Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Gabriel Vieri looked nothing like the father Tessa had imagined as a child.
There was no warmth.
No regret.
Only ownership.
“You have Anna’s eyes.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
He smiled.
“And my mouth.”
“I’ll have it surgically removed.”
Gabriel laughed.
Tessa hated that the sound made something inside her ache.
Biology was cruel that way.
“You’re not afraid.”
“I’m tied to a chair. Fear seems redundant.”
Gabriel sat opposite her.
“Anna was extraordinary.”
“Don’t talk about her.”
“I loved her.”
“You threatened her.”
“I made mistakes.”
“Trafficking women isn’t a mistake.”
His smile disappeared.
“So Sofia told you.”
“She told me enough.”
Gabriel leaned closer.
“Your mother wasn’t innocent.”
Tessa’s stomach tightened.
“She helped me.”
“Doing what?”
“Translating.”
“That’s all?”
“At first.”
He placed documents on the table.
Anna’s signature appeared on manifests.
Tessa recognized it.
“She discovered what the shipments contained,” Gabriel said. “Then she tried to destroy me.”
“Good.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“You truly are hers.”
He wanted the pendant.
Tessa refused.
He cut the chain himself.
Inside the pendant was a tiny key.
Not digital.
Physical.
Gabriel stared at it.
“Twenty-eight years.”
“What does it open?”
He smiled.
“Your inheritance.”
Meanwhile, Matteo was tearing Philadelphia apart.
Frank found the vehicle used to take Tessa.
Sofia traced it to an abandoned bank building once owned by Gabriel.
Matteo entered with Frank.
They found Tessa’s chair empty.
Blood stained one armrest.
Matteo’s restraint vanished.
Then Sofia found a message carved into the wood.
Tessa had written it with the broken edge of her watch.
FLORENCE.
Matteo understood.
The key was connected to Florence.
Three hours later, they discovered Anna had maintained a safety-deposit box through an Italian bank with a Philadelphia branch.
Gabriel knew too.
They arrived simultaneously.
Tessa entered between two armed men.
Matteo watched from across the marble lobby.
Their eyes met.
Tessa did not react.
Neither did he.
Gabriel opened the box.
Inside was no ledger.
No money.
Only a cassette tape.
He stared.
Tessa smiled.
“Twenty-eight years for a mixtape.”
Gabriel struck her.
Matteo moved.
Frank restrained him.
Not yet.
Gabriel played the tape.
Anna’s voice emerged.
“Gabriel, if you’re hearing this, you found the wrong box.”
Gabriel went still.
“The evidence was never in Florence.”
Tessa’s heart raced.
“It was always where you would never look.”
A pause.
“With your daughter.”
Gabriel turned toward Tessa.
Tessa understood before he did.
Her shoes.
Her mother had insisted she keep one strange possession after returning from Italy.
An old pair of leather boots.
Tessa had never thrown them away.
They were still in storage.
Gabriel grabbed her.
“Where?”
Tessa smiled through the pain in her cheek.
“I seem to have forgotten.”
Then Matteo stepped from behind the marble column.
“Maybe your grammar deteriorated.”
May you like
Gabriel turned.
Gunfire erupted.
