Chapter 5 - The Brother Nobody Knew
The hidden basement door swung open, and Marco shouted, "Nobody move!"
A shadow crossed the doorway.
Luca raised his gun.
Gabriel still held the telephone against his ear.
Then the voice on the line whispered, "Your sister is standing closer than you think."
The connection died.
For one second, nobody breathed.
Marco rushed toward the hidden doorway.
"Clear!"
He disappeared down the stairs.
Luca followed.
I stood beside Emily, staring at Gabriel.
He hadn't moved.
The photograph lay across his lap.
NEVER TELL HIM WHO HIS REAL FATHER IS.
And the voice on the phone had called me his sister.
"No," I said.
Gabriel looked at me.
"Agreed."
"That can't be true."
"I said agreed."
Emily stepped closer.
"But Mom's message—"
"Doesn't prove anything," I said.
My voice sounded too loud.
Too desperate.
Gabriel placed the receiver down.
"Someone wants us confused."
"Finally, something sensible."
"Don't sound so relieved."
"I'm trying very hard not to discover I accidentally spilled coffee on my brother."
Gabriel stared at me.
Then, impossibly, he laughed.
One short sound.
Emily blinked.
I stared.
"Did you just laugh?"
"No."
"You absolutely did."
"I suffered a respiratory malfunction."
"That's called laughing."
"Claire."
The moment disappeared when Marco returned.
"Nobody there."
"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked.
"The hidden room is empty."
"We were just inside it."
"Not that room."
Marco pointed toward the basement.
"There's another passage."
Of course there was.
Apparently my childhood home contained more secret doors than bedrooms.
Gabriel looked toward Luca.
"Where does it lead?"
"Rear alley."
"So whoever opened the door was already inside."
"Yes."
Gabriel's face hardened.
"They wanted us looking downstairs while they made the call."
Emily hugged herself.
"Can we please leave?"
I looked at her.
For the first time since finding her, I really saw how frightened she was.
"Yes."
Gabriel nodded.
"We're done here."
Marco looked surprised.
"You don't want to search the passage?"
"My people can search it."
"But—"
"I have Claire's sister in a house where someone held her hostage. We leave."
That settled it.
Twenty minutes later we were back inside the armored SUV.
Emily sat beside me.
Gabriel sat opposite us.
Nobody spoke for several blocks.
Finally Emily looked at Gabriel.
"So you're the mafia boss."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
"Apparently."
"Claire didn't mention you."
"She met me this morning."
Emily turned toward me.
"You met a mafia boss this morning?"
"I also spilled coffee on him."
Gabriel added, "A considerable amount."
"Why?"
"It wasn't intentional."
Emily looked at his stained clothing.
Then at me.
Then she started laughing.
I covered my face.
"Please don't."
"I'm sorry."
She wasn't.
Gabriel watched us.
Something strange passed through his expression.
Maybe he'd forgotten what normal siblings sounded like.
Then Emily became serious.
"Why did those men take me?"
Gabriel answered.
"To control Claire."
"Because of Mom?"
"Probably."
"That's not an answer."
"Your sister says the same thing."
"We share DNA."
Gabriel looked toward the photograph on his lap.
Nobody missed the irony.
Emily's smile disappeared.
"Right."
I leaned forward.
"We need to test it."
Gabriel looked at me.
"The note?"
"The possibility."
"DNA."
"Yes."
Dr. Mercer, sitting in the front passenger seat, turned around.
"I can arrange it."
"How fast?" Gabriel asked.
"Several hours if I use the private laboratory."
Gabriel nodded.
"Do it."
I looked at him.
"No objection?"
"I'd rather know."
"So would I."
Emily raised one finger.
"Just so I'm clear, we're testing whether my sister and the man who threatened to bury her under roses are siblings?"
Gabriel looked at her.
"That's an unnecessarily dramatic summary."
I stared at him.
"That's exactly what you said."
Emily whispered, "I like him."
"Don't encourage him."
Gabriel looked out the window.
But I saw it again.
That almost-smile.
Back at the mansion, security had doubled.
Every employee was searched.
Phones collected.
Doors monitored.
Gabriel ordered Emily placed in the safest guest suite.
She refused.
"I'm staying with Claire."
Gabriel didn't argue.
"Fine."
I expected some luxurious bedroom.
Instead, Gabriel brought us to a secure residential wing connected to his private office.
"This area has independent security."
