Chapter 5 - The Price of Family
Gabriel did not confront Vincent.
That frightened Penelope more than shouting would have.
For the next two days, the mansion operated under a layer of brittle normalcy.
Vincent attended meetings.
Gabriel gave orders.
Security doubled.
Penelope continued Gabriel’s therapy.
Nobody mentioned the captured attacker’s accusation.
But Penelope noticed everything.
Gabriel watched Vincent differently.
Vincent noticed.
The distance between the two men grew by inches.
On the third morning, Penelope found Gabriel in the rehabilitation room attempting a transfer alone.
His wheelchair stood beside a padded therapy bench.
One hand braced on the armrest.
The other pushed against the bench.
His upper body trembled.
“What are you doing?”
Gabriel ignored her.
“Gabriel.”
“I can manage.”
“You’re going to fall.”
“I said I can manage.”
His elbow buckled.
Penelope moved.
Gabriel slipped sideways.
She caught his shoulder and guided him against the bench before he hit the floor.
For several seconds he remained there breathing hard.
Then anger exploded.
“I told you not to touch me.”
“And I told you not to be stupid.”
“I do not need supervision every second.”
“No one said you did.”
“You think because I cannot walk, I’m helpless.”
Penelope stared.
“Is that what you think I think?”
He looked away.
“You have no idea what I think.”
“I see it.”
“No. You see it in yourself.”
Silence.
Penelope stepped closer.
“You’re furious at your body, so every time someone helps you, you hear pity even when nobody said it.”
Gabriel’s eyes flashed.
“Enough.”
“No.”
“Penelope.”
“You want to prove you can transfer independently? Great. We’ll work toward that safely.”
“I do not need your permission.”
“No. But you also don’t get to punish yourself and call it independence.”
He slammed one palm against the bench.
“I was shot!”
His voice filled the room.
Penelope did not move.
Gabriel’s chest rose and fell.
“I know.”
“I had a life.”
“I know.”
“I could stand.”
“I know.”
“I could walk into a room and no one looked at the chair first.”
Penelope’s expression softened.
He saw it.
“Don’t.”
“It isn’t pity.”
“It looks like it.”
“It’s grief.”
That stopped him.
“For you,” she whispered.
Gabriel looked away.
His voice cracked almost invisibly.
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“I hate needing help.”
“I know.”
“I hate waking up like this.”
Penelope’s eyes burned.
“I know.”
He finally looked at her.
And for once, Gabriel Moretti stopped fighting.
Penelope sat beside him on the therapy bench.
He leaned forward.
She put her arms around him.
Gabriel held himself rigid for several seconds.
Then his forehead rested against her shoulder.
No dramatic sobbing.
No collapse.
Just one exhausted man allowing another human being to hold some of the weight.
When he finally pulled away, their faces remained close.
Too close.
Penelope’s breath caught.
Gabriel’s eyes dropped briefly to her mouth.
Then back to her eyes.
The room seemed suddenly too quiet.
“Penelope.”
Her phone rang.
They separated instantly.
Penelope stood.
“Saved by technology.”
Gabriel looked irritated enough to shoot the device.
The number was unknown.
She answered.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a man’s voice.
“You should have listened.”
Penelope froze.
“Who is this?”
Gabriel noticed her expression.
“What?”
The caller continued.
“Gabriel Moretti destroys everyone near him.”
The line disconnected.
Gabriel took the phone.
“Number?”
“Blocked.”
He immediately called security.
Within twenty minutes, Vincent entered.
“We traced the routing. Disposable network.”
Gabriel watched him carefully.
Vincent’s face tightened.
“You think I did this?”
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Penelope stepped between them.
“Stop.”
Neither listened.
Vincent looked at Gabriel.
“I carried you out of that street when you were bleeding.”
“I remember.”
“I held pressure on your back until the ambulance arrived.”
“I remember.”
“I buried your brother beside you.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Vincent’s voice broke with anger.
“You think I killed Luca?”
“No.”
“Then say it.”
Gabriel remained silent.
Vincent laughed bitterly.
“Twenty years.”
“Vincent—”
“Twenty years, Gabriel.”
He pulled the burner phone from his pocket and threw it onto the table.
Penelope stared.
Gabriel’s face turned deadly.
“What is this?”
“The reason I’ve been acting suspicious.”
Vincent unlocked the phone.
Messages filled the screen.
WE KNOW SHE’S INSIDE.
STOP ASKING QUESTIONS.
YOU OWE US.
Gabriel read them.
“What do you owe them?”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“My brother.”
Gabriel looked up.
“I thought your brother was dead.”
