Chapter 3 - The Photograph on the Wall
For several seconds, I thought I had misheard him.
“Me?”
Gabriel did not answer.
Dominic's voice remained on speaker.
“Yes.”
“What kind of photograph?” Gabriel asked.
“Maya sleeping outside St. Matthew's shelter.”
My stomach dropped.
I knew the place.
I had slept there during winter.
Gabriel looked at me.
“You've never met Adrian?”
“No.”
“Amelia?”
“No.”
“Anyone connected to my family?”
“No.”
Celeste sat down.
That frightened me more than anything else.
She had been controlled through every accusation.
Now she looked weak.
Gabriel noticed.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“Mother.”
“I knew Amelia had investigated someone.”
“Who?”
Celeste looked at me.
“Maya.”
My throat tightened.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“That isn't good enough.”
“It has to be.”
Gabriel slammed one palm against the kitchen island.
Leo flinched.
Gabriel immediately stepped back.
His anger vanished from his face.
“Sorry, buddy.”
That moment told me more about him than every rumor I had heard.
A dangerous man would have blamed the room.
A father blamed himself.
I crouched beside Leo.
“You're okay.”
He nodded.
But his eyes stayed on Gabriel.
Gabriel lowered his voice.
“We're going to find out what's happening.”
Leo whispered, “Maya comes.”
Gabriel looked at me.
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Maya,” Leo said again.
I wanted to refuse.
I truly did.
The storage facility was connected to a kidnapping.
Pictures of me had been taken without my knowledge.
Every reasonable instinct said run.
But Leo was watching me with the terrified hope of a child who had chosen one person in the world to trust.
I hated how much that mattered.
“Fine,” I said.
Gabriel nodded.
Celeste stood.
“I’m coming too.”
“No.”
“You'll need me.”
“I don't trust you.”
“You shouldn't.”
Gabriel looked at her.
That was the first honest thing she had said all day.
We drove to the storage facility in two SUVs.
Leo stayed home with Dr. Morris and armed security.
He did not want to.
Before I left, he placed half the sandwich in my hand.
“You.”
I almost cried.
“You keep it.”
He pushed it toward me.
“You hungry.”
Gabriel stood behind him.
His face changed.
I accepted half.
“Okay.”
I ate it in the car.
Slowly.
Because it was the first food I had swallowed in almost twenty-four hours.
Gabriel noticed.
He said nothing.
The storage facility sat beneath an elevated train line.
Unit 317 was at the end of a concrete hallway.
Dominic waited outside.
“Sir.”
Gabriel walked in first.
Then stopped.
I entered behind him.
Photographs covered the walls.
Hundreds.
Leo at school.
Leo leaving therapy.
Leo riding in Gabriel's car.
Gabriel entering restaurants.
Celeste leaving church.
And me.
Sleeping outside St. Matthew's.
Standing in a soup-kitchen line.
Reading a newspaper in the library.
Carrying coffee trays at a temporary catering job.
Sitting beside my mother in a hospital hallway.
That one destroyed me.
My mother had been dead eleven months.
In the picture, she was still alive.
Thin.
Wrapped in a blue blanket.
Her head rested on my shoulder.
I crossed the room.
“Who took this?”
Nobody answered.
A file cabinet stood beneath the photographs.
Dominic opened it.
Folders.
Dozens.
Each labeled with names.
He pulled mine.
MAYA BENNETT.
Inside were copies of records.
My old address.
My employment history.
My mother's medical bills.
A photograph of my childhood home.
And one document I had never seen.
A birth certificate.
My birth certificate.
Except the father's line was different.
I stared.
“That's fake.”
Gabriel took it.
Mother: Diane Bennett.
Father: Thomas Vale.
Vale.
I looked at him.
“No.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
Gabriel's expression changed.
“Adrian Vale had a brother.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
“Thomas.”
“No.”
“Maya—”
“My father was named Daniel Bennett.”
Celeste spoke quietly.
“Daniel Bennett raised you.”
I turned on her.
“You know this?”
“I knew your mother.”
The room spun.
“You what?”
“Years ago.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You knew Maya's mother?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Celeste looked older suddenly.
“Diane worked for your father.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“My father died eighteen years ago.”
“I know.”
“What did Diane do?”
Celeste hesitated.
“She kept records.”
“What records?”
“Everything.”
Dominic opened another drawer.
Inside sat an old cassette recorder.
A label had been taped across it.
AMELIA — IF LEO SPEAKS.
Gabriel went still.
Nobody touched it at first.
Then he pressed play.
Static.
A woman's voice filled the storage unit.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Amelia,” he whispered.
