Chapter 32: Friends Among Thieves 

*Dante*

The grainy black and white security footage flickered across the screen, each frame a puzzle piece I desperately hoped would reveal the truth about that fateful night. Hour after mind-numbing hour, I scoured the recordings from every security camera, from every angle near the gritty neighborhood where Layla was abducted.

Just as the tedium began to dull my focus, a flicker of movement snagged my attention. I hit pause, my breath seizing. There, lurking at the fringes of the frame, was the unmistakable gleam of Sophia's sleek Maserati.

Icy fingers closed around my throat as I checked the timestamp–2:35pm, mere hours before Layla had last been seen. Sophia had no business anywhere near that cesspit of human misery. So why had she ventured there that day?