Chapter 1 - The Last Ride
Rain hammered the roof of the Syracuse bus station.
Sofia Mendoza stood beneath the narrow overhang with two suitcases beside her.
One was black.
The other was dark green, old enough to have traveled through more cities than she could remember.
She did not cry.
She did not plead.
She simply watched the luxury SUV waiting beside the curb.
Teresa sat behind the steering wheel.
Javier occupied the passenger seat.
Mariana was in the back.
Nobody opened the doors.
Sofia stepped closer.
Teresa lowered the window.
“We aren't pretending to be strangers,” she said. “Walk there yourself.”
Sofia looked at her for several seconds.
Then she looked at Javier.
He was staring at his phone.
“Javier?”
He didn't look up.
“Just listen to your mother.”
Mariana raised her phone.
Sofia noticed the camera.
“You're recording?”
Mariana smiled.
“Maybe.”
Sofia nodded.
She turned toward her luggage.
The rain had already soaked the pavement around her shoes.
She pulled the first suitcase upright.
Then the second.
For a moment, she looked back at the people inside the vehicle.
“Are you all sure about this?”
Teresa answered immediately.
“One hundred percent.”
Sofia studied her mother's face.
There was something strange about the certainty.
Not anger.
Not hatred.
Fear.
Teresa was hiding fear beneath all that arrogance.
Sofia had learned to recognize it years ago.
She said nothing.
The SUV drove away.
Its taillights disappeared behind the curtain of rain.
Sofia waited.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Then she reached into her coat pocket.
Her phone was already unlocked.
She opened a private application.
A single red marker appeared on the map.
Sofia pressed one button.
Location shared.
She whispered,
“All right, then.”
Thirty minutes later, three black SUVs arrived.
Sofia had expected them.
What she hadn't expected was the woman who stepped from the middle vehicle.
Elena Mendoza.
Her aunt.
The most feared businesswoman in the Mendoza family.
Elena looked at Sofia's empty hands.
“You brought nothing?”
Sofia shook her head.
“They said I didn't belong there.”
Elena's expression became unreadable.
“Did you believe them?”
Sofia looked toward the road.
“No.”
“Good.”
Elena opened the SUV door.
“Then let's go home.”
Sofia hesitated.
“I thought home was supposed to be somewhere you were wanted.”
Elena studied her niece.
“That is exactly why we're going somewhere else.”
As they drove away, Sofia looked through the rear window.
The bus station disappeared behind them.
But one thought remained.
Teresa had said she was certain.
May you like
Sofia knew better.
People only sounded that certain when they had no idea what was coming.
