CHAPTER 7
Sophie froze, turning her head toward the sound of my voice with a look of polite confusion on her youthful face.
Eleanor Whitaker's smile instantly vanished as her eyes locked onto me, her face draining of all color as she recognized the woman standing before her.
"Sophie, get in the car right now!" Eleanor commanded sharply, her voice spiking with sudden, frantic panic as she grabbed her daughter's arm.
"Mom, wait... who is that woman?" Sophie asked, glancing between Eleanor's terrified expression and my tear-stained face. "Why is she looking at me like that?"
"I said get in the car!" Eleanor shouted, practically shoving the seventeen-year-old girl into the leather passenger seat before slamming the door shut.
I ran toward the vehicle, pressing my hands against the wet glass of the passenger window as Eleanor scrambled into the driver's seat.
"Sophie! Look at this!" I cried out, holding the silver crescent moon pendant against the window pane. "Look at the necklace! Your name is Sophie Mendoza!"
Sophie stared through the glass, her dark eyes widening in complete shock as her hand instinctively flew to her own collarbone.
Tucked beneath her tennis jersey was an identical silver crescent moon pendant—the twin piece I had bought seventeen years ago.
Eleanor slammed the Porsche into reverse, tires screeching against the wet pavement as she sped out of the parking lot, leaving me standing in the exhaust fumes.
"Caroline!" a sharp voice barked from the street behind me.
May you like
I turned around to see Special Agent Marcus Reed from the FBI's Public Corruption Task Force stepping out of an unmarked federal vehicle, holding up his badge.
"Mrs. Mendoza," Agent Reed said sternly. "We've been monitoring Dr. Warren Pike's wiretaps for three months. You need to come with us right now."
