Chapter 13 - The Sixty-Second BetrayalThe bomb was not designed to kill Sophia. It was designed to erase the last witnesses.
The timer read 00:47.
Enzo moved first.
"Everybody down."
He shoved Sophia away from the box.
Matteo dragged their mother behind a stone wall.
Edward ran.
Enzo fired.
The bullet hit the door.
Locked.
00:39.
Sophia stared at the box.
"Wait."
Enzo looked at her.
"What?"
"The timer."
"What about it?"
"It's wrong."
He frowned.
Sophia crouched beside the device.
Three wires.
Two power cells.
A digital display.
"There's no detonator."
"What?"
She pointed.
"This isn't a bomb."
Matteo leaned closer.
"It's a transmitter."
Sophia nodded.
"He's using it to destroy something."
Enzo understood.
"The archive."
Sophia's eyes widened.
"The second court."
The device was connected to the hidden network beneath the courthouse.
Edward intended to destroy every file at once.
But why leave them in the room?
Sophia touched the casing.
Her father's symbols were engraved along the edge.
"This isn't Edward's."
"What?"
"My father built this."
Enzo stared.
"Then the timer..."
"Is a lock."
Sophia pressed the notes she had memorized.
One.
Three.
Two.
Five.
The timer stopped.
The box opened.
Inside was a single black drive.
No paper.
No files.
Just one word.
TRUTH.
Sophia picked it up.
Edward's voice echoed through the house.
"You really are your father's daughter."
She looked around.
"Where are you?"
"Watching."
Enzo scanned the balconies.
Nothing.
Edward continued.
"You have five minutes before every public server connected to this house receives the contents of that drive."
Sophia frowned.
"Then why threaten us?"
"Because I wanted you to open it."
She looked at the drive.
"What's inside?"
"Your father's final confession."
"About what?"
"Me."
The house shook.
A window exploded.
Men stormed the lower floor.
Gunfire erupted.
Enzo fired back.
Rocco's voice suddenly came through an earpiece.
"Boss, we're in."
Enzo looked surprised.
"I told you to stay outside."
"You did."
Rocco smiled over the comm.
"I didn't listen."
Sophia almost laughed.
Then her mother pulled her aside.
"There's something you need to know."
"What?"
Her mother reached into her dress.
She removed a small pendant.
Inside was a photograph.
Sophia.
As a baby.
Held by a man.
Julian Moretti.
Behind them stood Marcus.
And another man.
Sophia stared.
"Who is that?"
Her mother whispered:
"Your real family."
The fourth man was Enzo's father.
Sophia's eyes widened.
"They knew each other."
"Yes."
"Before the war."
"Before the lies."
Her mother squeezed her hand.
"They made a pact."
"What pact?"
"That if any of their children survived, they would be protected together."
Sophia looked toward Enzo.
He was fighting through the corridor.
Her entire life had been part of a promise she never knew existed.
Then she noticed the photograph's date.
The date was one year after Julian Moretti's supposed death.
Sophia stared.
Her mother saw it.
"I know."
"So he survived."
"For a while."
"How long?"
"Two years."
"Who killed him?"
Her mother looked toward the staircase.
"Daniel Vale."
The name changed the room.
Sophia stood.
"Then Daniel is still alive."
"Yes."
Enzo heard.
He turned.
"Where?"
Her mother answered:
"Below us."
A trapdoor opened beneath the dining table.
Dark stairs descended.
Sophia looked at Enzo.
"How does my father connect to this?"
He handed her the black drive.
"Let's find out."
They descended.
At the bottom was a server room.
Screens covered the walls.
Every screen showed the same image.
Daniel Vale.
Older.
Alive.
He sat in a chair.
He smiled directly at them.
"Hello, Sophia."
Enzo raised his gun.
Daniel laughed.
"Don't waste the bullet."
"Where are you?"
"Closer than you think."
A second screen activated.
A live camera.
Daniel was sitting in a private hospital room.
Beside him was an elderly man.
Sophia looked at the man's face.
She knew him from old photographs.
Her father.
Marcus Castellan.
Alive.
Sophia's knees nearly gave way.
"No."
Daniel smiled.
"Your father survived the fire too."
Enzo stared.
Sophia whispered:
"Where is he?"
Daniel leaned toward the camera.
"Right beneath the courthouse."
Then every screen went black.
May you like
A final message appeared.
YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO SAVE HIM.
