Second chance

Chapter10

Chapter 10: The Deadline

Sofia's heart pounded violently against her ribs.

She pressed the phone to her ear, her thumb trembling as she hit play on the voice memo.

The line crackled with low static, followed by the smooth, terrifyingly calm voice of the man who owned her life.

"Good morning, Sofia," Victor's voice purred through the speaker, devoid of anger, devoid of heat - carrying only the flat, mechanical authority of a butcher inspecting cattle. "I see you opted for silence last night. A foolish choice. Silence is an answer, my dear. And in our arrangement, silence sounds remarkably like treason."

A brief pause echoed, filled only by the rhythmic, mechanical beep... beep... beep... of a hospital heart monitor playing in the background of Victor's recording.

Sofia's breath hitched. He was standing in her mother's room when he recorded it.

"Your mother had a slight drop in her oxygen saturation around two AM," Victor's voice continued smoothly. "The doctors were able to stabilize her, of course. For now. But medical equipment is so delicate, Sofia. Power grids flicker. Tubing slips. Mistakes happen when oversight is lacking."

A soft, cold laugh echoed.

"I am giving you until six o'clock this evening to bring me the full flight manifest, security detail roster, and meeting coordinates for Leonardo Castellano's trip to Singapore. If you fail to deliver them - or if you attempt to turn your phone off again - I will consider our contract terminated. And your mother's care will end immediately."

The line went dead with a sharp, final click.

Sofia stood frozen under the gray autumn sky, the phone slipping slightly in her sweaty palm.

The morning air cut through her ivory cardigan, chilling her to the bone, but the cold outside was nothing compared to the absolute, pitch-black winter that had just settled inside her soul.

She looked back up toward the majestic stone mansion hovering through the mist. Somewhere up on the second floor, in a warm, silk-draped room, Aria was waking up, smiling at a photograph, completely unaware that the girl she called her sister was standing in the garden, holding the match that was about to set her whole world on fire.

Sofia closed her eyes, letting a single, burning tear slip down her cheek.

She opened her palm, staring at the cold metal drive Liam had given her, before tightening her fingers around it until the edges bit painfully into her skin.

She went in as a spy. But as she turned and walked back toward the house to sell her soul, Sofia knew the truth:

The storm was already here.