Chapter 14 - The Choice Rafael Finally Made
Rafael hit the floor.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Sofia screamed.
Mateo tackled Salazar before he could fire again. Ethan disarmed the guard and kicked the gun away.
Sirens approached fast.
Not local police.
Federal tactical vehicles.
The timed evidence package had reached the inspector general, and they had moved faster than anyone expected.
Sofia dropped beside Rafael.
"Dad. Stay with me."
His breathing was shallow.
"I spent years saying I was protecting you."
"Don't talk."
"I was protecting myself."
Sofia pressed both hands over the wound.
"Save it for the hospital."
He tried to smile.
"You sound like your mother."
Rafael survived surgery.
Salazar was arrested before sunrise.
But Charles Wynn vanished from his home forty minutes before federal agents arrived.
That made everything more dangerous.
At the hospital, Mateo sat across from Sofia.
"Dad might take a plea deal."
"He should."
Mateo looked surprised.
"You don't want to protect him?"
"I love him. That is not the same thing."
Ethan stood near the window, separate from them.
Sofia turned to him.
"And you."
He looked up.
"When this is over, we're getting an annulment."
Pain crossed his face, but he nodded.
"If that's what you want."
"I don't know what I want. That's why I need the marriage gone."
He accepted that too.
Then Mateo's phone buzzed.
A photo arrived from an unknown number.
Sofia, Mateo, and Ethan entering the hospital.
Taken five minutes earlier.
May you like
Below it, one message.
YOU FORGOT ABOUT WYNN.
