Chapter 6 - THE TERRIFYING REALIZATION
"Dad! Stop!"
Sofia’s voice shattered the tension in the room.
Alexander stopped, his hand resting on the brass door lever. He turned his head slowly, looking back over his shoulder at his daughter.
Sofia had managed to stand up from the couch. The wool blanket slid from her shoulders, falling to the floor, leaving her standing in her torn, dirt-stained wedding dress. Her chest was heaving, her brown eyes wide with a fresh wave of terror—a terror that was no longer directed at what had happened to her, but at what was about to happen next.
She gripped her father’s heavy olive sleeve with both hands, her bruised fingers digging into the canvas material.
"Dad... don't go there," Sofia gasped, her split lip bleeding fresh crimson down her chin. "There's something else. Something I didn't tell Mom."
Alexander turned his entire body around, looking down at his daughter’s shaking frame. "What are you talking about, Sofia?"
Eleanor stepped closer, looking between the two of them with growing anxiety. "Sofia, what didn't you tell me? What else happened in that room?"
Sofia swallowed hard, her throat dry, her body trembling so hard her teeth clicked together. She looked up into her father’s cold, gray eyes.
"When Carmen slammed the papers on the table..." Sofia whispered, her voice barely carrying over the sound of the wind outside, "...I asked her why she was doing this. I asked her why she needed my condo so badly. It's just a small two-bedroom apartment in the city... it doesn't mean anything to a family worth hundreds of millions."
Alexander’s eyes narrowed slightly. "And what did she say?"
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Sofia took a deep, shuddering breath.
"She laughed at me, Dad," Sofia rasped, tears overflowing her eyes once more. "She told me the condo was never the real reason they wanted me in their family. She said the entire engagement... the ring... the wedding... it was all a calculation."
