Chapter 3 - “What do you want?”
Marco's laughter vanished.
“Hello, Sofia.
You look remarkably well for a dead girl.”
She said nothing.
“I've spent years looking for you.”
“You should have looked harder.”
“I did.”
A pause.
“Then I realized something.
You weren't hiding from me anymore.
You were waiting for me.”
Sophia's jaw tightened.
Marco continued.
“So here's my offer.
Bring me the drive, and I'll let my brother live.”
Nicolo shook his head.
Sophia watched him.
“And if I refuse?”
“Then the sixty-seven men currently surrounding St.
Agnes Church will receive their instructions.”
Father Gabriel went pale.
St.
Agnes was the parish where the priest had served for forty years.
It was also where several threatened witnesses and their families had been sheltered that week.
Marco knew.
Sophia closed her eyes.
“How many civilians?”
“Enough.”
“Children?”
Marco said nothing.
That silence answered her.
Nicolo stepped toward the phone.
“You want me?
Come get me.”
Marco laughed.
“Still the hero.”
Then his voice turned cold.
“You have forty minutes.
Bring the drive to the old Bandi warehouse.
Come alone, Sofia, or I'll make my brother watch the consequences.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Nicolo looked at Sophia.
“You're not going alone.”
“Yes, I am.”
“He'll kill you.”
“Probably.”
“Then why—”
“Because there are children in that church.”
Her voice broke on the last word.
And Nicolo suddenly understood.
This was not about revenge.
Not anymore.
She had spent thirteen years learning how to kill.
But everything she had done that afternoon had been about keeping people alive.
He looked at the wedding ring around her neck.
“Whose ring is that?”
Sophia's face changed.
Father Gabriel lowered his eyes.
“Nicolo,” she whispered, “there's something I haven't told you.”
He stared.
“Another secret?”
“Yes.”
May you like
She touched the ring.
“And this one will hurt.”
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