Chapter 6 - Someone used Sophia
Every maternal instinct inside me exploded.
“Who gave Sophia the materials?”
Her teacher had organized the craft.
We called the school.
The teacher remembered something.
A package of decorative supplies had arrived that afternoon marked as a donation from:
Sterling Children's Foundation.
Our foundation had sent nothing.
Sophia simply chose the prettiest glitter hearts.
Someone had gambled that she'd use one.
But how could they know she'd bring the necklace to Dominic?
Because the gala was supposed to be a surprise.
Only one person knew.
Me.
And Sophia.
Or so I thought.
Then my phone produced the answer.
Three days earlier I'd texted Dominic:
Sophia has something special planned Friday. Don't make evening plans.
I never mentioned the gala.
But someone monitoring Dominic's phone could infer enough.
Victor isolated the card.
It contained one encrypted file.
S7_FINAL.
Password protected.
And a seven-second audio recording.
My father's voice.
“Vivienne, if you're hearing this, one of your brothers has betrayed you.”
Nobody moved.
Alexander.
Nathaniel.
Victor.
Three brothers who had protected me my entire life.
One supposedly betrayed me.
Victor immediately ordered an independent security lockdown.
Alexander became furious.
Nathaniel said nothing.
I refused to accuse anyone.
That was exactly what whoever created this wanted.
Then Dominic approached me.
“There's something else.”
He admitted Chloe had asked unusual questions for months.
Which brother controlled which companies?
Who could move assets fastest?
Who would Vivienne call in an emergency?
“And you answered?”
“I didn't know it mattered.”
Of course he didn't.
Dominic's selfishness had made him useful to someone far smarter.
Then S7 unlocked itself.
No password.
It had been waiting for biometric proximity.
Mine.
Files populated the screen.
Transactions.
Recordings.
Photographs.
And one folder:
SOPHIA.
I opened it.
Hundreds of photographs of my daughter.
School.
Playground.
Home.
Birthdays.
My hands started shaking.
Then Victor opened the final image.
Sophia asleep inside her bedroom.
Taken from inside our house.
May you like
Timestamp:
Last night.
