Chapter 7 - THE HOUSE BESIDE THE LAKE
The cottage stood among pine trees overlooking dark water.
Federal agents surrounded the property.
Clara waited with the negotiator while Dominic remained behind the police line.
A small figure appeared at an upstairs window.
Leo.
Clara's breath caught.
The boy saw her.
For a moment, he did not move.
Then he pressed one hand against the glass.
Clara raised hers.
The negotiator spoke through a loudspeaker.
Thomas answered from inside.
He demanded Sofia's evidence and Victor Saye.
Dominic offered himself instead.
Thomas laughed.
“You always thought you were the hero of this family.”
Clara heard the bitterness in his voice.
Thomas had spent years selling access to criminal shipping routes, believing he could become richer and more powerful than the Castigliones.
Sofia discovered him.
He tried to silence her.
The car explosion was the result.
Now he was using their son to escape prosecution.
When Clara entered the cottage under a negotiated arrangement, Leo ran toward her.
She crouched carefully.
He touched her sleeve.
“You came.”
“I said I'd try to find you.”
He pressed his forehead against her shoulder.
Thomas appeared behind him with a gun.
“You ruined everything,” he told Clara.
She placed herself between him and the child.
“You did that yourself.”
Thomas aimed at her.
Dominic entered through the open doorway with his hands raised.
“Take me instead.”
Thomas smiled.
“That's what Sofia said.”
Dominic froze.
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And Clara realized that Thomas had just revealed something investigators had never proved.
He had confronted Sofia before the explosion.
