Chapter 13 - SOFIA'S FATHER
Isabela’s face answered before her mouth did.
Dante stared at her.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Dante…”
“Who is Sofia’s father?”
Victor smiled.
“That’s the best part.”
Isabela looked furious.
“Shut up.”
Victor laughed.
“You never told them?”
Dante looked at her.
“Tell me.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Sofia’s father was Mateo Montenegro.”
Dante’s cousin.
Victor’s son.
Dead five years earlier.
Car accident.
Another accident.
Victor’s expression lost all humor.
“She is my granddaughter.”
Sofia looked confused.
Isabela moved closer to her.
Dante processed the implications.
Mateo was Montenegro blood.
Direct descendant through Victor.
Sofia was legally eligible under the trust.
Victor looked at Dante.
“Now you understand.”
“Why hide her?”
“Because Rosa would have used her.”
“Used her how?”
“Exactly how she used you.”
Dante’s voice hardened.
“You took her.”
“To keep her alive.”
Isabela looked furious.
“You kidnapped her twice.”
“First time wasn’t me.”
Everyone froze.
Dante looked at Victor.
“Who took her from the mansion?”
“Rosa’s people.”
“And tonight?”
“I intercepted them.”
Dante stared.
Victor lowered his weapon slightly.
“I’ve spent months trying to stop Rosa without letting her know.”
“By sabotaging my brakes?”
“That wasn’t me.”
“Rafael?”
“Rosa.”
“Voss?”
“Rosa.”
“Camila?”
“Manipulated.”
“Henrique?”
“Useful idiot.”
Henrique looked offended.
Victor shrugged.
“It fits.”
Dante moved one crutch forward.
“Why should I believe you?”
Victor looked toward a steel cabinet.
“Because I have Alejandro’s files.”
Dante’s heart changed rhythm.
Victor opened it.
Dozens of folders.
Photographs.
Bank statements.
Medical records.
One file marked DANTE.
Another ELENA.
Another MATEO.
Another SOFIA.
Dante felt rage rise.
Rosa had been documenting them all.
Victor pulled out a report.
Dante’s neurological testing.
Completed before his accident.
“How did she get that?”
“She’s been planning succession contingencies for years.”
Dante looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Alejandro intended to dissolve the family trust.”
Silence.
Dante stared.
Victor continued.
“Your father wanted the entire structure destroyed.”
“Why?”
“He realized the trust was the reason every generation kept killing the next.”
Dante thought of seventeen years of lies.
It sounded possible.
“Rosa stopped him.”
“Yes.”
“She started the lake house fire.”
“Yes.”
“And you shot him.”
Victor’s face changed.
“I did.”
Dante moved closer.
“Why?”
“Because he was going to kill me.”
“Convenient.”
Victor nodded.
“Probably.”
At least honest.
Dante looked at Sofia.
“Release her.”
Victor hesitated.
Then lowered the gun.
Isabela ran to her daughter.
Sofia wrapped her arms around her.
Dante watched.
Something inside him loosened.
Then Sofia looked over Isabela’s shoulder.
Her eyes widened.
“Grandma Rosa.”
Dante turned.
Rosa stood at the tunnel entrance.
Four armed men behind her.
She looked tired.
“Victor always talks too much.”
Gunfire erupted.
Bruno dragged Dante behind concrete.
Elena fired back.
Victor pushed Isabela and Sofia behind a steel column.
One of Rosa’s men fell.
Another bullet struck Victor.
He collapsed.
Rosa walked forward through smoke.
Dante aimed a pistol.
She aimed hers.
For the first time in his life, the woman who raised him looked like a stranger.
“You should have stayed in the wheelchair,” she said.
Dante stared at her.
“You should have stayed my aunt.”
May you like
Then the floor beneath them exploded.
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