Chapter 6 - What Nathan Hid
Chloe stood behind the locked door and whispered:
“Dad?”
Nathan Hastings slid an old photograph beneath the threshold.
Eight-year-old Chloe stood between him and Elena Russo.
A handwritten date appeared on the back.
Two weeks before Nathan supposedly died.
Chloe unlocked the door.
Carlo tried to stop her.
She ignored him.
Nathan Hastings stood in the corridor.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray threaded through his brown hair.
But alive.
For fourteen years Chloe had remembered her father as a thirty-something man frozen in family photographs.
Now time had caught him.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Chloe.”
She slapped him.
The sound was quieter than the one she had delivered to Dominic.
But the emotion behind it was worse.
Nathan did not move.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury you.”
“Yes.”
“You let Mom think—”
“She knew.”
“That makes it better?”
“No.”
Chloe shoved him.
“You watched us struggle.”
“I couldn’t contact you.”
“You knew about her medical bills.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I left school.”
“Yes.”
“You knew everything.”
His silence answered.
Chloe’s eyes burned.
“I hated you for dying.”
Nathan’s face broke.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I read every letter you wrote to me after the funeral.”
She stared.
“What?”
“Your mother kept copies.”
Chloe could barely breathe.
“I wrote those because I thought you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You had no right.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Nathan looked toward Luca.
“Because Gabriel would have killed you.”
Carlo spoke from behind Chloe.
“Explain the scar.”
Nathan’s eyes moved to Chloe’s ear.
His expression darkened.
“I never put anything inside her.”
Chloe stared.
“Gabriel said—”
“Gabriel lies.”
“Then what is the scar?”
“Tracker removal.”
The room went silent.
Nathan continued.
“Gabriel implanted a tracking device after taking you for six hours when you were eight.”
Chloe’s stomach turned.
“I was kidnapped?”
“You were returned before your mother knew.”
“You never told her?”
“I told her enough to make us disappear.”
Chloe struggled to process it.
Nathan stepped into the room.
“I was Gabriel’s financial analyst. He was laundering money through construction companies. I found records showing he was buying loyalty inside the Russo organization.”
“Dominic’s organization.”
“Yes.”
“I tried to expose him.”
“What happened?”
“He found out.”
Nathan looked at Luca.
“Years later Elena discovered pieces of the same network. She tracked me down because she needed proof.”
“The photo.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know she was going to die?”
Nathan’s eyes lowered.
“I knew she was in danger.”
Chloe’s anger returned.
“And you left her here?”
“She refused to leave without Luca.”
Chloe looked toward the little boy.
Nathan continued.
“We planned to meet the night she died.”
Carlo’s jaw tightened.
“She never reached you.”
“No.”
“Who pushed her?”
Nathan looked at Carlo.
“Gabriel.”
Luca made a small sound.
Chloe moved immediately beside him.
Nathan crouched.
“I’m sorry.”
Luca hid against Chloe.
Nathan stood again.
“Gabriel went to Elena that night. She had a drive containing financial records. He demanded it. She refused.”
Dominic’s voice came from the doorway.
“So he killed her.”
Everyone turned.
Dominic stood there covered in dust and blood.
Chloe’s mother was beside Adrian behind him.
Alive.
“Mom.”
Chloe ran to her.
They held each other.
For a moment nothing else existed.
Then Chloe pulled back.
“You knew.”
Her mother cried.
“I did.”
“We’re talking about that later.”
“I know.”
Dominic walked toward Nathan.
“You saw Gabriel kill Elena?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Mara saw him.”
“Mara is dead.”
Nathan shook his head.
“No.”
Carlo stared.
“I saw the body.”
“You saw a body identified as Mara Bellini.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Where is she?”
“Alive.”
Chloe almost laughed from sheer exhaustion.
“Is anyone actually dead in this story?”
Adrian muttered, “Apparently Elena.”
Nobody smiled.
Nathan continued.
“Mara has been in federal protection for eighteen months.”
Dominic’s gaze became lethal.
