The Warning
The hidden archive seemed to hold its breath around them after Sofia read the note. Lucien did not reach for her or defend himself, which mattered because any immediate denial would have sounded rehearsed. Paolo watched them both and said Mateo had written the warning years before Lucien became involved with Sovereign, yet Sofia could see the doubt forming behind Lucien’s eyes. She folded the note carefully and told him that she was not accusing him, but she needed to know whether there was anything else he had never told her, especially anything connected to Mateo’s final months.
Lucien answered that there were things he had withheld, but none involved deliberately harming her family. He explained that Henri had once ordered him to stop investigating Mateo’s work after Lucie
