Chapter 10: The Daughter They Wanted Back
"Nobody is taking Sofia anywhere.""
Damian's voice was quiet, but everyone in the apartment heard the threat behind it.
He placed his phone on the kitchen table and enlarged the photograph of Isabella.
Arthur Cross stood behind her, one hand resting on the back of her chair. His face was almost identical to Victor's, except for a thin scar running from his left temple toward his cheek.
Damian remembered that scar.
He had seen it once when he was a child, during a family dinner his father had abruptly ended.
Arthur had supposedly been killed in a car bombing fifteen years earlier.
Apparently, the Cross family had developed a habit of dying without actually dying.
"How many dead relatives do we have left?"" Ethan muttered.
Marcus didn't smile.
"Arthur was more dangerous than Victor. He handled the family's private security operations before disappearing.""
"Why wasn't I told about him?"" Damian asked.
"Your father ordered every record involving Arthur removed," Marcus replied.
"Most people believed he had been killed overseas.""
Hale was still staring at the photograph of his daughter.
"She's alive.""
His voice broke on the last word.
Damian looked at him.
"We're getting her back.""
Hale shook his head.
"You don't understand. Arthur won't hesitate to hurt her.""
"Then we don't give him the opportunity.""
Sofia stood beside the kitchen window.
She had been unusually quiet since the phone call.
Damian approached her.
"What are you thinking?""
She looked at him.
"Why do they want me?""
"Because of your mother.""
"That's not enough.""
He waited.
Sofia reached into her pocket and removed a folded letter.
"My mother gave me this shortly before she died. I never understood what she meant.""
Damian unfolded it.
The handwriting was delicate and familiar from the earlier notes.
My darling Sofia,
There will come a day when someone tells you that you belong to the Cross family. Don't believe them immediately. Blood is not ownership. Love is not a debt.
If they ever come looking for you, remember the name your grandmother gave you.
Damian looked up.
"Your grandmother?""
Sofia nodded.
"I never knew her. My mother said she died before I was born.""
"What's her name?""
"Rose Voss.""
Hale suddenly looked up.
"Rose Voss?""
Sofia nodded.
The detective slowly sat down.
"Rose was the original owner of the land where the Cross family's first businesses were built.""
Damian frowned.
"What?""
Hale rubbed his forehead.
"Thirty years ago, Alexander and his brother Arthur were involved in a property dispute with a woman named Rose Voss. She owned several industrial properties near the harbor. She disappeared after signing a transfer agreement.""
Sofia stared at him.
"My grandmother owned that land?""
"Yes.""
Damian understood immediately.
The Cross fortune hadn't begun with Alexander.
It had begun with the Voss family.
"Your father stole it," Ethan said.
Marcus nodded.
"And if the original ownership records still exist, the entire foundation of the Cross empire could be challenged.""
Damian looked at Sofia.
"Your mother was trying to recover what belonged to her family.""
Sofia's voice trembled.
"So that's why they wanted me?""
"Probably," Damian answered.
But Ethan was studying the letter.
"There's another line.""
He pointed to the bottom.
Damian read it aloud.
The truth is hidden where the first daughter was named.
Hale frowned.
"What's that supposed to mean?""
Margaret, who had been silent until then, suddenly stood.
"The old chapel.""
Everyone turned toward her.
"Your grandmother named Isabella in the chapel at the original estate," Margaret explained.
"Rose was there that day. She gave Isabella a silver pendant and said it would protect her.""
Damian looked toward the photograph.
The crescent necklace.
"Isabella still has it.""
Margaret nodded.
"She never took it off.""
Ethan stood.
"Then Arthur doesn't just want Sofia.""
"He wants the pendant," Damian said.
"And whatever is hidden inside it," Sofia added.
The apartment fell silent.
Then Marcus's phone rang.
He answered and listened for several seconds.
"Boss, we have a problem.""
"What?""
"Someone has been watching this building.""
Damian moved toward the window.
Across the street, a black sedan was parked beneath a broken streetlight.
The driver's window lowered.
A man raised a phone.
The flash illuminated his face.
Then the sedan sped away.
"How long?"" Damian asked.
"At least twenty minutes.""
Damian turned toward Marcus.
"Get everyone out.""
Within five minutes, they were moving through the rear entrance.
But before they reached the vehicles, Sofia stopped.
"My mother's bedroom.""
Damian looked at her.
"What about it?""
"There's something I forgot.""
"We don't have time.""
She pointed toward the apartment.
"There's a photograph behind the mirror. My mother used to tell me never to remove it.""
Ethan swore.
Damian checked the street.
"Marcus, take my mother and Hale. Ethan, stay with them.""
"I'm coming with you.""
"No. Your shoulder needs attention.""
Ethan looked ready to argue, but Sofia interrupted.
"Please. I need to see it.""
Damian looked at her.
Then nodded.
They returned upstairs.
Sofia entered the bedroom and carefully lifted the small mirror from the wall.
Behind it was a photograph of a woman standing beside a young girl.
On the back, in faded ink, were two words.
*Isabella's mother.*
Sofia turned it over.
The woman was Rose Voss.
The little girl was Margaret.
Damian stared.
"Grandmother raised you?""
Margaret's voice came from the doorway.
"Yes.""
She had followed them despite Marcus's protests.
"Rose was my mother. Alexander married me because he wanted access to her property. When I discovered what he had done, I helped Elena hide the documents.""
Damian looked at the photograph.
"Then Sofia and I aren't related.""
Margaret shook her head.
"No.""
Sofia looked relieved and devastated at the same time.
Margaret took her hands.
"But your mother and I were family in every way that mattered.""
A small metallic object slipped from behind the photograph.
A key.
Stamped with the number 27.
Damian picked it up.
"Pier 27.""
He looked at Sofia.
"This is what Arthur wants.""
She shook her head.
"No. It's what he thinks I have.""
Damian frowned.
"What does that mean?""
Sofia opened the photograph's cardboard backing.
Inside was a tiny folded note.
Her mother's handwriting.
The key opens nothing. The person who carries it opens everything.
Damian read it twice.
Then his phone vibrated.
A live video appeared.
Isabella was sitting in the same chair.
Arthur stood behind her.
But this time, he wasn't looking at the camera.
He was looking directly at someone outside the frame.
Someone whose voice came through the speakers.
"Bring me Sofia, Damian.""
Damian recognized the voice immediately.
It was his father.
May you like
Alexander Cross.
And he was standing beside Isabella, holding the crescent necklace in his hand.