“And nobody told me?”
“She refused to come forward until Luca was safe.”
“My son has been living in the same house where Gabriel murdered his mother.”
“Exactly.”
Dominic looked like he might break something.
Then Luca flinched.
Dominic noticed.
His hands opened.
He forced them to his sides.
Chloe saw the effort.
Again.
He was learning.
“Where is Gabriel?” Dominic asked.
Nathan looked at the computer.
“Close.”
“How close?”
“He manipulated Chloe into this house because he thought I gave Elena evidence that eventually reached her.”
“Did it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Nathan looked at Chloe.
She went still.
“Not inside you.”
“Then where?”
Nathan pointed toward the plush wolf Luca held.
Everyone stared.
Chloe looked at the toy.
“No.”
Nathan nodded.
“Elena asked me to create one final backup.”
Luca clutched the wolf tighter.
“That toy belonged to Elena when she was a child.”
Dominic whispered, “She gave it to Luca.”
“Yes.”
Chloe turned the wolf over.
A seam ran along its back.
She had noticed it before but assumed it was a repair.
Nathan opened it carefully.
Inside the stuffing was a small waterproof capsule.
Dominic stared at it.
Nathan removed a memory card.
“The entire network.”
Carlo exhaled.
“Names?”
“Accounts. Murders. Judges. Police officers. Politicians. Captains. Everything Gabriel built.”
Dominic looked at the card.
“And Elena died protecting that.”
“Yes.”
Luca whispered, “Mama.”
Dominic knelt.
He stopped several feet away.
“Your mother protected you.”
Luca stared at him.
Dominic’s voice shook.
“And I should have protected you better.”
Chloe looked away.
It felt too private to watch.
Luca did not approach his father.
But he did not hide either.
That was something.
Adrian inserted the memory card into an isolated laptop.
Files appeared.
Hundreds.
Then an encrypted folder.
Nathan entered a password.
ELENA.
The files unlocked.
Carlo leaned closer.
“Here.”
A payment ledger.
Gabriel had financed attacks attributed to the Moretti family.
He had murdered Russo men and blamed rivals.
He had engineered the war.
Dominic’s face became cold.
“He wanted me to destroy my own organization.”
Nathan shook his head.
“He wanted you to destroy yourself.”
Adrian opened another file.
Security footage.
Elena.
The grand staircase.
Timestamped the night she died.
Chloe’s heart stopped.
The footage had no sound.
Elena backed away from someone outside the camera frame.
Then Gabriel appeared.
Tall.
Dark hair.
He grabbed her arm.
She fought.
Mara rushed into view.
Gabriel shoved Elena.
She fell backward.
Down the stairs.
Dominic stopped breathing.
Nobody moved.
The video continued.
Mara screamed.
Gabriel turned toward her.
Carlo entered seconds later.
He saw Elena below.
He drew his weapon.
Gabriel escaped through the side corridor.
Carlo ran to Elena.
The footage ended.
Dominic stared at the black screen.
Two years of grief.
Two years of rage.
Two years of blaming himself and everyone around him.
Chloe watched his face collapse inward.
He said only one thing.
“My son saw this?”
Luca shook his head.
Nathan replied.
“He saw the aftermath.”
Dominic covered his mouth.
Chloe stepped toward him.
For once she did not know what to say.
A notification appeared on the laptop.
REMOTE CONNECTION DETECTED.
Adrian swore.
“Someone’s accessing the system.”
Nathan pulled the card.
Too late.
Every monitor in the room turned black.
Then one live video feed appeared.
Gabriel.
He was standing inside the Russo mansion.
Not outside.
Not at the gate.
Inside.
Behind him was the grand staircase where Elena had died.
He smiled at the camera.
“Hello, little brother.”
Dominic stepped toward the screen.
Gabriel continued.
“You finally found the truth.”
A second figure was dragged into view.
Mara Bellini.
Alive.
A gun pressed against her head.
May you like
Gabriel smiled.
“Now come upstairs.”
