Chapter 3 - The Lawyer's Secret“Leonardo,” Sofia whispered.
He turned.
The lawyer lifted the weapon.
“Move away from the bride.”
Detective Ramirez immediately drew his firearm.
“Drop it!”
The lawyer smiled.
“You don't understand what you're dealing with.”
Sofia did.
She had seen that smile before.
It belonged to men who believed money could erase consequences.
“His name is Victor Kane,” she said.
The lawyer's smile disappeared.
“You know me?”
“I know your signature.”
Leonardo looked between them.
“What signature?”
Sofia pointed toward the mansion.
“The one authorizing every transfer from your father's private account.”
Victor's expression changed.
“You should have stayed dead.”
Leonardo froze.
“What did you say?”
Sofia stepped closer.
“You heard him.”
Victor fired.
The bullet shattered a stone column.
Everyone dropped.
Detective Ramirez returned fire.
Victor ran.
Leonardo grabbed Sofia and pulled her behind a marble planter.
“You knew he was going to shoot?”
“No.”
“You knew he was dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you would have confronted him.”
“I just did!”
“And you're alive because I expected him to run.”
They heard footsteps inside the mansion.
Victor was escaping through the west corridor.
Detectives rushed after him.
Sofia stood.
Leonardo caught her wrist.
“You're bleeding.”
“I'll survive.”
“You can't keep doing this alone.”
She looked at him.
“You're not the man I married anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you're finally seeing the world your family built.”
A siren screamed outside.
Then another.
The mansion filled with officers.
Helena was arrested before midnight.
But when Detective Ramirez searched her private office, he found something worse than financial records.
A photograph.
It showed Leonardo's father standing beside Sofia's father.
Both men were alive.
The date printed beneath the photograph was three years after Leonardo's father was supposedly dead.
Ramirez placed it on the table.
Leonardo stared at it.
“My father was alive.”
“Yes,” Sofia said.
“For three years.”
“And someone wanted everyone to believe he wasn't.”
Leonardo looked at Helena through the glass of the police vehicle.
His mother lowered her head.
Then she smiled.
That frightened Sofia more than anything else.
Because Helena wasn't looking at her.
May you like
She was looking at Leonardo.
As if she knew something Sofia didn't.
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