Chapter 20 - The Unseen Horizon
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The flight to Zurich was long, quiet, and completely devoid of turbulence.
Sophia sat in first class, sipping a glass of champagne, staring out the small oval window at the endless expanse of clouds below. The crimson silk dress she had worn to the gala was gone, discarded in a trash can at the airport. She wore a simple, comfortable cashmere sweater and dark jeans.
She was no longer the woman who fixed broken watches for a man who lied to her. She was a woman who held the financial fate of an entire criminal syndicate on a piece of plastic the size of her thumb.
She opened her laptop, connecting to the airplane’s secure Wi-Fi.
She accessed the hidden server that controlled the dead-man’s switch. The timer was ticking down from twelve hours. She typed in her complex passcode, resetting the timer for another day. She would have to do this every single day for the rest of her life, or at least until Adrian Moretti was dead.
It was a heavy burden, but it was a burden of her own making, and it guaranteed her absolute freedom.
She checked the international news feeds. The headlines out of New York were chaotic. A massive gang war had erupted on the streets of Manhattan. The Russo family and the Moretti syndicate were tearing each other apart in a bloody battle for supremacy.
Adrian was fighting the war he had desperately tried to avoid. And he was fighting it without his most loyal security chief, and without the woman he claimed to love.
Sophia closed the laptop, the soft click echoing in the quiet cabin.
She didn't feel victorious. She didn't feel happy. She felt an overwhelming, profound sense of peace. The storm was raging thousands of miles away, and for the first time in four years, she was completely, unequivocally safe.
She took a sip of her champagne as the plane began its descent into the Swiss Alps. She had no destination, no itinerary, and no one waiting for her.
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She smiled, a genuine, beautiful expression, as the wheels touched down on the tarmac.
The future was an entirely blank canvas, and she was the only one holding the brush.
