Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO SAVED THE BABY BUT NOT HIS DAUGHTER
For the first time since Sofia appeared at the wedding, she completely broke down.
Not because her father was alive.
Not even because he had watched her from the shadows.
Because Emma had seen him.
Robert Bennett had been close enough to save his newborn granddaughter.
But he had not stopped Victoria before she abandoned her.
Sofia sank onto a storage box.
“He knew.”
Leo stood beside her.
“We don’t know everything yet.”
She looked at him.
“He knew Victoria had tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“He knew she had my baby.”
“Yes.”
“And he waited behind a hotel?”
Leo had nothing to say.
Emma began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Sofia immediately pulled her close.
“No, baby.”
“You did nothing wrong.”
“You saved your sister.”
Emma whispered:
“Grandpa looked scared.”
Sofia kissed her forehead.
“So were you.”
Detective Hale searched the rest of the unit.
In the final box, he found a laptop.
The battery was dead.
They brought it to the department’s cybercrime lab.
By evening, investigators recovered encrypted videos.
The first showed Robert speaking directly into the camera.
Date: three years earlier.
“If something happens to me, Victoria Cole is not who she says she is.”
Leo leaned closer.
Robert continued.
“She approached Leo deliberately.”
Victoria had claimed they met by chance at a charity gala.
Robert’s recording told another story.
“Her legal name at birth was Victoria Greene.”
Leo remembered Detective Hale’s discovery.
Samuel Greene.
The dentist who identified Robert’s supposed remains.
Robert continued.
“Samuel Greene is her maternal uncle.”
Sofia whispered:
“So the fake death and Victoria are connected.”
Hale nodded.
Another video loaded.
Robert looked older.
More exhausted.
“I believed Samuel helped whoever threatened our family stage my death.”
“Seven years later, his niece became engaged to my son.”
“I do not believe that is coincidence.”
Leo stared at the screen.
“Why didn’t Dad warn me?”
Another file answered.
Robert:
“I tried contacting Leo twice.”
“Both messages were intercepted.”
“Victoria has access to his accounts.”
Leo looked away.
Again.
Victoria had built a wall around him, and he had thanked her for making his life easier.
The next video was dated two months before Sofia’s crash.
Robert sat inside a vehicle.
“I confronted Victoria tonight.”
“She admitted she knows about Sofia’s pregnancy.”
Sofia froze.
Robert continued.
“She also knows the trust clause.”
“She told me if I interfere, Leo will pay for what I did nine years ago.”
Leo frowned.
“What Dad did?”
Hale leaned forward.
Robert’s face on-screen became ashamed.
“The burned body was not random.”
Rebecca covered her mouth.
“I knew him.”
The video stopped abruptly.
Leo turned.
“Knew who?”
Nobody answered because the file had corrupted.
Cybercrime technicians tried recovering the next section.
Nothing.
Sofia paced.
“So Dad faked his death using someone’s body.”
Hale remained cautious.
“That appears possible.”
“Someone he knew.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe killed?”
“We don’t know.”
Leo sat heavily.
“What if Victoria knew Dad murdered someone?”
Sofia looked at him.
“And used it to control him.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca began crying quietly.
“Robert would never kill someone.”
Sofia stared.
“You told a hospital your daughter was dead because a seventeen-year-old girl’s uncle helped fake your husband’s funeral.”
Rebecca flinched.
“We don’t know what anyone would do anymore.”
Hale’s phone rang.
He answered.
Then motioned for everyone to stay silent.
“Yes.”
“When?”
His expression hardened.
“Lock the floor down.”
He ended the call.
Sofia’s heart accelerated.
“What?”
“Victoria was transported to county medical after claiming severe abdominal pain.”
Leo frowned.
“She’s sick?”
“No.”
Hale looked toward the door.
“She escaped.”
The room became silent.
“How?”
“Someone wearing medical credentials entered her room.”
“Camera?”
“Disabled.”
Sofia’s face drained.
“She’s going after Emma.”
Hale immediately called hospital security.
The baby was still protected.
Emma was with them.
But Rebecca suddenly stood.
“My house.”
Leo looked at her.
“What?”
“There’s something there.”
“What?”
She grabbed her purse.
“A letter Robert gave me nine years ago.”
Sofia stared.
“You have another secret?”
“I never opened it.”
Leo almost shouted.
“Why not?”
“Robert told me to open it only if Victoria ever learned he was alive.”
Everyone froze.
Rebecca whispered:
“She knows.”
They drove to the Bennett estate under police escort.
The front gate was already open.
Rebecca stared.
“I locked it.”
Hale drew his weapon.
The front door stood slightly ajar.
Inside, nothing appeared disturbed.
Rebecca hurried toward Robert’s old study.
A floor safe hid beneath the desk.
She entered the combination.
The safe door opened.
Empty.
Rebecca stared.
“No.”
Leo moved beside her.
“The letter?”
“Gone.”
Sofia looked around.
On Robert’s desk sat a white envelope that had not been there before.
Across the front:
LEO AND SOFIA.
Hale opened it wearing gloves.
Inside was a single photograph.
It showed Robert Bennett standing beside Victoria.
Between them was another man.
Samuel Greene.
And beneath the photograph, someone had written:
ASK WHO WAS REALLY IN THE BURNING CAR.
Then a sound came from upstairs.
A floorboard.
Everyone looked toward the ceiling.
Hale raised his weapon.
“Police!”
Silence.
Then Emma whispered:
“Mom…”
Sofia looked at her.
Emma pointed toward the staircase.
A wet footprint marked the first step.
Then another.
And another.
May you like
Someone had entered the house from the rain.
Someone was still upstairs.
