Chapter 6 - The Man I Buried
I stared at the photograph until my eyes hurt.
“No.”
Alessandro took the phone.
“We verify before we react.”
“That is Gabriel.”
“It may be an old photograph.”
“The crib is new.”
He knew I was right.
A yellow stain marked one corner where Mia had spilled formula the week before Gabriel died.
Thomas stood.
“Marco has him.”
I turned.
“You knew he might be alive?”
“No.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Elena—”
“Everybody keeps telling me they were protecting me while deciding what truth I was allowed to know.”
Nobody answered.
I grabbed my coat.
Alessandro blocked the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“No.”
“Move.”
“Marco wants you there.”
“Gabriel may be alive.”
“Exactly.”
“I buried him.”
My voice broke.
“I stood beside his coffin. I watched them lower it into the ground.”
“Did you see his body?”
I froze.
Closed casket.
The police said the accident had caused severe injuries.
I had never seen him.
Alessandro read the answer in my face.
“Security goes first.”
Ten minutes later, we were traveling toward Queens.
Mia stayed at the penthouse with Lucia and six security officers.
Leaving her felt impossible.
Taking her felt worse.
My apartment door stood open.
No Marco.
No Gabriel.
Only Mia's crib.
On the mattress lay a phone.
It rang.
Alessandro answered on speaker.
Marco.
“Elena.”
“Where is Gabriel?”
“You should ask him yourself.”
A sound followed.
Breathing.
Then—
“El?”
My knees gave out.
Alessandro caught me.
Gabriel.
Alive.
“Elena, I'm sorry.”
I couldn't speak.
“I wanted to come home.”
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Gabriel.”
“They have people everywhere.”
“Who?”
A pause.
“Dominion.”
“Marco?”
“No.”
Alessandro and Thomas exchanged a look.
Gabriel continued.
“Marco isn't running Dominion.”
“Then who is?”
“I thought it was Vittorio. Then Marco. We were wrong.”
“Who?”
Before Gabriel could answer, another voice entered.
A woman's.
“Enough.”
The call ended.
I stared at the phone.
Thomas looked like he had seen a ghost.
“You recognized her.”
He said nothing.
“Dad.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
His face went gray.
“Sofia Vale.”
Gabriel's mother.
The woman who had supposedly disappeared decades ago.
Alessandro sank into a chair.
“My brother's girlfriend.”
“She wasn't just his girlfriend,” Thomas said.
“What?”
“She worked for Dominion before Luca met her.”
Alessandro stared.
“She was spying on him?”
“At first.”
“And afterward?”
“She fell in love with him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she came to me after Luca died.”
Thomas told us the final piece.
Sofia believed Marco had ordered Luca's murder.
She took Gabriel and vanished.
But years later she learned the truth.
Dominion Vale had existed before Marco.
Before Vittorio.
It was controlled through a private board.
Sofia eventually took control of it herself.
“She has been manipulating both sides,” Alessandro said.
Thomas nodded.
“Why?”
“Revenge.”
“Against whom?”
“The entire Duca family.”
I thought of Gabriel.
“Then why keep her own son prisoner?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Because Gabriel refused to let her use Mia.”
The truth settled like ice.
Mia wasn't only an heir.
She was Sofia's leverage against Alessandro, Marco, and every surviving Duca.
We returned to the penthouse.
Lucia met us at the elevator.
“Mia is asleep.”
I almost collapsed with relief.
Then Lucia handed me something.
“A woman delivered this.”
A handwritten letter.
Elena,
If you want Gabriel alive, bring the original ledger to Pier 41 at midnight.
Come with Alessandro.
No police.
No Thomas.
S.
Alessandro read it.
“You're not going.”
“Yes, I am.”
“Elena.”
“That's Mia's father.”
“And this is obviously a trap.”
“Then we'll know we're walking into one.”
Thomas protested.
Alessandro silenced him.
At 11:45, we left.
The original ledger remained in a secure vault.
We carried a copy.
Pier 41 was nearly empty.
A warehouse door stood open.
Inside, Gabriel sat tied to a chair.