His dead wife.
Her voice was calm.
“Gabriel, if you're hearing this, then Leo has spoken again.”
He gripped the recorder.
She continued.
“That means someone found what I hid.”
Celeste whispered, “Turn it off.”
Gabriel ignored her.
“I didn't tell you because I was afraid of what you would do. Or what your mother would do. Your father left behind records tying the DeLuca organization to judges, contractors, police officers, and men who still believe those records belong to them.”
Gabriel's face hardened.
Amelia continued.
“I found them because Diane Bennett tried to expose them years ago.”
I felt cold.
My mother.
“But Diane disappeared from our world before she could finish. Her daughter Maya never knew the truth about her father.”
I sat down on a metal chair.
My legs would not hold me.
“Thomas Vale was Diane's source. Adrian's younger brother. He disappeared shortly before Maya was born.”
Gabriel looked at me.
I couldn't look back.
“Adrian believed the DeLucas killed Thomas. Your father believed Adrian killed him. Both were wrong.”
The recording clicked.
Then continued.
“Celeste knows who did.”
Every head turned.
Celeste looked at the floor.
Gabriel's voice was dangerous.
“Who?”
The recording continued before Celeste could answer.
“Gabriel, do not trust anyone who tells you Adrian is the enemy. He's dangerous. He's angry. But he's trying to protect Leo from the same person who killed Thomas Vale.”
The tape ended.
Silence filled the unit.
Gabriel looked at his mother.
Celeste whispered, “Amelia didn't know everything.”
“Then tell me.”
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“You don't understand what this will do.”
“To whom?”
“To this family.”
Gabriel laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“This family kidnapped my son today.”
“I didn't.”
“Then who?”
She looked toward the hallway.
A sound echoed outside.
Footsteps.
Dominic reached inside his jacket.
Gabriel lifted a hand.
The footsteps stopped.
A man's voice came from beyond the door.
“You always were impatient, Gabriel.”
Celeste went pale.
Gabriel stepped toward the entrance.
“Adrian.”
A man appeared.
Late fifties.
Gray at the temples.
A scar along his jaw.
No weapon visible.
He looked at me first.
Not Gabriel.
Me.
His expression changed.
“Thomas's eyes.”
I stopped breathing.
“You knew my father?”
Adrian smiled sadly.
“I knew him better than anyone.”
Gabriel moved between us.
“Did you take my son?”
“Yes.”
Celeste gasped.
Dominic shifted.
Gabriel's hands curled.
“Why?”
“To keep him alive.”
Gabriel lunged.
Dominic grabbed his shoulder.
“Sir.”
Adrian did not move.
“If I wanted your boy dead, he wouldn't have been outside a grocery store where you could find him.”
Gabriel's voice shook.
“You terrified him.”
“I removed him from a car driven by someone else.”
That stopped everyone.
“What?”
“Leo was taken from school by a man using one of your authorized vehicles. My people intercepted them. I got Leo out. He ran before I could explain.”
Gabriel stared.
“Who took him first?”
Adrian looked at Celeste.
She shook her head.
“Don't.”
Adrian ignored her.
“Ask your mother who still has access to every DeLuca vehicle.”
Gabriel turned slowly.
Celeste's face crumpled.
“No.”
“Who?” Gabriel asked.
She closed her eyes.
“My brother.”
Gabriel stared.
“Uncle Victor?”
Adrian nodded.
Victor DeLuca.
The family patriarch nobody talked about anymore.
Officially retired.
Unofficially, still powerful.
Gabriel took out his phone.
Adrian stopped him.
“If Victor knows you've found this unit, Leo is already in danger.”
Gabriel dialed anyway.
The call connected immediately.
Dr. Morris answered.
“Gabriel?”
“Where's Leo?”
A pause.
Gabriel's face changed.
“Elena.”
“I thought Dominic sent the car.”
Nobody breathed.
“What car?”
“The driver said you wanted Leo moved.”
Gabriel looked at Dominic.
Dominic shook his head.
“When?”
“Five minutes ago.”
Gabriel's voice dropped to a whisper.
“Elena, listen to me. That wasn't my car.”
We heard Dr. Morris inhale sharply.
Then a crash.
The line went dead.
Gabriel called again.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Dominic was already moving.
“We're going.”
Adrian grabbed Gabriel's arm.
“Victor won't take him home.”
Gabriel ripped free.
“Then where?”
Adrian looked at the photograph of Amelia.
“To the place your wife died.”
Gabriel froze.
My stomach turned.
May you like
Adrian spoke one final sentence.
“Because Amelia's crash was never an accident.”
