Chapter 5: The Letter Sofia Left Behind
No one spoke.
The words on the page seemed to drain every trace of warmth from the room.
Do not trust the explosion report. The body they buried was not mine.
Leo read the sentence again.
Then a third time.
His fingers tightened around the letter until the paper crumpled beneath his grip.
Mateo slowly stepped closer.
"What does the rest say?"
Leo drew a long breath before continuing.
His voice was low.
Almost unrecognizable.
Leo, if this letter reaches you, someone has already decided that I should disappear. I don't know whether I will survive, but I know one thing with certainty—everything you have been told will be carefully arranged to look believable.
Beatrice closed her eyes.
She had never broken the seal.
She had honored Sofia's final request for two long years.
Now every word felt heavier than the last.
Leo continued reading.
Do not blame yourself. You trusted the people around us because I trusted them first. That was my mistake, not yours.
Lily quietly walked across the room.
She slipped her small hand into Leo's.
"Daddy?"
He looked down.
The child had never seen him cry.
Until now.
A single tear landed on Sofia's letter.
Leo quickly wiped it away.
"I'm okay."
Lily shook her head.
"No."
"You miss Mommy."
The room fell silent again.
Beatrice gently guided Lily toward the hallway.
"Let's give your father a few minutes."
But Leo stopped her.
"No."
He folded the letter carefully.
"If Sofia wanted Lily protected..."
"...then Lily deserves to hear the truth when the time is right."
Mateo looked toward the door.
"The police are still downstairs."
"They're asking whether Victoria should be transferred immediately."
Leo answered without hesitation.
"Yes."
"And nobody speaks to her without my attorney present."
Mateo nodded.
Before leaving, he glanced once more at the letter.
"If Sofia believed someone staged the explosion..."
"...we need to reopen everything."
Leo looked at him.
"We start today."
Downstairs...
Victoria sat inside the back of the police vehicle.
Rain streamed across the windows.
She appeared calm again.
Too calm.
The detective assigned to her case noticed it immediately.
"You're unusually confident."
Victoria smiled.
"You think this ends with an old recording?"
The detective didn't answer.
She leaned back.
"Evidence disappears."
"Witnesses change their stories."
"Rich families survive scandals."
The detective closed the notebook.
"Not forever."
Victoria laughed softly.
"You still don't understand."
"No."
"You don't."
At that exact moment...
A black SUV rolled slowly past the estate gates.
Its windows were completely tinted.
The vehicle never stopped.
But someone inside photographed the police cars.
The broken gate.
The ambulance.
And the Rossi mansion.
Then the SUV disappeared into the rain.
Back inside...
Leo unfolded the remaining pages.
Each paragraph answered one question while creating three more.
Sofia described receiving anonymous phone calls.
Flowers delivered without a sender.
Her medical appointments being changed without permission.
Security schedules known by strangers.
Then one paragraph froze Leo completely.
If anything happens to me, investigate the Falcon Project.
Mateo frowned.
"Falcon?"
Leo slowly shook his head.
"I've never heard of it."
Beatrice searched her memory.
Neither had she.
The next page contained several names.
Most meant nothing.
Until Leo reached the last one.
His expression changed instantly.
"No..."
Mateo looked over his shoulder.
"What?"
Leo pointed at the paper.
Richard Kensington.
Victoria's father.
Neither man spoke.
Beatrice felt her heartbeat quicken.
Victoria had always claimed her father barely knew Sofia.
According to this letter...
That had been a lie.
A very dangerous one.
An hour later...
Detective Sarah Collins entered the library carrying a thick evidence folder.
"I've reviewed the recording."
She placed it on the table.
"And there's something strange."
Leo looked up.
"What?"
"The timestamp."
She slid a printed image forward.
"The audio was recorded thirty-seven hours before Lily's birthday."
Mateo frowned.
"Meaning Victoria planned everything long before the party."
Sarah nodded.
"Yes."
"But that's not the strange part."
She produced another document.
"The recorder captured something else."
"What?"
"A voice in the background."
Beatrice leaned forward.
"I couldn't understand it."
"We enhanced the audio."
Sarah pressed a button on her tablet.
A distorted male voice filled the room.
"...the Falcon files..."
"...before Rossi finds..."
"...the child..."
The recording ended.
Nobody moved.
Leo stared at the speaker.
"They weren't talking about Beatrice."
Sarah nodded slowly.
"They were talking about Lily."
A cold silence settled over the library.
Beatrice instinctively looked toward the staircase.
Lily was upstairs with Mrs. Alvarez.
Safe.
At least for now.
Leo folded Sofia's letter once more.
"This was never about destroying Beatrice."
"No," Sarah agreed.
"It looks like someone needed to separate Lily from the only person she trusted."
"So they could reach her."
Beatrice felt a chill run through her body.
The cellar.
The sealed ventilation.
The planted bracelet.
The attempted shooting.
None of it had been random.
Every step had pushed toward one goal.
Lily.
Suddenly, one of the security guards burst into the library without knocking.
His face had gone white.
"Mr. Rossi..."
Leo stood immediately.
"What happened?"
"The holding vehicle..."
"The officers just reported..."
He struggled to catch his breath.
"Victoria Kensington is gone."
"What?"
"The handcuffs are still inside the police car."
"The rear door was locked."
"The officers never saw anyone approach."
He swallowed hard.
"But she disappeared."
The room went completely still.
Detective Collins grabbed her radio.
"Seal every exit!"
Officers rushed through the estate.
Searchlights swept across the rain-soaked gardens.
Dogs were released onto the grounds.
Within minutes, the entire Rossi estate was under lockdown.
Then a frightened scream echoed from the second floor.
It was Lily.
Beatrice ran before anyone else.
She reached the child's bedroom first.
The window was wide open.
Rain blew through the curtains.
Lily stood frozen beside her bed.
Clutching her stuffed rabbit.
On the pillow lay a single white rose.
And beneath it...
A handwritten note.
Beatrice picked it up with trembling fingers.
May you like
Only five words were written across the page.
I came back for Lily.
