The Missing Pages
Chapter 07 - The Missing Pages
Sofia took Elias to a private clinic.
The shove had cracked one rib, but the injury did not require surgery. Elias complained more about the cost of the scan than the pain.
While he rested, Maya examined the documents.
The patent certificate was genuine. The trust title was genuine. But the missing pages from Daniel’s letter mattered most. Without them, they could prove a historical partnership, not deliberate fraud or criminal conduct.
Sofia asked Elias why he had waited so long.
“Your father made me promise,” he said.
“To let Victor steal everything?”
“To protect you until you could choose without being forced by either family.”
Daniel had believed Victor might target Sofia if the trust documents surfaced while she was young. After Daniel’s death, Victor offered to pay Sofia’s education and welcomed her into the Cross household. To the public, it looked generous.
In reality, he kept the beneficiary of the trust close enough to monitor.
Dominic grew up beside her. He knew her grief, her ambitions, and the places where she doubted herself. Their friendship became romance slowly enough that Sofia never questioned whether Victor encouraged it.
Maya discovered the marriage contract contained a dangerous clause. Upon marriage, Sofia would appoint Dominic as co-trustee of any undisclosed Bennett assets.
The wedding was not only social theater.
It was the final step in gaining control of the prototype and patents.
Sofia felt physically sick.
“Did Dominic know?”
Elias did not answer.
That silence hurt more than certainty.
Meanwhile, the public story turned chaotic. Some praised Sofia for canceling the wedding. Others accused her of staging the incident for attention. Cross Automotive released edited footage showing Elias raising his voice before the shove, implying he had threatened Dominic.
Luis’s original recording disappeared from the platform after a copyright complaint.
Victor went on television that evening.
He described Elias as a disgruntled former executive who had returned under false pretenses. He called Sofia “a grieving young woman manipulated at an emotionally vulnerable moment.”
Then he announced that Cross Automotive would sue for possession of the Sovereign prototype.
At the clinic, Elias watched the interview without expression.
“He always was good with clean hands,” he said.
May you like
Sofia sat beside him.
“Then we make the dirt visible.”
