Chapter 4 - Sophia’s Real Reason
Sophia disappeared before noon.
Her apartment was empty.
Her phone had been destroyed.
Her credit cards stopped moving.
But Vincent knew something she didn’t.
Running from Chicago required trusting someone.
And Sophia had spent years building relationships out of money, manipulation, and favors.
People like that always believed loyalty could be purchased.
They were usually wrong.
By evening, Marco found the driver who had taken Sophia to a private airfield.
“She tried to charter a jet to Montreal,” Marco explained.
“Tried?”
“Her passport triggered an alert.”
Vincent looked at him.
“What alert?”
“Anna’s investigator contacted federal authorities after speaking with the mechanic.”
Vincent almost smiled.
Anna had changed.
The woman he remembered had been gentle, trusting, uncomfortable around confrontation.
The woman who returned from the dead had learned to strike before anyone could corner her.
Vincent respected that.
Even when the target was partly him.
Meanwhile, Anna sat in Daniel’s study listening to a recorded statement from the mechanic.
His name was Russell Pike.
His voice shook through the speakers.
“A woman came to me two days before the flight. Sophia Carter. She said she only wanted a delay. Said nobody would get hurt.”
Anna’s stomach turned.
“She asked me to damage a pressure sensor and loosen a connector near the fuel control assembly.”
The investigator asked, “Why?”
“She said the plane would make an emergency landing and ruin somebody’s vacation.”
Anna paused the recording.
Daniel looked at her.
“You okay?”
“No.”
She pressed play again.
Russell continued.
“After the explosion, she paid me another fifty grand to disappear.”
Anna stopped the recording.
“There were two payments?”
Daniel nodded.
“The first came from Sophia’s personal account. The second was routed through a Moretti holding company.”
Anna looked at him.
“Vincent’s company?”
“Yes.”
That explained why the original investigation had gone sideways.
Someone had used Vincent’s own money to hide the crime.
Anna stood.
“I want to confront her.”
“No.”
She turned.
Daniel rarely used that tone.
“She tried to kill you once,” he said. “You don’t walk into a room with her alone.”
“I’m not afraid of her.”
“That isn’t the point.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“He’s right.”
Vincent.
Daniel immediately stiffened.
Anna frowned.
“How did you get in?”
“Your security guard called you twice.”
She checked her phone.
Two missed calls.
Vincent remained near the door.
“I’m not here to control anything.”
“That would be new.”
He accepted the insult.
“I found something.”
He handed Anna a folder.
Inside were photographs.
Sophia entering a fertility clinic.
Medical invoices.
Emails.
Anna looked confused.
“What is this?”
“Six months before our vacation, Sophia tried to restart a relationship with me.”
Anna’s eyes lifted.
“You never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I rejected her and thought that ended it.”
Daniel scoffed.
Vincent ignored him.
“She apparently didn’t.”
Anna continued reading.
Then she found a printout of a message.
Sophia had written it to a friend.
**He chose the wrong woman. He’ll understand eventually.**
Anna felt cold.
Another message appeared three weeks before the crash.
**If Anna weren’t pregnant, Vincent would remember who actually belongs beside him.**
Anna lowered the papers.
“So she wanted me gone.”
Vincent nodded.
“But there’s something worse.”
He placed one final document in front of her.
A transfer authorization.
Seven million dollars.
Executed after Anna’s supposed death.
Beneficiary: Carter Strategic Holdings.
Anna stared at the signature.
Vincent Moretti.
Forgery.
Vincent’s voice shook with rage.
“She didn’t just try to kill you.”
He looked at Anna.
“She planned to use my grief to steal enough money to disappear if I ever discovered the truth.”
Anna whispered, “She knew you’d save her first.”
Vincent’s eyes closed.
And there it was.
The cruelest part.
Sophia hadn’t merely sabotaged the plane.
She had understood Vincent well enough to manipulate his instincts.
Anna looked at him.
“You gave her the opportunity.”
“I know.”
“You kept choosing to protect her feelings.”
“I know.”
“And she used that against all of us.”
Vincent opened his eyes.
“Yes.”
Anna expected excuses.
None came.
Instead he said the words she had waited three years to hear.
May you like
“I failed you before Sophia ever touched that aircraft.”
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