Chapter 6 - THE DAUGHTER OF A CONVICTED MURDERERFor thirty years, Sofia Laurent had believed she knew who she was.
She was the daughter of Michael and Isabelle Laurent.
She had grown up in a modest house filled with books, laughter, and the smell of Sunday dinners.
Her father had taught her to ride a bicycle.
Her mother had taught her to read.
Those memories were real.
That love was real.
Yet a single sentence had shattered the story surrounding them.
Neither had been her biological parent.
Sofia remained standing beside the conference table.
Nathan watched her carefully.
“I don't know whether Whitcomb was telling the truth.”
“He said Gabriel Varenne's daughter,” Sofia whispered.
“Yes.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No. That doesn't make sense.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Sofia, sometimes criminals use personal information to destabilize witnesses. We need independent verification.”
Sofia looked at the old photograph of Gabriel.
His dark eyes.
His narrow face.
The faint dimple near his chin.
She touched her own chin unconsciously.
“Why would my parents hide something like that?”
Nathan spoke gently.
“They may have been protecting you.”
The explanation was becoming painfully familiar.
Everyone had been protecting her.
Everyone had been lying.
She wondered whether love and deception had become so tangled in her life that she would ever be able to separate them.
Elena suggested a DNA test.
Sofia agreed.
But waiting for laboratory results was not enough.
She wanted answers from someone who had known her family.
Someone who had been there before everything fell apart.
Thomas Bennett.
He was recovering in a secure medical facility outside the city.
When Sofia entered his room that evening, he took one look at her face and seemed to understand.
“Someone told you.”
She stopped beside his bed.
“You knew?”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Was Gabriel Varenne my father?”
The old man took a deep breath.
“Yes.”
Sofia felt as though the floor had vanished.
She gripped the back of a chair.
“Then who was my mother?”
Thomas looked up.
“Her name was Claire Varenne.”
Sofia swallowed.
“What happened to her?”
“She died when you were six weeks old.”
“How?”
Thomas hesitated.
“She was killed in a house fire.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
Another fire.
Another death.
Another crime disguised as tragedy.
Thomas continued.
“Gabriel had begun investigating the financial network shortly before you were born. He knew dangerous people were watching him, but he believed the authorities would protect his family.”
“They didn't.”
“No.”
“Did Gabriel know I survived?”
Thomas nodded.
“After Claire's death, Gabriel begged Isabelle and Michael to take you somewhere safe. They were close friends, and Isabelle was already helping him investigate the corruption.”
Sofia wiped her eyes.
“Then why didn't Gabriel come for me after he escaped?”
Thomas's expression softened.
“He wanted to.”
“Then why didn't he?”
“Because the Circle threatened to kill you if he ever contacted you.”
Sofia sat down.
For years, she had imagined her biological father as a convicted murderer.
Then as an innocent man betrayed by the justice system.
Now she had to imagine him as someone who had lived twenty-five years knowing his daughter was growing up without him.
“Did he ever see me?”
Thomas nodded.
“Once.”
“When?”
“At your high school graduation.”
Sofia lifted her head.
A memory returned.
A silver-haired stranger standing near the back of the auditorium.
She had noticed him because he was crying.
At the time, she assumed he was someone's grandfather.
“He was there?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“Why didn't he speak to me?”
“Because two men were watching him from the parking lot. He left before you came outside.”
Sofia covered her mouth.
A quiet sob escaped.
Thomas waited.
When she finally looked up, he reached for her hand.
“Michael and Isabelle loved you as their own daughter. Gabriel never wanted to take that away from them.”
Sofia nodded through tears.
“I know.”
“And Gabriel loved you too.”
She struggled to speak.
“Then I need to find him.”
Thomas reached into his bedside drawer.
He removed a photograph taken years earlier.
Gabriel stood beside a small wooden cabin surrounded by trees.
On the back was an address.
“Gabriel used this property once,” Thomas said. “I don't know whether he still goes there.”
Sofia studied the address.
It was in a remote mountain community called Blackwood Ridge.
Nathan examined the photograph when she returned to the hallway.
“We'll need to approach carefully.”
“Why?”
“Because if Gabriel survived an assassination attempt and spent decades hiding, he may not trust anyone.”
Sofia looked at the photograph.
“I don't need him to trust the police.”
She swallowed.
“I need him to know his daughter is looking for him.”
They left the facility just after midnight.
As their vehicle turned onto the highway, Thomas received a call from an unknown number.
He answered cautiously.
A man's voice spoke.
Old.
Tired.
Familiar.
“Thomas.”
The clerk's eyes widened.
“Gabriel?”
A long silence followed.
May you like
Then the voice said:
“Don't let Sofia come to Blackwood Ridge. They buried six bodies beneath that cabin.”
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