Confronting the Truth

Confronting the Truth
Sofia's POV

The explosion threw me against the cell bars.

Glass rained down from above as another blast shook the warehouse. Through the smoke and chaos, I heard Isabella screaming orders at her guards.

"Get the girl out of here! Now!"

But I wasn't going anywhere without answers.

I grabbed the keys from the unconscious guard beside me and unlocked the cell. Cassian, Rafe, Luca, and Nikos stumbled out, all of them bleeding and bruised.

"We need to move," Cassian said, helping me to my feet.

"Not yet." I stood my ground despite the explosions getting closer. "First, you tell me everything."

"Sofia, this isn't the time—" Rafe started.

"This is exactly the time!" I shouted over the alarms. "People are trying to kill us, and I still don't know who I can trust!"

Another explosion rocked the building. Part of the ceiling collapsed, missing us by inches.

"Fine," Luca said desperately. "But we talk while we run."

We fought our way through the smoke toward an exit. Isabella's guards were shooting at shadows, not even sure who they were fighting.

"Start talking," I demanded as we ran.

"Two years ago, Isabella hired us," Cassian panted. "But not just to watch you."

"What else?"

"To make you fall in love with us," Nikos said bluntly. "All four of us."

I stumbled but kept running. "Why?"

"Because she studied you," Rafe explained. "She knew you had a big heart. She thought if you loved us, you'd do anything to keep us safe."

"Including becoming her heir."

"Yes."

We reached a side door, but it was locked. Luca kicked it down with one powerful blow.

Outside, the city was in chaos. Sirens wailed in the distance. Gunfire echoed from multiple directions.

"Keep going," I said. "Tell me the rest."

"She gave us specific instructions," Luca continued as we ran down an alley. "Cassian was supposed to appeal to your mind. Rafe to your need for protection. I was supposed to make you laugh and feel alive."

"And me?" Nikos asked grimly. "I was supposed to be the challenge. The cold one you wanted to save."

My heart shattered into pieces. "So it was all fake."

"At first," Cassian said. "But Sofia, you have to believe us. What we feel now is real."

"How can I believe anything you say?"

"Because we're risking our lives to tell you the truth," Rafe said. "Isabella will kill us if she finds out we told you."

We reached the street where Cassian had hidden the motorcycle. But before we could get to it, men in black surrounded us.

Not Isabella's men. Someone else's.

"Sofia Martinez," one of them called out. "You're coming with us."

"Who are you?" I shouted back.

"Friends of your real father."

My blood turned to ice. "Marco Martinez?"

"He's been looking for you for a long time."

The man raised his gun, aiming it at my chest. But before he could fire, Rafe tackled him to the ground.

"Run!" Rafe yelled as he fought the attacker.

Cassian grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the motorcycle. But more men appeared, blocking our path.

"There's too many of them," Luca said, back-to-back with Nikos as they faced the advancing enemies.

I looked around desperately. We were trapped.

That's when I realized something that changed everything.

The men attacking us weren't trying to kill the four guys I loved. They were only aiming at me.

"They don't want to hurt you," I said suddenly. "They only want me."

"Sofia, no," Cassian said, seeing the look in my eyes.

"If I surrender, they'll let you go."

"We're not letting you sacrifice yourself," Nikos said coldly.

"You don't get to decide."

I stepped forward, away from their protection. "I surrender! Take me to Marco!"

"Sofia, don't!" all four men yelled at once.

But it was too late. The attackers moved in quickly, separating me from my protectors.

As they dragged me toward a waiting van, I heard Rafe screaming my name. The sound broke my heart all over again.

Inside the van, the leader pulled off his mask. He was older, maybe fifty, with eyes that looked exactly like mine.

"Hello, niece," he said. "I'm Marco Martinez. Your father's brother."

"Vincent wasn't my father."

"No, he wasn't. But he was my brother, and Isabella had him killed. Just like she's been lying to you about everything else."

My head spun. "What do you mean?"

"Vincent found out you weren't his biological child. But instead of abandoning you, he loved you even more. He was trying to protect you from Isabella when she had him murdered."

"That's impossible."

Marco pulled out his phone and showed me a video. It was Vincent, recorded just days before his death.

"Sofia," Vincent's voice said from the screen. "If you're watching this, it means something has happened to me. I need you to know the truth about your real father."

I stared at the phone in shock. "Keep playing it."

"Your biological father was a good man named David Chen. He was a federal agent who was investigating the Moretti family. Isabella seduced him to get information, then killed him when she got pregnant."

The van seemed to spin around me. "My father was a cop?"

"Isabella has been lying to you about everything," Marco continued. "She didn't give you away to protect you. She gave you away because she was afraid you'd inherit your father's sense of justice instead of her criminal nature."

"But she came back for me."

"Because she realized she could use you. Sofia, you're not just the daughter of the Iron Rose. You're also the daughter of one of the FBI's best agents. You have the instincts of both a criminal and a cop."

I thought about how easily I had learned to fight, to strategize, to read people. How I had felt equally comfortable planning violence and seeking justice.

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

"I want to finish what your real father started. I want to bring down Isabella Moretti and everything she's built."

"By using me as bait?"

"By helping you become who you were meant to be. Not a mafia queen, but someone who can destroy the criminal empire from the inside."

The van stopped. We were at another warehouse, but this one looked different. Cleaner. More official.

"Where are we?"

"FBI safe house," Marco said. "Sofia, there are people here who have been waiting twenty years to meet you."

He opened the van door, and I saw them.

Men and women in FBI jackets. But not strangers.

I recognized some of their faces from the surveillance photos I had found. They had been watching me my entire life, but not for Isabella.

They had been watching me for my real father.

"Sofia Martinez," one of the agents said. "I'm Agent Sarah Chen. Your father was my partner."

"He's really dead?"

"Yes. Isabella killed him when you were six months old. But before he died, he made us promise to protect you until you were old enough to choose your own path."

"Choose what path?"

"Whether to become the criminal your mother wants you to be, or the agent your father dreamed you could become."

Agent Chen held out a badge and gun. "The choice is yours, Sofia. But if you want to bring justice to the people who destroyed your family, we're here to help."

I stared at the FBI badge, then back at the warehouse where Isabella was probably still fighting off attacks.

Somewhere in the city, Cassian, Rafe, Luca, and Nikos were looking for me. The men who had lied to me but claimed they loved me.

The men who might be the only real thing in my life of deception.

"There's something you need to know," I said to Agent Chen. "Isabella has four men working for her. They've been protecting me, but I think their feelings became real."

"We know about them."

"Do you?"

"Sofia, we've been watching you for twenty years. We know everything."

Agent Chen's next words made my blood freeze.

"We know Cassian, Rafe, Luca, and Nikos aren't just Isabella's employees. They're undercover federal agents."