Chapter 14 - SOPHIA'S HUSBAND
Sophia felt as though the room had tilted.
Her husband, Ethan Hale, had died in what police called a workplace accident.
He had been a truck driver.
His vehicle crashed outside Louisville during a storm.
Sophia had never questioned the investigation.
Until now.
Lorenzo asked Detective Ramirez to pull Ethan’s employment records.
The result arrived two hours later.
Ethan had worked for a trucking contractor.
That contractor belonged to a holding company connected to Gabriel.
Sophia sat silently in Lorenzo’s study.
Every memory of her husband suddenly felt different.
Ethan coming home late.
Ethan refusing to discuss certain routes.
Ethan becoming nervous during the final months of his life.
One week before he died, he told Sophia he wanted to move away.
She thought he was tired.
Now she understood.
“He knew.”
Lorenzo sat across from her.
“Maybe.”
“He knew what they were doing.”
Sophia remembered something else.
The night before Ethan died, he placed an envelope inside Lily’s baby book.
Sophia had never opened it.
She thought it contained insurance documents.
The book was still inside her cottage.
Police escorted her there.
Sophia found it beneath a shelf.
The envelope remained inside.
Her hands shook as she opened it.
There was a memory card.
And a note.
Sophia.
If anything happens to me, do not trust the company.
Keep Lily safe.
I’m sorry.
Sophia pressed the note against her lips.
She refused to cry until she reached the final line.
Gabriel Moretti knows who I am.
Lorenzo read the note.
His expression hardened.
Ethan had apparently discovered the criminal routes while transporting containers.
He secretly copied records.
The memory card contained photographs of cargo transfers and a video of Gabriel meeting Victor Kane.
Then one final video appeared.
Ethan had recorded himself inside his truck.
“If Sophia ever sees this, I failed.”
Sophia covered her mouth.
“I found something bad.”
“People are being moved inside containers.”
“They have passports that don’t belong to them.”
“I’m going to federal investigators tomorrow.”
The video ended.
Ethan died before sunrise.
Sophia stared at the blank screen.
Valentina had not chosen Lily randomly.
Gabriel had been watching the daughter of the man who nearly exposed him years earlier.
The conspiracy had entered Sophia’s life long before she entered the Moretti estate.
Then Detective Ramirez’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What happened?”
Sophia asked.
May you like
He lowered the phone.
“Valentina Russo escaped during transport.”
