Chapter 6 - Twelve Minutes
Marcus threw the inhaler onto the table.
Nobody touched it.
Roman remained standing, but I could see the effort it required.
Dominic called emergency medical services through a secure line.
Vivian contacted Nathan.
This time he answered immediately.
When she described the inhaler, Nathan told Roman not to use it again.
“Was it poisoned?” Vivian asked.
“No. If Gabriel followed the plan, he replaced the medication with something ineffective.”
Roman stared at the inhaler.
“So I’m not poisoned.”
“No. But if you have a serious attack, it won’t help you.”
That was the trick.
No murder weapon.
No obvious toxin.
Simply remove the treatment when it was needed most.
Nathan directed them to Roman’s backup inhaler.
Marcus retrieved one from the bedroom.
Roman used it.
Within minutes his breathing stabilized.
Gabriel’s twelve-minute threat had failed.
Roman sat down.
“He expected me to panic.”
Dominic nodded.
“And panic makes people follow instructions.”
Roman looked toward the clock.
“Then we do the opposite.”
He ordered the mansion opened to police and paramedics.
For years, Roman had kept family matters private.
Not today.
He handed the medical form, inhaler, forged directive, security footage, and Price’s documents to investigators.
Anthony stared at him.
“You’re giving outsiders everything?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll expose the family.”
Roman looked at him.
“No. I’m exposing criminals.”
That distinction changed the room.
For the first time, Roman was no longer behaving like a mafia boss protecting an empire.
He was behaving like a man determined to end the machinery that had almost killed him.
Police searched the tunnels.
They found two men.
Neither was Gabriel.
One carried forged medical credentials.
The other carried a tablet containing live feeds from cameras throughout the mansion.
The feeds included months of recordings.
Roman’s private conversations.
Vivian’s movements.
Evelyn’s room.
The staff corridors.
Even Sophie and me that morning.
Gabriel had watched everything.
But one recording mattered more than the others.
It showed Anthony meeting Gabriel three weeks earlier.
Anthony looked sick when he saw it.
Gabriel’s face was finally clear.
He was seventy-two, silver-haired, elegant, and composed.
Roman recognized him immediately.
“I’ve seen him.”
Evelyn looked at her son.
“Where?”
“At my father’s funeral.”
Gabriel had stood twenty feet from Roman while Roman buried Matteo.
He had even shaken Roman’s hand.
The betrayal had been hiding in plain sight for twelve years.
Investigators traced Gabriel’s tablet connection.
A signal originated from a detached guesthouse on the edge of Roman’s property.
Police surrounded it.
Empty.
On the table was another medical document.
This one was the original.
Marcus brought it to Roman.
Unlike the forged version, it contained handwritten notes.
At the bottom was a sentence:
RESPIRATORY EVENT MUST OCCUR BEFORE 12:00. WITNESSES REQUIRED.
Roman stared at the line.
His collapse truly had been scheduled.
Sophie had interrupted it three minutes before the intended window.
Then I noticed another notation.
“Elena R.”
Roman looked at me.
My blood went cold.
The document contained my name.
Beside it:
HOUSEHOLD WITNESS — REMOVE FROM DINING AREA.
I remembered my supervisor changing my lunch assignment that morning.
I had originally been scheduled to serve Roman.
At 10:30, someone moved me to the west wing.
If Sophie hadn’t spilled juice on her dress, I would have been upstairs changing her clothes when Roman’s medical episode occurred.
Someone had arranged not only Roman’s collapse but the witnesses who would see it.
Roman looked furious.
“They planned the entire room.”
Dominic nodded.
“Every person.”
Vivian pointed at another name.
Hers.
V. CROSS — POSITION NEAR SUBJECT.
She had been intentionally placed beside Roman.
The inhaler had been planted in her purse so she could be blamed if the plot unraveled.
Vivian sat down.
“They were going to destroy me too.”
Roman looked at her.
For the first time that day, there was softness in his expression.
“I should have believed you sooner.”
“You had every reason not to.”
“No. I had paperwork telling me not to.”
He looked at the forged signatures.
“That was the point.”
Gabriel’s greatest weapon wasn’t violence.
It was doubt.
He had manufactured evidence so every person would suspect someone else.
Roman suspected Vivian.
Vivian suspected Evelyn.
Evelyn suspected Dominic.
Dominic suspected Anthony.
Anthony feared Gabriel.
Everyone had been isolated.
Except Sophie.
She had no history with any of them.
She simply saw what happened.
A blue inhaler inside the wrong purse.
Roman crouched beside her.
“You know why you figured this out?”
“Because I saw it?”
“Exactly.”
She smiled.
Then my phone rang.
My supervisor.
I answered.
“Elena?”
Her voice trembled.
“Where are you?”
“With Roman.”
“Don’t leave.”
“What happened?”
“There’s a man at your apartment.”
My heart stopped.
“What man?”
“He called the mansion asking about you. I recognized his voice from the security recording.”
Roman took my phone.
“Gabriel?”
My supervisor whispered, “Yes.”
Roman’s expression changed.
Gabriel wasn’t trying to escape.
He was going after the witness.
My daughter.
Police rushed toward my apartment.
Roman insisted on coming.
I refused.
“You’re still a target.”
“So is Sophie.”
“This isn’t your responsibility.”
Roman looked at my daughter.
“She saved my life. That makes it my responsibility.”
We traveled under police protection.
When we reached my apartment building, the front door was open.
No Gabriel.
Nothing disturbed.
Then Sophie pointed toward our mailbox.
An envelope stuck out.
My name was written across it.
Inside was a photograph of me holding newborn Sophie eight years earlier.
I had never seen the picture.
On the back was a message:
ASK ELENA WHO SOPHIE’S FATHER REALLY WAS.
Roman looked at me.
I couldn’t breathe.
Because I knew the handwriting.
I had seen it only once before.
May you like
Eight years earlier.
On the final letter Sophie’s father sent me before he disappeared.
