Chapter 11 - The Woman Who Finally Told the TruthThe attack lasted less than two minutes.
When it ended, the house looked like a storm had torn through it.
Glass covered the floor.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Sophia was unharmed.
My team moved her to a secure vehicle.
I stayed behind.
Because Sarah had left me one message.
Written in blood on the kitchen wall.
TRUST ME ONCE.
I found her twenty minutes later.
She was inside an abandoned church three miles away.
Lucas was there.
Alive.
Sarah was sitting on the floor.
She looked nothing like the woman who had laughed while pouring ice water over my daughter.
She looked exhausted.
Terrified.
Broken.
I pointed at her.
"Tell me everything."
She began crying.
"I never wanted this."
"You watched Sophia."
"Yes."
"You let them monitor my family."
"Yes."
"You lied to me."
"Yes."
I stepped closer.
"Why?"
She stared at Lucas.
"Because they threatened him."
I said nothing.
"They had videos."
"Of what?"
"Things I did."
My eyes narrowed.
"Criminal?"
She nodded.
"Fraud. Money laundering. Things I agreed to because I owed money."
"So they owned you."
"Yes."
"What did they want?"
"You."
I laughed bitterly.
"Everyone wants me."
"They wanted the colonel."
She continued.
"They knew your real identity."
I went still.
"They knew everything."
Sarah looked at me.
"They even knew you were paying our bills."
I frowned.
"Why would they care?"
"Because they believed you were hiding assets."
"They searched for money?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"They searched for the ledger."
Then she said something that made me stop breathing.
"Your daughter saw it."
"What?"
"She's seen the journal."
"No."
Sarah nodded.
"Sophia found it months ago."
I looked toward my daughter.
"She can't read."
"Not everything."
Sarah swallowed.
"But she remembers pictures."
I suddenly remembered Sophia's strange behavior.
Her drawings.
Black boxes.
Men without faces.
The same symbol appearing in the corners.
I had thought they were children's drawings.
They weren't.
Sarah continued.
"She saw the symbol."
"Which symbol?"
Sarah pointed to the table.
I pulled out my wife's journal.
The symbol was a black circle crossed by a diagonal line.
Sarah whispered:
"That."
I stared.
I knew that symbol.
It belonged to an intelligence unit that officially didn't exist.
A unit called Echo.
And Echo had been dissolved twelve years ago.
Except someone had restarted it.
Without my knowledge.
Sarah suddenly grabbed my arm.
"Michael."
"What?"
"They're not after the journal."
"Then what?"
"They want Sophia because she remembers the name."
"What name?"
Sarah's eyes filled with tears.
"Her mother's killer."
I froze.
May you like
Sarah whispered the final words.
"Your daughter saw him."
