Chapter 9 - THE WIDOW WHO REFUSED TO SIGN
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“Dario wants me to come alone.”
Those were the first words I said when I found Detective Reyes.
She was standing beside her patrol car, speaking into her radio.
Luca arrived moments later.
His face was pale with fury.
“Where is Sofia?”
I held up my phone.
“Dario has her.”
Luca stopped walking.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he reached for his jacket.
“I'm going.”
Reyes stepped in front of him.
“No.”
“That's my sister-in-law.”
“And running into an armed hostage situation will make it worse.”
Luca's expression darkened.
“You don't understand what he'll do to her.”
“I understand exactly what he's capable of,” Reyes answered.
“Which is why we're not giving him another victim.”
I looked at the address Dario had given me.
It was an abandoned loading facility near the Calumet River.
I knew the place.
Years earlier, I'd helped organize a holiday meal for the freight workers who used that building.
I remembered the narrow hallways.
The red brick walls.
And the loading platform that opened toward the water.
“There are two entrances,” I whispered.
Everyone turned.
“There's a delivery passage behind the building.”
Reyes looked at me.
“How do you know?”
“I've been there.”
She immediately called the information to the tactical officers.
Within minutes, a plan was forming.
I wasn't allowed anywhere near the building during the rescue.
Neither was Luca.
He argued.
I didn't.
Because the last thing Sofia needed was another person she loved walking into Dario's hands.
At the warehouse, Sofia was fighting a different battle.
I learned what happened afterward, when she was finally safe enough to tell us.
Graham had tied her wrists with plastic restraints and forced her into a metal chair.
Dario stood across from her with a folder of documents.
He wasn't smiling anymore.
The charming man who'd toasted Luca at the wedding had disappeared.
“Sign,” he ordered.
Sofia looked at the papers.
They were the same agreements Evelyn had challenged.
Only now the signature pages were blank.
“You forged my name once,” she said.
“Why do you need me?”
“Because your attorney made the first signature useless.”
“Then I'm grateful she did.”
Dario slammed his hand onto the table.
“Don't test me.”
Sofia looked at him.
“Matteo trusted you.”
Dario's expression flickered.
“Your husband was sentimental.”
“He loved you like a brother.”
“He should've remembered who controlled the business.”
Sofia's eyes filled with tears.
“Did you watch him die?”
Dario said nothing.
“Did you know what would happen when he tried to stop?”
He turned away.
“Sign the documents.”
“No.”
He walked back toward her.
“Sofia.”
“My name is Sofia Rivera.”
He stared at her.
“You were married to a Moretti.”
“And loving Matteo never meant surrendering myself to you.”
Dario grabbed the back of her chair.
“You think you're brave because you can say no?”
Sofia lifted her chin.
“No.”
Her voice trembled.
“I think I'm brave because I'm terrified, and I'm saying it anyway.”
For several seconds, Dario seemed uncertain what to do.
Then his phone rang.
It was one of his men.
Police vehicles had been spotted near the river.
Dario turned toward Graham.
“You said she would come alone.”
Graham looked frightened.
“She was supposed to.”
Dario swore.
He grabbed Sofia by the arm and dragged her toward a rear door.
But Sofia had noticed something.
A loose piece of metal protruded from the chair's underside.
While Dario argued with Graham, she'd scraped her plastic restraint against it.
The material had begun to weaken.
As they reached the doorway, she pulled with all her strength.
One wrist came free.
She slammed her elbow backward into Dario's chest.
He stumbled.
She ran.
“STOP HER!”
A gunshot exploded behind her.
The bullet struck the concrete wall.
Sofia screamed and ducked behind a stack of pallets.
Outside, police officers moved into position.
A loudspeaker ordered everyone to drop their weapons.
Graham tried to run toward the loading platform.
He collided with officers entering through the service passage.
Within seconds, he was on the floor in handcuffs.
Dario disappeared through another exit.
But Sofia was still inside.
I sat in the police command vehicle, staring at the live updates on a screen.
Luca stood beside me.
His hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
Then a voice came through the radio.
“We have the hostage.”
I stopped breathing.
“Female, conscious, no apparent gunshot injury.”
Luca closed his eyes.
I began crying.
Minutes later, Sofia emerged from the building wrapped in a police blanket.
She saw Luca.
And she ran into his arms.
He held her so tightly that I thought neither of them would ever let go.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered.
Sofia shook her head.
“Don't apologize for what Dario did.”
I approached slowly.
She reached for me.
“Claire.”
I hugged her.
She was shaking.
But she was alive.
“I didn't sign,” she whispered.
I laughed through my tears.
“Good.”
She looked toward Luca.
“There's something you need to know.”
He stepped closer.
“What?”
“Dario said he never planned for only Matteo to die.”
Luca froze.
Sofia swallowed.
“He said the car was supposed to carry both brothers that morning.”
The color drained from Luca's face.
“Both?”
Sofia nodded.
“Matteo wasn't his only target.”
May you like
She began trembling again.
“Luca, Dario intended to kill you too.”
