Chapter 2 - THE VOICE INSIDE THE HOUSE
Nikolai did not raise his voice.
That frightened Sophie more than shouting would have.
He handed Talia’s phone to his head of security, Anton Morozov, and said, “Lock the estate.”
Anton immediately reached for his earpiece.
“All entrances?”
“Every gate. Every vehicle. No one leaves.”
“What about Mrs. Volkov?”
Nikolai’s eyes became colder.
“Especially her.”
Kolya lowered his face against his father’s chest.
Sophie noticed the movement.
“Who is Mrs. Volkov?” she asked.
The bodyguards looked at her as though she had forgotten her position.
Nikolai answered.
“My fiancée.”
The word seemed to make Kolya shrink.
Sophie crouched near the boy again.
“Kolya, did you hear the call?”
He nodded.
“Talia put it on speaker because she was driving.”
“Did you recognize the voice?”
His fingers tightened around Nikolai’s jacket.
“It sounded like Elena.”
Nikolai went completely still.
Anton looked toward the other guards.
Nobody spoke.
Sophie had seen adults deny children before. Parents who called fear imagination. Teachers who called silence stubbornness. Managers who called cruelty discipline.
She waited for Nikolai to do the same.
He did not.
“What did she say?” he asked.
Kolya’s breathing became uneven.
“She said I had to disappear before Saturday.”
Nikolai’s jaw tightened.
“What happens Saturday?”
“You marry her.”
The diner seemed colder.
Lou stood motionless behind the counter.
Rain struck the windows so loudly that it filled every silence.
“What else?” Nikolai asked.
“She said if you had no son, everything would become simple.”
Anton whispered, “Sir, we should not question him further without recording it properly.”
Nikolai looked toward Sophie.
She understood immediately.
“He needs warmth and rest before anything else.”
Anton’s eyes narrowed.
“This is not your concern.”
Sophie stood.
“He is eight years old.”
“He is under our protection.”
“He was under your protection when someone left him beside a mall.”
Anton’s expression hardened.
Nikolai lifted one hand.
The guard stopped.
Nikolai looked at Sophie with a level of attention that made her feel as if every detail of her life had become visible.
“You speak boldly for someone surrounded by strangers.”
“They surrounded my diner.”
A faint change touched his mouth.
Not a smile.
Something close.
Kolya pulled away from his father and pointed toward the booth.
“Can we stay until I finish the soup?”
Every man in the room looked at Nikolai.
He stared at the half empty bowl.
Then removed his wet coat and sat beside his son.
“Finish.”
The bodyguards remained standing.
Sophie returned to the counter and brought another warm piece of bread.
Kolya ate slowly now.
Nikolai watched him with a restraint that barely contained panic.
“You believed Talia?” he asked.
“She said you told her to take me away.”
Nikolai’s expression cracked.
“Why would you believe that?”
“She said I ruined your new family.”
“You are my family.”
Kolya looked toward the table.
“Elena says grown sons don’t need little boys following them.”
Nikolai closed his eyes for one second.
Sophie saw guilt pass through his face.
Not guilt for abandoning Kolya.
Guilt for failing to notice what Elena had been saying when he was absent.
“Has she hurt you?” he asked.
Kolya shook his head too quickly.
Nikolai noticed.
Sophie did too.
The boy reached for the soup.
His sleeve moved.
A dark bruise circled his wrist.
Nikolai caught his hand carefully.
“What is this?”
“I fell.”
Sophie watched Kolya’s eyes move toward Anton.
The guard saw it.
His posture changed.
Nikolai looked from his son to his head of security.
“Why did he look at you?”
Anton’s face remained controlled.
“I don’t know.”
Kolya pulled his wrist away.
“It wasn’t Anton.”
“Then who?”
The boy did not answer.
Sophie placed a napkin beside him.
“You don’t have to tell everyone at once.”
Anton turned toward her.
“You should leave the table.”
“This is my diner.”
Nikolai spoke quietly.
“She stays.”
Anton stepped back.
Kolya looked toward Sophie.
“Elena has a brother.”
“What is his name?” Sophie asked.
“Viktor.”
Nikolai’s face hardened.
Anton looked away.
That movement was enough.
Nikolai rose.
“You knew Viktor was inside my house.”
Anton said nothing.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“You told me he was in Miami.”
“That was the information I received.”
“From whom?”
Anton hesitated.
“Elena.”
Nikolai’s voice dropped.
“You accepted my fiancée’s word about the location of a man I banned from my property.”
“She said you changed the order.”
“I did not.”
Kolya whispered:
“Viktor said Papa wouldn’t believe me.”
Nikolai turned toward his son.
“What did he do?”
The child’s eyes filled.
“He locked me in the wine room.”
Sophie covered her mouth.
“For how long?” Nikolai asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“I heard him and Elena talking.”
“About what?”
Kolya looked toward the soggy phone.
“About your will.”
Nikolai’s bodyguards exchanged glances.
One of them moved subtly toward the entrance.
Sophie noticed.
So did Nikolai.
“Stop,” he said.
The man froze.
Nikolai looked around the diner at every guard who had followed him.
“Phones on the counter.”
Nobody moved.
“Now.”
One by one, the men placed their phones beside Sophie’s register.
Anton did the same.
The guard nearest the door hesitated.
His name, Sophie later learned, was Pavel.
Nikolai stared at him.
Pavel reached into his jacket.
Not for a phone.
For a compact pistol.
Sophie moved before she thought.
She grabbed the heavy coffee pot and threw it toward his arm.
Hot coffee struck his sleeve.
Pavel cursed.
Anton slammed him against the door before he could raise the weapon.
Two other guards restrained him.
Kolya screamed.
Nikolai pulled the boy beneath his body.
The gun slid across the tile and stopped beside Sophie’s shoe.
She stared down at it, breathing hard.
Nikolai looked at Pavel.
“You came here to protect my son.”
Pavel laughed through clenched teeth.
May you like
“No. I came to make certain he never reached home.”
Continue to the next part: The captured bodyguard reveals Elena paid him to kill Kolya inside the diner and frame Sophie as the desperate waitress who kidnapped him for ransom.
