Chapter 55 TIME TO PLAY DIRTY
Chapter 55 TIME TO PLAY DIRTY
Sonia’s day filled itself with meetings she barely registered. Contracts. Legal frameworks. Data walls being rebuilt thicker than before.
She smiled when necessary. Issued instructions. Corrected assumptions.
while something inside her shifted—quietly, relentlessly.
At noon, she locked herself in her office and called Marcus.
“I need you to do something,” she said.
“Anything.” Marcus responded.
She hesitated. “Hypothetically—if a situation arose where my presence became a liability…”
Marcus stiffened. “Don’t.”
“Just listen,” Sonia said calmly. “I would need Veritas insulated. Lena protected. Lara funded without my name attached.”
There was a long pause.
“You’re planning an exit,” Marcus said slowly.
“I’m planning contingencies.”
“For what?” You are running them around in circles, their biggest threat which was your identity as Sonia Iris is gone, used up, there is no need to be worried, and don't forget that your father, would burn them to the ground if the day ever came that something happened to you," Marcus explained.
Sonia closed her eyes. “I prefer to be sure, Marc."
“Is there something wrong?” he pressed.
Sonia ended the call. She won’t lose her new friends, and family to a personal vendetta, no matter what happens, they will be safe
Greg found out an hour later.
He stood in his father’s private study, staring at the Northern Trust transaction logs with dawning horror.
“They rerouted funds through us,” Greg said quietly. “Richard used my family’s infrastructure.”
His father, nodded grimly. “Which makes us complicit in the public eye.”
Greg clenched his fists. “That bastard.”
“He wants you to pull back,” his father said. “To choose safety over conscience.”
Greg laughed without humor. “He doesn’t know me.”
His father studied him carefully. “Neither does Sonia, if she thinks she can burn alone.”
Greg’s phone buzzed.
Sonia.
“I saw the news, that bank belongs to your family, right? My continued investigation will implicate your family, Richard fights dirty!”
He answered immediately. “He’s baiting us.”
“I know,” Sonia replied. “He wants to see who blinks.”
“And you won’t,” Greg said.
“I might,” Sonia said softly. “If blinking saves people.”
Greg closed his eyes. “You don’t get to martyr yourself. Don’t let him control the game, do whatever you must, Sonia”
“Watch me,” she said—and ended the call.
That evening, as she sat in the office thinking, her phone buzzed.
A message—unknown number.
When you play with fire, you will get burnt
Her breath caught.
Another message followed.
Some legacies can’t be destroyed.
Sonia stared at the screen. Richard.
She deleted the messages, hands steady despite the storm raging beneath her ribs.
“Threats already?” she murmured. “You’re slipping.”
She opened a secure channel.
TO: LARA
SUBJECT: ACCELERATE PHASE II
NO DELAYS
She hit send, then leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
For the first time since this began, fear threaded through her resolve—not for herself.
For what she was becoming.
Elsewhere, Ricky stood in a darkened offices.
His phone rang.
Camila.
He answered immediately. “Are you okay?”
There was a pause. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Ricky… if someone told you they were doing something terrible for the right reasons—would that matter?”
Ricky swallowed. “It would… complicate things.”
“I think I’m being asked to choose,” Camila whispered. “And I don’t know which side is evil anymore.”
Ricky closed his eyes.
“Neither do I,” he admitted.
When the call ended, he poured himself a drink and didn’t touch it.
Because somewhere deep down, he knew—
That he might need to play really dirty, like really, really dirty as he did before.
He twirled the drink in his hand as he thought back on the past.
"Well done Ricky, You did really well, your fabrications were flawless, you really are good at this," Tessa had said when they met up later that day when Sonia was arrested.
"Where is Camila?" He had asked unwilling to play her stupid games with her.
"She is safe for now, but I don’t want any loose ends, so I will not be releasing her anytime soon."
Shoving Tessa to the wall, he was tempted to snap her neck and be done with it. But Camila would be dead or worse, raped brutally before his men could find her, and that was not a risk he was willing to take.
"Where is she?" He growled. His hatred for this little, manipulative bitch increasing by the minute.
She tapped his hands signaling that she could not breath, he let her go, as he paced around frustrated, angry.
"She is safe! I like it when you go all macho on me," Tessa had said as she ran her hands over his tense and taut muscles.
"I want her gone, for good, do what you must, when she is dead, you will get Camila back.. Tick tick, tick tick, your time is running out. Leaving a pretty girl with three wild ass, grown up men is like putting a meat in front of a dog, I don't think I can hold the leash for long before they let loose." She said with a wicked smile.
"Also, stop bothering your pretty head hun, your men won't find her." She added as she swaggered away, laughing.
Thinking back on how he arranged for the trucks to be on both sides of the road when he was informed of her release, his heart twinge a bit from guilt. She did not even know yet, that the accident was arranged by him, and she was this ruthless, what would happen If she found out? He pondered.
As his eyes focused on the beautiful red colored wine in the glass cup.
It's time to play dirty again, he whispered aloud, a soft promise to the wind.