Page 96

He glances down at the screen and frowns.
“Thiago,” he mutters, stepping away from the table.
My eyes track him, something tightening low in my gut.
Viktor answers. “Hello Thiago.”
Thiago’s voice comes through rough and thin, and tired, like gravel dragged across rusted metal. “Viktor.”
Something’s off. His tone is clipped and heavy. Weighted with something more than illness.
“You’re still not getting better?” Viktor asks, quieter now.
We all know the answer. We’ve seen Thiago lying in that bed, pride bleeding through pain, eyes still sharp, his body weakening day by day. Yet he continues to command his sinking empire with his jaw clenched tightly against the agony. He has more steel than most men, even while falling apart.
“No,” Thiago says. “But that’s not why I’m calling.”
I stiffen at his next word.
“I’m calling about my daughter Xiomara.”
The name hits like a sucker punch.
Viktor glances back at us. I already feel the change in the room—the way everything suddenly narrows to a single point. Lev stops fiddling with his pen, and I stop breathing.
“What about her?” Viktor asks.
There’s a silence and heavy breathing on the other side. Then he speaks up again. “She was coming home,” Thiago says. “After all these years. She finally wanted to come back.”
My lungs burn, but still, I don’t move.
“And?” Viktor asks.
“She never showed up. She and my grandson landed in JFK last night.” His voice fractures. “And then they vanished.”
I go still. Completely, and absolutely still.
“She has a… son?” Viktor asks slowly. Looking at me.
“Two years old,” Thiago rasps breathlessly. “My first and only grandchild.”
His words rip through me like a blade between the ribs, and my hands curl. My chest starts to cave in around a pressure I don’t have words for.
Lev shifts slightly beside me, glancing my way.
He feels it too.
“I’ve called in favors,” Thiago says. “I’ve moved money. Men. I’ve pulled strings I shouldn’t even still have. And yet nothing.”
Viktor’s face hardens. “She’s been gone a long time, Thiago. She kept herself off the grid for a reason.”
“I know,” Thiago snaps. “And I respected it. I gave her space. But now she’s gone again. And this time, it’s not her choice.”
There is another pause before Thiago speaks again.
“You remember when Scarlett was taken? And even when your sister was taken?”
I look at Viktor.