Chapter 11
624words
Sofia loved him so much. How could she really leave?
She had to be bluffing. She must be trying to scare him and vying for his attention.
Yes. That had to be it.
Just then, another call came in.
It was Dr. Caldwell, Eleanor Mitchell’s attending physician and the heart specialist the family had recruited at great expense from an elite East Coast medical institution.
"Mr. Falcone, there’s something I need to tell you…" Dr. Caldwell’s voice carried guilt and panic. "When Eleanor suffered cardiac arrest last month, we could have saved her, but… someone paid me to delay treatment at the critical moment.
"I… I’ve been living with overwhelming guilt. Now the FBI has found me. They want my cooperation. I’m sorry, Mr. Falcone. I can’t help you anymore.
"I’ve hired a lawyer and am preparing to negotiate a plea with federal agents."
In that instant, Dante felt as if thunder had exploded inside his skull. He could barely believe what he was hearing.
She died? Eleanor really died?
Wasn’t she still being treated?
He murmured to himself, his thoughts collapsing into chaos.
If she died, why didn’t Sofia tell him? Why didn’t she come to him?
Suddenly, Dante remembered a phone call.
Sofia had called him. It seemed like… sometime last month.
That day, he had been attending a medical summit with Olivia, and Olivia had answered the phone.
What had she said?
Dante forced himself to remember, and his face drained of color.
Olivia had said, "Oh, that’s unfortunate. But Dante doesn’t have time right now…"
So that call had been Sofia telling him that her mother had passed away. Olivia had hung up, and he hadn’t even spoken a single word to Sofia.
In that moment, Dante finally realized what he had done. He rushed out of the house in a panic and drove his Tesla straight to Logan International Airport.
Unfortunately, the airport staff told him that the Swiss Air flight to Zurich had departed two hours earlier.
Dante stood in the terminal, completely stunned.
She was really gone. She had left, and he didn’t even know how to find her.
Just then, his phone rang again. It was an emergency call from the office.
"Mr. Falcone, something’s gone terribly wrong! Several of our new drug formulas have been leaked! Our competitors, including pharmaceutical manufacturers controlled by the Russian mafia, have already begun replication. Our patent advantage is gone!"
"That Alzheimer’s drug alone is worth fifty billion dollars! And the evidence of our collusion with hospitals to inflate prices has also been exposed! The FDA has launched an investigation. Multiple hospitals have terminated their partnerships with us!
"Our stock has crashed by 40%. The board—the family elders—is demanding that you return immediately for an emergency meeting!
"Your father, William Falcone, is threatening to remove you from the board. He’s even talking about enforcing family discipline!"
Dante’s hand trembled as he gripped the phone. These core secrets were known only to him and the top executives.
And Sofia—she had the highest level of access to the company’s internal network. He had given it to her himself.
He had believed she didn’t understand any of it because he thought she was just a gentle, obedient trophy wife.
However, he was wrong. He had been wrong from the very beginning.
Sofia had never been a little girl who needed his protection. She was a medical genius who could stand on her own.
Meanwhile, he was the one who had destroyed everything she had.
Dante collapsed into a chair in the airport terminal, burying his face in his hands. Only then did he truly understand what it was that he had lost.