Alive.
Thin.
Bruised.
But alive.
I ran toward him.
“Elena!”
A gunshot hit the floor between us.
I stopped.
Sofia Vale stepped from the shadows.
She was in her fifties.
Elegant.
Cold.
Her eyes resembled Gabriel's.
“You brought the ledger?”
Alessandro held up the bag.
“Release him.”
“You always did negotiate like Vittorio.”
“And you always hid behind other people?”
She smiled.
“I spent thirty years watching your family destroy everyone it touched.”
“My brother loved you.”
Her expression cracked.
“Yes.”
“Then why do this to his son?”
“Because Gabriel became weak.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“No. I became a father.”
Sofia's face hardened.
“You abandoned your birthright.”
“I protected my daughter.”
“You would hand everything Luca died for to Alessandro?”
“I'd hand everything away if it kept Mia safe.”
I started crying.
Gabriel looked at me.
“I'm sorry.”
“You're alive.”
“I tried to reach you.”
Sofia interrupted.
“He had many opportunities to cooperate.”
I looked at her.
“You staged his death.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make you disappear.”
“Then why follow us?”
“Because you didn't disappear far enough.”
Alessandro shifted subtly.
I realized he was buying time.
His watch.
A tracker.
Sofia noticed too.
“Take it off.”
He did.
“Now the ledger.”
He tossed the bag.
One of Sofia's men checked it.
“Copy.”
Her expression changed.
“You lied.”
Alessandro shrugged.
“You kidnapped my nephew. I felt our relationship had already become somewhat dishonest.”
Despite everything, Gabriel almost laughed.
Then sirens sounded.
Not police.
Fire alarms.
Sprinklers erupted.
The warehouse lights died.
Chaos.
Alessandro grabbed me.
Gabriel kicked his chair sideways.
I ran toward him.
Security rushed through a side entrance.
Shots cracked.
Then silence.
When emergency lights returned, Sofia was gone.
Gabriel wasn't.
I dropped beside him.
He stared at me as if he couldn't believe I was real.
“You buried me.”
I slapped him.
Hard.
Then kissed him.
Then slapped him again.
“That seems fair,” he whispered.
I cried against his chest.
Alessandro cut the ropes.
For the first time, the three of us stood together.
The uncle who never knew.
The nephew who had been erased.
And the woman who had unknowingly carried the next generation of their family through a service elevator beneath a pile of towels.
We returned home before dawn.
Gabriel walked into the guest suite.
Mia was awake.
She stared at him.
For one terrible second, I wondered if eight months was too young to remember.
Then she squealed.
“Da!”
Gabriel broke.
He dropped to his knees.
Mia crawled into his arms.
He held her and sobbed.
Even Alessandro turned away.
Later, Gabriel told us everything.
Sofia had staged his death after he found proof connecting Dominion to Luca's murder.
But Sofia herself had not ordered Luca killed.
“Then who did?” Alessandro asked.
Gabriel looked at Thomas.
“My grandfather.”
“Vittorio?”
“Yes.”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
“He discovered Luca planned to expose everything. He authorized the hit.”
“And Marco?”
“Helped cover it up.”
Thomas looked sick.
“We have the ledger.”
“Not enough,” Gabriel said.
“There is a recording.”
Alessandro looked up.
“Where?”
“Vittorio recorded every major private meeting.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Where are the recordings?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“Inside Duca Capital headquarters.”
Alessandro's expression changed.
“Where?”
“Your father's old boardroom.”
“That room was renovated.”
“The recorder wasn't.”
Gabriel described a hidden compartment beneath the central conference table.
The next morning, we went together.
Alessandro unlocked the old boardroom.
The table remained.
He found the compartment.
Inside were dozens of drives.
One was labeled LUCA.
Alessandro reached for it.
Before his fingers touched it, every light in the room went out.
The electronic doors locked.
A woman's voice came through the conference speakers.
Sofia.
“You should have left the dead buried.”
Then a red light appeared beneath the table.
A countdown began.
00:30.
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00:29.
00:28.
