Chapter 2 - Whispers in Room Seven and the Traitor in the Shadows
I backed away from the peeling wooden door until my calves hit the edge of the cheap mattress. The metallic taste of raw panic flooded my mouth. My fingers instinctively curled over my flat stomach, shielding the miracle that had become my death sentence.
“Evelyn, you have ten seconds before I kick this door off its hinges,” Sofia’s voice came again, low, flat, and chillingly controlled. “And you don’t want that. Every sound brings the wrong eyes closer.”
“I’m not coming back!” I choked out, trying to keep my voice from wavering. “Tell Roman I’ll disappear. I won’t take a dime of his empire! Just let me go!”
“Roman isn't the one who sent me to kill you, Evelyn,” she replied through the thin wood. “Now open the damn door before Julian Bennett’s cleanup crew tracks the transponder under your rental car.”
The mention of Julian Bennett made my chest seize. Bennett was Roman’s fiercest rival—a ruthless cartel leader who had smiled at me in our ballroom mere hours ago.
With trembling hands, I unlocked the chain and twisted the deadbolt. The door swung inward, and Sofia slipped inside like a phantom. She wore an unbranded black trench coat, her dark hair pulled back into a severe braid, her hand resting casually on the suppressed Glock holstered at her hip.
She took one look at my pale face, locked the door behind her, and shut the blinds completely.
“Sit down,” she commanded quietly.
“Did Roman find out?” I whispered, tears blurring my vision. “Did he find the clinic records?”
“Roman found your note on his pillow,” Sofia said, pulling a sweeping device from her pocket and scanning the room. “He tore the study apart with his bare hands. He put the entire Eastern seaboard on red alert. But he doesn't know about the child. I found out three weeks ago when the private lab results were intercepted by Bennett’s mole in our medical detail.”
The room spun. “Someone in our house works for Bennett?”
“Bennett knows Roman loves you more than his own life,” Sofia stated coldly, eyes scanning the dark parking lot outside through a slit in the curtain. “A pregnant Evelyn is the ultimate leverage. Bennett didn't want Roman to know because Roman would have locked down the state of New York and started a bloodbath. Bennett wanted to snatch you on the road, take the baby, and put Roman on his knees.”
I sank onto the mattress, my hands shaking violently. “Then why are you here? If you work for Roman, why haven't you dragged me back?”
Sofia turned, her hard eyes softening just an inch. “Because Roman told me three years ago that if anything ever happened to him or the syndicate, my singular priority was to keep you alive—even if it meant protecting you from him. If I take you back tonight, Bennett hits the estate with everything he has, and you become a target in a war zone. Roman is currently drawing their fire in Manhattan, thinking you ran to your cousin in Boston.”
“He thinks I’m in Boston?”
“I leaked false breadcrumbs to buy you twenty-four hours,” Sofia said, tossing a set of clean vehicle keys and an unblemished leather wallet onto the bedside table. “Inside is a new identity: Clara Thomas. There’s thirty thousand in cash, clean registration, and a deed to a secluded cottage in Rockport, Maine. You leave right now. You don't use a phone. You don't access your accounts. And under no circumstances do you contact Roman.”
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“Sofia... why are you doing this?”
Sofia looked toward the rain-lashed window, a dark shadow crossing her features. “Because Roman is a king who rules through fear, but he would burn the whole world down to keep you breathing. If you love that child, you will vanish so deeply into the fog that even the devil himself cannot find you.”
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