“I thought so too.”
Vincent sat down.
Twenty-two years earlier, Vincent’s younger brother, Anthony, had disappeared after becoming involved with a rival crew.
No body was found.
The Morettis assumed he had been killed.
Three weeks after Gabriel’s shooting, Vincent received a photograph.
Anthony.
Older.
Alive.
Standing beside a newspaper dated that week.
“They told me if I warned you, they’d kill him.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“So you gave them information.”
“No.”
“Then what did you give them?”
“Nothing useful. Staff schedules. Deliveries. Things they could learn anyway.”
“You compromised my house.”
“I was trying to find him.”
“You should have told me.”
“They said Anthony dies if I do.”
Gabriel rolled closer.
“And Penelope?”
Vincent looked at her.
“I never gave them anything about her.”
“Then how did they know?”
“I don’t know.”
A new voice came from the doorway.
“I might.”
Everyone turned.
Dominic Raines stood there.
Gabriel’s attorney was polished, gray-haired, and elegant.
He had served the Moretti family for fifteen years.
Dominic held a folder.
“I reviewed the security logs from the night Penelope first arrived.”
He placed documents on the table.
“Someone accessed the outer-camera network remotely.”
“From where?” Gabriel asked.
Dominic hesitated.
“Carlo’s house.”
Gabriel went still.
His uncle.
The man who had helped raise him after his father died.
Penelope looked between them.
“Could someone have hacked him?”
“Possible,” Dominic said. “But unlikely.”
Gabriel’s phone rang.
Carlo Moretti.
Everyone stared at the screen.
Gabriel answered.
“Uncle.”
Carlo sounded cheerful.
“Gabriel. Dinner tonight?”
Gabriel’s face revealed nothing.
“Why?”
“Because your aunt complains she never sees you anymore.”
“My aunt has been dead eight years.”
Silence.
Then Carlo laughed.
“You know what I mean.”
“No. I don’t.”
A pause.
Carlo’s voice changed.
“You should send the nurse home.”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened.
“Why?”
“Because outsiders complicate family matters.”
Gabriel looked at Penelope.
“She stays.”
“You’re becoming sentimental.”
“Careful.”
Carlo sighed.
“I tried being careful six months ago.”
Nobody in the room moved.
Gabriel’s face went blank.
“What did you say?”
Carlo disconnected.
Vincent reached for his gun.
Dominic whispered, “Jesus.”
Penelope looked at Gabriel.
He had gone pale.
Not frightened.
Devastated.
Gabriel called back.
No answer.
Vincent began issuing orders.
“Teams to Carlo’s house. Lock down every Moretti property.”
Gabriel remained still.
Penelope knelt beside him.
“Gabriel.”
Nothing.
“Look at me.”
His eyes shifted toward her.
“My uncle taught me to drive.”
Penelope’s chest tightened.
“He took me to my first Yankees game.”
His voice sounded far away.
“He carried Luca on his shoulders when we were children.”
Penelope touched his hand.
“He may still be trying to manipulate you.”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Gabriel looked toward the phone.
“Because I recognize confession when I hear it.”
An hour later, the team reached Carlo’s house.
It was empty.
Inside the study they found maps of Gabriel’s estate.
Photographs.
Security schedules.
A file on Penelope.
And one final envelope addressed to Gabriel.
Inside was a photograph taken six months earlier.
Gabriel stood outside the charity gala.
A red mark had been drawn over his spine.
On the back, Carlo had written:
YOU SURVIVED WHAT LUCA DIDN’T.
THAT WAS MY MISTAKE.
Gabriel read it twice.
Then he handed it to Vincent.
Penelope watched something harden inside him.
“Find him,” Gabriel said.
Vincent nodded.
“Alive?”
Gabriel looked toward Penelope.
Months earlier, the answer would have been automatic.
Now it was not.
“Alive.”
Vincent left.
Penelope stood beside Gabriel.
“You did that because I’m here.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
“Then why?”
He looked up at her.
“Because I am tired of becoming the thing people expect me to be.”
Penelope smiled faintly.
“That sounds suspiciously healthy.”
“Do not ruin the moment.”
She laughed.
Gabriel reached for her hand.
Their fingers intertwined.
Neither joked this time.
Then Dominic’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression drained of color.
“What?”
Everyone looked at him.
Dominic lowered the phone.
“They found Carlo.”
Gabriel straightened.
“Where?”
Dominic’s eyes shifted toward Penelope.
“He has someone with him.”
Penelope’s stomach tightened.
“Who?”
May you like
Dominic swallowed.
“Your sister.”
