Chương 6
“I already am.”
His voice changed.
He had received the same fear I had.
“Someone is inside.”
I moved toward Sofia’s room.
Not running.
Running created panic.
Panic created mistakes.
But every instinct inside me was screaming.
When I reached the door, Elena was standing outside.
She saw my face.
“What happened?”
I showed her the message.
Her expression hardened.
“She was photographed here?”
“Yes.”
“Then they have access.”
I opened the door.
Sofia was still asleep.
Isabella was awake.
She looked at my face and immediately knew something had changed.
“What did they do?”
I walked closer.
“They found you.”
Her eyes closed.
“I knew they would.”
“No.”
I placed the phone on the table.
“They found Sofia.”
The fear that crossed her face was different from everything before.
Not fear for herself.
Fear for her daughter.
She tried to sit up.
“No.”
Elena pushed her back gently.
“Stay down.”
“They will come for her.”
I looked at Sofia sleeping in the chair.
Small.
Exhausted.
Unaware of how many adults had failed to protect the world around her.
“I won’t let that happen.”
Isabella looked at me.
“You don’t know what you’re fighting.”
“No.”
I picked up the phone.
“But I know what I’m protecting.”
For the first time since I met her, Isabella looked at me without fear.
Only sadness.
“Your father said the same thing.”
I froze.
“What?”
She looked at the floor.
“The last time I saw him.”
The room became silent.
“You saw my father?”
Isabella nodded slowly.
“He came to my house the night before he died.”
I stepped closer.
“Why?”
Her voice dropped.
“Because he knew someone close to him had betrayed him.”
The words landed like a physical blow.
“Who?”
She looked at me.
“I never found out.”
A pause.
Then:
“But he was looking at your security records.”
My eyes moved toward the hallway.
Toward Victor.
The man who had protected me for years.
The man who had hidden the truth.
The man who had a missing brother connected to the people who killed my father.
And for the first time in my life, I wondered if the person standing closest to me was the reason I had never seen the enemy coming.
I moved toward the door.
Not quickly.
Not because I was calm.
Because I knew panic was exactly what someone wanted from me.
Fear made people predictable.
I had spent years studying that in others.
Now I had to remember it in myself.
Victor was still in the hallway when I stepped out.
He looked at my face and immediately understood.
“What happened?”
I held up the phone.
He read the message.
His expression changed.
Not shock.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
That was enough.
“You know something.”
Victor looked away.
“Ramon.”
“No.”
My voice was quieter than I expected.
“That reaction tells me you know something.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“I know the way they operate.”
“Because of your brother?”
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
The hallway noise seemed to disappear.
People walked around us.
Doctors pushed carts.
Families waited in chairs.
Nobody knew that the conversation happening beside them involved a threat against a child.
Victor lowered his voice.
“Daniel told me once that the Gray Circle never attacked people directly when they could avoid it.”
“What does that mean?”
“They attacked what people cared about.”
I looked back at the room.
At Sofia.
At Isabella.
At everything that had changed in less than a day.
“You think they’re going after me through her.”
“I think they already started.”
I stared at him.
“Are you involved?”
The question hurt him.
I saw that.
But he did not become defensive.
That mattered.
“I knew you would ask eventually.”
“Answer.”
“No.”
The word came immediately.
Too immediately, maybe.
Then he continued.
“I have hidden things from you.”
“Yes.”
“I have made decisions for you.”
“Yes.”
“But I have never worked against you.”
I wanted to believe him.
That was the dangerous part.
Trust was not built from proof alone.
Sometimes it was built from history.
And history could be used against you.
A nurse walked past us and smiled politely.
Neither of us smiled back.
Victor looked at the floor.
“My brother gave me something before he disappeared.”
“What?”
“A name.”
My eyes narrowed.
“You said you didn’t know who was leading them.”
“I don’t.”
“Then what name?”
Victor looked at me.
“The person who connected them to my brother.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
He paused.
“But it might be the person who connects them to your father.”
I waited.
Victor took out his phone.
He opened a locked file.
“I kept this because I didn’t know who to trust.”
I almost said something.
Then stopped.
Because I understood the irony.
For years, he had been protecting information from me because he did not trust the world.
Now I was standing there doing the same thing.
He turned the screen toward me.
A photograph appeared.
A man standing outside an old office building.
Older.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
Nothing about him looked dangerous.
That was usually how dangerous people looked.
“Who is he?”
“Arthur Vale.”
The name meant nothing.
But Victor’s face told me it should.
“What does he do?”
“Depends who you ask.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“He owns investment companies.”
“Legitimate?”
“Some are.”
I looked at the photograph again.
“And the others?”
Victor locked the phone.
“Those are the ones nobody talks about.”
I hated vague answers.
But I hated how often vague answers turned out to be the closest thing to the truth.
A sound came from behind us.
The hospital room door opening.
Elena stepped out.
“Ramon.”
I turned.
Her face was serious.
“She wants to speak to you.”
“Isabella?”
Elena nodded.
“She’s afraid.”
“That’s not new.”
“No.”
Elena looked at Victor.
“She’s afraid of something specific.”
That changed things.
I entered the room alone.
Isabella was awake.
Sofia slept in the corner, wrapped in a hospital blanket.
May you like
The sight of her made Isabella’s expression soften.
“She finally slept.”
