CHAPTER 1: THE MAN WHO NEVER FORGETS
Alexander Brooks didn’t raise his voice.
He didn’t need to.
The room itself seemed to tighten as he stood, slowly removing his jacket and placing it neatly over the back of a chair. His eyes never left Sofia.
“Who touched you first?” he asked quietly.
Sofia hesitated. Then whispered, “Carmen.”
Alexander nodded once.
Then he turned to me. “Elena, call a doctor you trust. Not a hospital. Not yet.”
“You’re not calling the police?” I asked.
His jaw tightened. “Not until I know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
He stepped outside and made a call.
I had been married to him long enough to recognize that tone.
It was the voice of a man activating something far bigger than anger.
Within twenty minutes, two black SUVs pulled up outside the building.
Not police.
Not security.
Something else.
Alexander came back inside, his expression colder than I had ever seen.
“They made a mistake,” he said. “They assumed we would react like civilians.”
Sofia looked at him, trembling. “What does that mean?”
May you like
He crouched in front of her.
“It means,” he said softly, “they just declared war on the wrong family.”