Emily looked around.
"How many people have tried to kill you?"
Gabriel considered it.
"Recently?"
I sighed.
"Don't answer."
"Five."
Emily's eyes widened.
"Gabriel."
"You told me not to answer after she asked."
"You're impossible."
"I've heard."
Dr. Mercer collected blood from Gabriel and me.
Emily watched.
"Wouldn't you need Mom's DNA?"
"Not necessarily," Dr. Mercer explained. "A sibling comparison can establish whether they share enough genetic markers to suggest a close biological relationship."
Gabriel looked at me.
"Several hours?"
"Maybe four."
"Make it two."
Dr. Mercer stared at him.
"Science doesn't respond to intimidation."
"Everything responds to intimidation."
"Enzymes don't."
I laughed.
Gabriel glared at both of us.
"Fine. Four."
Dr. Mercer left with the samples.
Gabriel summoned Marco and Luca.
"We find Dominic."
Marco placed a tablet on the desk.
"We already found something."
Security footage appeared.
A black sedan entered the Moretti estate at 2:13 that afternoon.
The driver showed credentials.
Dominic Moretti.
The car drove toward the old guesthouse.
But nobody had seen Dominic leave.
"Where's the vehicle?" Gabriel asked.
"Found abandoned near the east wall."
"Blood?"
"Some."
"Body?"
"No."
"So either Dominic was attacked or staged it."
"Exactly."
Gabriel leaned back.
"Show me the gate footage."
Marco rewound.
The driver's window lowered.
A man handed credentials to the guard.
The image wasn't perfect.
But I could see enough.
Gray hair.
Late fifties.
Expensive coat.
Snake-and-crown ring.
My stomach tightened.
"That's him."
Everyone looked at me.
Gabriel's voice became quiet.
"You're certain?"
I stared at the screen.
A memory struck me.
The basement.
My mother shouting.
A man's hand gripping her wrist.
That ring.
"Yes."
My breathing accelerated.
"Dominic was in the basement."
Gabriel watched me carefully.
"Nineteen years ago?"
"Yes."
"Claire."
"He threatened her."
Another memory.
My mother pushing me behind boxes.
Dominic saying:
You should have left the numbers alone.
I gripped the desk.
"He knew she found the account."
Gabriel reached toward me.
Then stopped before touching me.
"Sit."
"I'm fine."
"You say that whenever you're visibly not fine."
I sat.
Emily took my hand.
"What else?"
I closed my eyes.
"Mom told him she'd copied everything."
"Where?"
"I don't remember."
"Don't force it," Gabriel said.
Again.
That same unexpected patience.
Marco enlarged the footage.
"Look."
Dominic wasn't alone in the car.
Someone sat in the passenger seat.
The person's face was hidden.
But a hand rested against the window.
A woman's hand.
A medical bracelet.
Dr. Mercer had worn one exactly like it.
I looked toward the door she'd exited through.
"Could that be Evelyn?"
Marco shook his head.
"Too blurry."
Gabriel immediately called her.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
His expression changed.
"Find Dr. Mercer."
Luca left.
I looked at Gabriel.
"You think she's involved?"
"I think everyone is involved until proven otherwise."
"Including me?"
His eyes met mine.
"You found the capsule."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"No."
I waited.
He sighed.
"I don't think you're involved."
"Why?"
"Because nobody competent would begin an assassination attempt by throwing iced coffee on the target."
Emily covered a laugh.
I pointed at Gabriel.
"Keep talking and I'll find another cup."
"Threatening a disabled man."
"Threatening my employer."
"Better."
The humor lasted only seconds.
Luca returned.
"Dr. Mercer's gone."
Gabriel's expression froze.
"What?"
"Her car is still here."
"Security footage?"
"Nothing."
"How does a woman disappear from a locked estate?"
Marco answered quietly.
"Same way someone entered the guesthouse."
"Tunnels," I said.
Gabriel looked at him.
"What tunnels?"
Marco hesitated.
"Old service passages beneath the property."
Gabriel stared.
"You never mentioned those."
"I thought they were sealed."
"Apparently today is full of things people thought."
Marco brought up architectural plans.
A network of tunnels ran beneath the mansion.
One ended beneath Gabriel's private study.
Another connected to the medical wing.
A third extended toward the old guesthouse.
And one disappeared beneath the eastern garden.
"The roses," I said.
Gabriel looked at me.
