Chapter Five: The Truth
“Show me footage from tonight’s attack,” Leon said quietly.
Marcus pulled it up. Multiple camera angles from inside the restaurant.
Leon watched himself sitting relaxed and smiling.
Watched Arya moving between tables, noticing things.
Watched her slip him the warning.
Watched the doors explode open at exactly 7:55 p.m.
Marcus zoomed in on the attackers’ weapons. Where they were pointed. The angles of fire.
Every single weapon was aimed at the same target.
Not at Leon.
At Sophia.
“They weren’t there to kill you,” Arya said quietly from behind him. “I realized it during the attack when I saw their positions.”
She stepped closer to the screen.
“They were there for your wife.”
Leon felt the world shift beneath his feet.
“Why?”
“Because killing you doesn’t send a message about unpaid debts.” Arya’s voice was hard. “Every organization tries to kill their rivals. That’s just business.”
She pointed at the frozen image of weapons aimed at Sophia.
“But killing someone’s daughter? After forcing her parents to help set it up? After making them sit there and smile while they counted down the minutes?”
Arya turned to face him.
“That’s a message that echoes through every debtor in the city. That’s how you make sure nobody ever tries to run from what they owe again.”
The room was completely silent.
Leon looked at the frozen image on the screen.
Weapons pointed at his wife.
His wife, whose parents had delivered her to executioners like a sacrifice.
“Where are they?” Leon asked Marcus, his voice very quiet.
“Main room. Under guard.”
Leon stood slowly. Ice cold and perfectly calm.
This was the state he entered before doing terrible things.
“Bring them to the interrogation room. Both of them.”
He paused.
“Now.”
Marcus left.
Arya watched Leon with those sharp eyes that saw everything.
“What are you going to do?”
“Get the truth.” His voice was flat. “All of it.”
He walked down the hallway to the interrogation room.
Richard and Patricia sat in metal chairs, flanked by two guards. When Leon entered, Patricia started crying immediately. Richard stared at the floor, unable to meet his eyes.
Sophia pushed past Leon into the room.
“Someone tell me what’s going on. Right now.”
Leon put a hand on her shoulder. “Baby, maybe you should—”
“No.” Sophia’s voice was steel. “These are my parents. Whatever this is, I deserve to know.”
Leon nodded slowly.
Then he turned to Marcus. “Show them.”
Marcus set up the laptop and played everything.
The alley meetings with Kravik enforcers. The coffee shop. The burner phone. The text message.
The security footage from tonight, showing weapons pointed directly at Sophia while Richard and Patricia kept her at that table.
With each new piece of evidence, Sophia’s face went paler.
By the time the footage ended, she was gripping the back of a chair so hard her knuckles were white.
“Dad.”
Her voice was very small. Very broken.
“Tell me this isn’t what it looks like.”
Richard finally looked up. His face was wet with tears, his eyes red and swollen.
“We didn’t know they wanted you, sweetheart. I swear to God, we thought they wanted Leon.”
His voice cracked.
“They said they just wanted Leon.”
