited.
"Someone close to me may have arranged it."
Before I could ask another question, Daniel's phone lit up with a video feed.
He held it toward Alexander.
"Traffic camera. One block from the building."
The footage showed a black SUV parked beside a hydrant.
Two men stood near the entrance.
One was holding a cardboard package.
The other kept looking toward the windows above.
I recognized the building immediately.
There was a mural of a yellow bird painted beside the front door.
My throat closed.
"That's our place."
Alexander's voice became flat and controlled.
"Send the security team."
"Already moving."
"Call 911. Tell them about the suspicious men and the threat."
Daniel stepped away to make the call.
I grabbed Alexander's sleeve.
"My brother has asthma. If he gets scared—"
"I understand."
"No, you don't."
He looked straight at me.
"Then tell me what he needs."
The question surprised me.
Not a promise.
Not an order.
A question.
"He has a rescue inhaler in his backpack," I said. "And another beside his bed. But he gets stubborn. He'll try to pretend he's okay."
Alexander nodded.
"I'll tell the responders."
I took out my own phone.
Three percent battery.
I called Mateo.
He answered immediately.
"Hey, Soph."
"Where are you?"
"Home."
"Are you inside?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Don't leave."
A pause.
"Did Mom tell you about the package?"
"Mateo, there is no package."
His voice dropped.
"Then why is someone knocking?"
I heard it through the phone.
Three slow knocks.
Then a man's voice.
"Delivery for the Reyes family."
Mateo whispered, "He knows our name."
"Stay away from the door."
"Okay."
"Go into Mom's room. Lock it."
"Sophia—"
"Now."
I heard movement.
My mother said something in the background.
Then a loud crack came through the phone.
Mateo gasped.
"What was that?" I shouted.
Another crack.
The sound of wood splintering.
My brother's voice rose.
"Soph, they're breaking the door!"
The line went dead.
I started running.
I didn't know where I was going.
I only knew that my family was in danger and I couldn't stand there while rich men discussed security arrangements.
Alexander caught up with me at the elevator.
"Sophia."
"Move."
"Daniel has a car waiting."
I looked at him.
He didn't try to touch me.
"Come with me."
We rode down in silence.
Arturo followed.
The elevator opened directly into the underground garage.
A black sedan stood beside the exit.
Daniel held the rear door.
I climbed inside.
Alexander sat beside me.
As we drove through Manhattan, I called Mateo again and again.
No answer.
My mother didn't answer either.
At the Queensboro Bridge, my phone died.
I stared at the blank screen.
Alexander handed me his.
"Use mine."
But before I could dial, it rang.
Unknown number.
He answered on speaker.
A man's voice said, "You should have stayed away from the girl, Ashford."
Alexander's face became completely still.
"Who is this?"
"You had six years to forget Miguel Reyes."
"Where is her family?"
The man laughed softly.
"Ask your fiancée."
The call ended.
I turned toward Alexander.
"Victoria?"
He was already calling Daniel.
"Find her."
Daniel answered through the car's speaker.
"Boss, we've got a problem."
"What now?"
"Miss Lane left the hotel through the west entrance. The driver says she never got into the car."
"Where did she go?"
"We don't know."
Alexander stared straight ahead.
Daniel continued.
"And I checked the hotel access records."
A pause.
"Victoria requested Sophia Reyes's employment file yesterday afternoon."
I felt sick.
Yesterday.
Before the gala.
Before the spilled champagne.
Before Victoria tried to kick me.
She had known my name.
Alexander looked at me.
For the first time, he seemed to understand something I'd already begun to suspect.
The champagne incident hadn't started this.
May you like
It had only exposed it.
And whoever wanted me frightened had planned the evening long before Victoria raised her foot.
