Chương 6
"Did you go there?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"The night before the party."
"And?"
Anthony looked down.
"When I arrived, she was gone."
Marina studied him.
"Was Lena there?"
"No."
"Was Sofia there?"
His expression shifted.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Marina stepped closer.
"You know that name."
Anthony rubbed his forehead.
"I know what my father told me."
"Your father?"
"Before he died."
The room became still.
Marina had spent years thinking she knew Victor's final months better than anyone.
She had been there.
She had held his hand in the hospital.
She had listened to him apologize for things he never named.
She had watched him become weaker while still trying to control everyone around him.
"Why did you never tell me he mentioned her?"
Anthony swallowed.
"Because I thought it was a mistake."
"What was?"
"The way he talked about her."
Marina waited.
"He said some people survive because others need them to stay buried."
A memory surfaced.
Not a dramatic one.
A small one.
Victor sitting at the kitchen table at three in the morning, still wearing his suit after a meeting.
She had found him staring at a cup of coffee he had forgotten to drink.
When she asked what was wrong, he had smiled and told her nothing.
She remembered believing him because she wanted to.
That memory hurt more now.
"Who is Sofia?" Marina asked.
Anthony looked toward the security screen.
The image of the woman beside Lena remained frozen.
"I don't know exactly."
Marina's expression hardened.
"Then stop giving me pieces of answers."
"I am telling you what I know."
"Then tell me when you learned it."
Anthony looked at her.
"Six months ago."
The disappointment was immediate.
Not because it was another secret.
Because it was a recent one.
A choice.
"You had six months."
"I was trying to find out if it was real."
"And you decided I could not handle the truth?"
"No."
His voice became quieter.
"I decided I did not know how to tell you that the man you loved might have spent years lying to you."
The answer took the anger out of her for a second.
Not because it excused him.
Because it revealed the same wound she carried.
Anthony had not only hidden information.
He had been protecting the version of Victor that both of them needed to believe in.
Daniel's phone rang.
He answered quickly.
Then his face changed.
"What?"
Marina watched him listen.
"No, keep everyone inside."
A pause.
"Do not let anyone touch the vehicles."
He ended the call.
"What happened?"
"The east gate camera caught movement."
"Who?"
"Not who."
Daniel looked at Anthony.
"What."
He turned the monitor toward them.
A black SUV sat outside the property line.
Not moving.
Not leaving.
Just waiting.
Marina felt the pressure shift.
The problem was no longer hidden inside old stories.
Someone was outside her house in the present.
"How long has it been there?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Why didn't anyone notice?"
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"Because whoever parked it knew where our cameras did not reach."
Anthony stepped toward the screen.
"They are watching."
Marina looked at him.
"Waiting for what?"
He did not answer.
Then the SUV door opened.
A person stepped out.
The camera angle was too far away to show a face.
But the person carried something small in their hand.
A phone.
Daniel enlarged the image.
The quality became worse.
The shape became clearer.
A child-sized backpack hung from the person's shoulder.
Marina stopped breathing for a moment.
"Lena."
Anthony moved toward the door.
Marina grabbed his arm.
"No."
"That could be her."
"It could be a trap."
His eyes met hers.
For the first time that night, they were not arguing.
They were afraid of the same thing.
Daniel looked between them.
"Someone wants us to see this."
Marina released Anthony's arm.
She looked at the frozen image on the monitor.
A stranger outside.
A missing child.
A family built on unanswered questions.
"Open the gate."
Daniel stared at her.
"Marina."
"Open it."
Anthony shook his head.
"You don't know who is out there."
Marina looked at the screen.
"No."
Her voice stayed calm.
"But I know they want us to come outside."
The gate began moving.
And before it was halfway open, every light on the property shut off again.
The gate stopped moving halfway open.
The darkness returned so quickly that for a moment Marina wondered if the power failure had been planned to happen at exactly that moment.
Then she heard the sound of footsteps outside.
Not many.
Just one person walking across the gravel driveway.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Someone who did not believe they needed to hide.
Daniel moved toward the security entrance.
"Nobody goes outside."
Marina looked at him.
"That was not my order."
"It is mine for the next thirty seconds."
The words would have annoyed her under different circumstances.
Tonight, they almost comforted her.
Because Daniel was one of the few people left who still spoke to her as if she was a person instead of a title.
Anthony stood beside the monitor, staring at the figure outside.
"You should not have opened the gate."
Marina looked at him.
"You told me not to trust anyone."
"Yes."
"Then why are you surprised?"
His mouth opened slightly.
Then closed.
A small, almost invisible reaction.
Marina noticed.
Anthony was not angry because she ignored him.
He was angry because she made the same kind of decision he would have made.
Without permission.
Without waiting.
Without knowing the full cost.
Daniel watched the camera feed on his tablet.
The image flickered as the backup system struggled.
"One person."
"Any weapons?"
"Can't tell."
"Where is Lena?" Marina asked.
Daniel zoomed in again.
The backpack was gone.
Marina felt the disappointment before she could stop it.
Whoever was outside wanted them to believe something.
That did not mean it was true.
The front doors opened before anyone touched them.
May you like
A woman stepped inside.
She was in her late thirties, maybe early forties.