"What?"
"Your roses."
He followed the map.
The tunnel ended beneath the rose garden.
Emily looked between us.
"Please tell me he doesn't actually bury people there."
I said, "Still unclear."
Gabriel ignored us.
"Open the entrance."
Marco located the concealed access point behind a cabinet.
It required a numeric code.
Four digits.
Gabriel tried his security code.
Denied.
Marco tried his.
Denied.
I stared at the keypad.
"417."
Gabriel looked at me.
"Four digits."
"0417."
Marco entered it.
Green light.
The cabinet unlocked.
Nobody spoke.
Gabriel gave me a look.
"You've become disturbingly useful."
"I preferred being clumsy."
Marco opened the passage.
Cold air rose from below.
Gabriel looked at the narrow stairs.
Again, the wheelchair problem.
His face tightened.
This time I understood before he said anything.
"No."
He looked at me.
"No what?"
"You're not staying behind."
"Claire."
"There's another entrance under the roses."
He followed my logic.
"If the map is accurate."
"So we use that one."
Marco frowned.
"We haven't checked it."
"Then check it."
Gabriel stared at me.
I folded my arms.
"You're the one who said we stay together."
His expression softened almost imperceptibly.
"Fine."
The rose garden entrance was hidden beneath a stone maintenance platform.
A hydraulic lift descended into the tunnel.
Gabriel could use it.
We went down together.
Marco first.
Luca behind us.
Emily remained upstairs with armed security.
The tunnel smelled of earth and old concrete.
Fresh footprints marked the floor.
Someone had passed recently.
We followed them.
Two hundred feet.
Then another door.
Unlocked.
Marco opened it.
A hidden medical room lay beyond.
Hospital bed.
IV equipment.
Medication cabinets.
Monitors.
And photographs.
Hundreds.
Gabriel.
Vittorio.
Marco.
Luca.
Me.
Emily.
Dr. Mercer.
One photograph showed Gabriel asleep in his bedroom.
Another showed someone replacing his medication.
The face wasn't visible.
I approached the cabinet.
Inside were capsules.
Hundreds.
All marked 417.
"Gabriel."
He stared.
Someone had prepared enough tampered medication to continue for months.
Marco opened a drawer.
Bank statements.
Account 417.
Gabriel's stolen inheritance.
Transfers totaling more than sixty million dollars.
Then Luca found a leather folder.
"Boss."
Gabriel opened it.
LEGAL TRANSFER OF MORETTI FAMILY TRUST.
The beneficiary name had been covered with black ink.
I held the page toward the light.
Letters appeared beneath.
C.
L.
A.
I.
R.
E.
My heart stopped.
"No."
Gabriel stared at me.
"The stolen inheritance..."
"It can't be mine."
Marco flipped to the final page.
Vittorio's signature.
Eleanor Bennett's signature.
And a third signature.
Dominic Moretti.
Gabriel looked stunned.
"Why would my father's money transfer to you?"
"I don't know."
Then a monitor switched on by itself.
Dr. Mercer appeared onscreen.
She was tied to a chair.
Blood ran from her forehead.
"Gabriel," she gasped.
The recording timestamp said LIVE.
"Where are you?" Gabriel demanded.
She couldn't hear him.
Someone stepped behind her.
Only hands visible.
A snake-and-crown ring.
Dominic.
Dr. Mercer looked directly into the camera.
"He lied about the inheritance."
Dominic's hand tightened on her shoulder.
She continued quickly.
"Claire isn't your sister."
I stopped breathing.
Gabriel leaned toward the screen.
Dr. Mercer said, "The DNA test was never meant to prove that."
The video flickered.
Gabriel whispered, "Then what was it meant to prove?"
Dr. Mercer looked terrified.
"Gabriel, Vittorio wasn't your biological father."
The screen went black.
Silence.
Then the printer beside us suddenly activated.
One sheet emerged.
A DNA report.
Gabriel took it.
His hands began shaking.
I looked over his shoulder.
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: 99.98%.
Gabriel stared at the name listed under FATHER.
His face lost all color.
I read it.
DOMINIC MORETTI.
Before anyone could speak, footsteps sounded from the tunnel.
Slow.
Approaching.
A man's voice came from the darkness.
"Now ask Gabriel who ordered the explosion."
The steel door behind us slammed shut.
May you like
The lights died.
And someone inside the room whispered, "Claire, your mother is still alive."
