Chapter 5 - The Voice in the Parking Garage
Sofia hid behind a concrete column.
Her knees shook so violently that she nearly fell.
Footsteps echoed from the stairwell.
Javier and Carmen stopped near the exit.
They could not see her.
But her phone could still hear them.
“She’ll tell everyone,” Javier said.
Carmen answered, “Then we say she attacked us.”
“She’s injured.”
“She fell because she was drunk.”
“She barely drank.”
“No one knows that.”
Sofia pressed one hand against her mouth.
Carmen continued.
“You’re her husband now. People will believe you tried to calm her down.”
“What about the condo papers?”
“I have the envelope.”
“She didn’t sign.”
“We only need her signature once. Patricia can handle the rest.”
Sofia knew Patricia.
She was Carmen’s longtime friend and a licensed notary.
Sofia’s fear became colder.
The plan was larger than intimidation.
They intended to forge a transfer.
Javier said, “What if she calls her mother?”
“Then we tell Elena her daughter had a breakdown.”
“What about Alexander?”
The name silenced them both.
Sofia stopped breathing.
She had not spoken to her father in years.
Javier finally said, “He’s not part of her life.”
Carmen’s tone sharpened.
“Keep it that way.”
Their footsteps moved away.
Sofia waited until the garage became silent.
Then she crawled from behind the column.
Her legs nearly gave out.
She opened a ride-share application, but her vision blurred.
The first driver canceled when he saw her damaged wedding dress.
The second stopped.
A middle-aged woman named Denise jumped from the car.
“Oh my God. Do you need a hospital?”
“No hospital,” Sofia whispered. “Please take me to my mother.”
Denise wanted to call the police.
Sofia begged her not to.
She was terrified Javier would reach Elena first and control the story.
During the drive, Sofia called her mother.
Elena answered on the first ring.
“Sofia?”
“Mom, unlock the door.”
“What happened?”
“Please. Just unlock it.”
Elena heard the fear in her daughter’s voice.
She did not ask another question.
But she made one call before Sofia arrived.
She called Alexander.
The man she had not spoken to in nine years.
“Your daughter needs you,” she said.
May you like
Then she sent him the address.
👉 Alexander reached Elena’s apartment before Javier did—and the envelope on the glass table made him realize the attack had begun long before the wedding.
