Chapter 13 - Face to Face
Julian bolted. He sprinted through the private gallery toward the helipad at the rear of the estate, where his personal helicopter stood idling, blades slowly turning for an emergency evacuation.
Sofia chased him through the shattered glass doors of the terrace. The ocean wind hit her face again, smelling of the same salt water that had nearly drowned her thirty-six hours ago.
""Julian!"" she shouted.
He spun around on the concrete pad, raising his pistol with both hands. His tailored suit was torn, his hair wild, his face twisted in madness. ""Stay back! You're a ghost! You died in the ocean! I threw you out! You can't be here!""
""You threw your own child into the sea,"" Sofia said, stepping forward onto the pad, her weapon lowered at her side. ""Look at me, Julian. Look at what you failed to kill.""
His hand shook uncontrollably on the grip. ""It was business, Sofia! Your father was weak! He wouldn't expand! You were going to take his side! You would have ruined everything I built!""
""You built nothing,"" she said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper. ""You were an orphan my father pulled out of the gutter and gave a name. And you repaid him with poison.""
Julian screamed, cocking the hammer of his gun, his finger tightening on the trigger.
A single shot echoed across the terrace.
Julian gasped, his eyes widening in shock. He looked down at his chest, where a dark crimson circle was spreading across his white silk shirt. Behind him on the lawn stood Mateo, his arm in a sling, holding the old pump-action shotgun with one steady hand, smoke drifting from the barrel.
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""That was for the truck,"" Mateo said in a gravelly voice.
Julian dropped to his knees on the concrete, his gun clattering away across the tarmac.
