Chapter 8 - The Price of a Daughter
The exchange was scheduled for midnight at an abandoned medical clinic on the southern edge of the city.
Damian knew the building.
His father had purchased it twenty years earlier to treat injured members of the organization without asking uncomfortable questions. It had closed after a suspicious fire destroyed part of the records room.
Victor had a talent for returning to places where evidence could disappear.
Damian arrived an hour early.
He brought the ledger in a black briefcase and wore no visible weapon. Rosa sat beside him in the rear of a plain sedan, wearing a dark coat and holding the silver crescent pendant beneath her collar.
Bruno lay at her feet.
Mateo followed in a separate vehicle with two trusted men. Their instructions were simple: remain out of sight, identify every exit, and do not move until Damian gave the signal.
“Once we find Sophia, you leave,” Damian told Rosa.
She looked straight ahead.
“No.”
“Rosa.”
“You don't get to tell me how to be her mother.”
He turned toward her.
“I am trying to keep you alive.”
“And I am trying to do the same for you.”
Their eyes met.
For the first time, Damian understood why Elena had trusted Rosa with the baby. The maid was frightened, exhausted, and desperate, but she possessed a courage he had rarely seen among the men who claimed to be loyal to him.
He reached into his jacket and handed her a small pistol.
Rosa stared at it.
“Do you know how to use one?”
“No.”
“Then don't touch the trigger unless you have to. Keep your finger outside the guard, point it away from yourself, and never assume someone is dead because they have fallen.”
She took the weapon.
“Are you always this comforting?”
“Only when I'm trying not to panic.”
A tiny, unexpected smile crossed her face.
It vanished when the clinic doors opened.
A man stepped into the moonlight.
Victor.
He wore a black suit, the serpent ring glinting beneath the security lamps.
“You came,” he said.
Damian stepped out of the car.
“You have something that belongs to me.”
Victor’s smile sharpened.
“Which possession do you mean? The ledger? The company? Your daughter?”
Damian's hand tightened around the briefcase.
“Bring Sophia outside.”
“In a moment.”
“No. Now.”
Victor tilted his head.
“You're still giving orders as though the world belongs to you.”
“It belongs to neither of us. But you have mistaken my patience for weakness for the last time.”
Victor laughed.
Then a woman appeared behind him, holding Sophia by the shoulders.
The child looked exhausted, but the moment she saw Rosa, she began to cry.
“Mama!”
Rosa stepped forward.
Victor raised a hand, and the woman pulled Sophia back.
“One step closer, and she loses a finger.”
Rosa stopped.
Her whole body shook, but she obeyed.
Damian lifted the briefcase.
“The ledger. Your daughter. We exchange them. No one else gets hurt.”
Victor's expression changed.
“Your daughter?”
He laughed softly.
“You've spent six years believing that child was dead. Now you discover she's alive, and suddenly you want to play father?”
Damian said nothing.
Victor walked down the steps.
“You have no idea what she represents.”
“She is a child.”
“She is the key to the trust. The trust your father left under the terms that Elena's firstborn would inherit controlling shares when she turned eighteen.”
Damian’s gaze narrowed.
“You told me the trust was dissolved.”
“Because you would have destroyed everything to protect them.”
“Everything you mean to steal.”
Victor shrugged.
“Money is only one part of it.”
He gestured toward Sophia.
“Elena knew about the other accounts. The original records were hidden in this building before the fire. She moved them somewhere only she could access. When the child disappeared, I lost my leverage.”
Damian looked at the woman beside Sophia.
“Isabel?”
Rosa went rigid.
Her sister had been missing for six years. The woman standing beneath the clinic lights had the same dark eyes, the same shape of face, and the same small scar above her eyebrow.
But she did not look at Rosa.
Instead, she tightened her hold on Sophia.
Victor smiled.
“Yes. Your beloved maid's sister has been very helpful.”
“Isabel,” Rosa whispered. “Please.”
Isabel's lips trembled.
For a moment, Rosa saw the frightened girl she remembered from childhood.
Then Isabel looked away again.
Damian held out the briefcase.
“Take the ledger. Release the child.”
Victor examined it without approaching.
“How do I know it's genuine?”
“Open it.”
Victor nodded to one of his men.
The man approached, collected the briefcase, and carried it inside.
Several seconds passed.
Then a shout rang out from the clinic.
“The pages are missing!”
Victor’s face changed.
He looked at Damian.
“You think you're clever.”
“I think you're predictable.”
Victor drew his pistol.
At the same moment, the clinic lights went dark.
Bruno exploded into motion.
The dog raced toward the woman holding Sophia, who screamed and released the child. Rosa sprinted forward, but a gunshot cracked across the courtyard.
Damian staggered.
Blood spread across his shirt.
“Damian!” Rosa cried.
Victor turned toward his brother, shock flashing across his face.
Then he looked past him.
A figure stood in the clinic doorway, holding a smoking pistol.
Not a guard.
Not a hired assassin.
A woman with long dark hair and a pale, scarred face.
She looked directly at Damian.
May you like
And though six years had passed, he recognized her before she spoke.
“Hello, husband.”
