Chapter 5 - The Truth Josephine Never Knew
Gabriel Shaw entered slowly.
Josephine held the DNA report in both hands.
"You?"
Gabriel looked older than he had hours earlier.
"Yes."
Roman moved between them instinctively.
Josephine touched his arm.
"Don't."
Roman stepped aside.
Gabriel looked at her.
"I loved your mother."
Josephine laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"Apparently everyone loved my mother except the brother who killed her."
Gabriel accepted the anger.
"She deserved better than all of us."
"Did she know?"
"That I was your father? Yes."
"Did you?"
"From the beginning."
Josephine's eyes burned.
"And you let me grow up believing I had nobody."
Gabriel looked down.
"I stayed away because Dominic would have used me to find you."
"He found me anyway."
"Twenty-one years later."
"That's supposed to make it better?"
"No."
Gabriel didn't defend himself.
That made her anger harder to hold.
He explained.
He and Elena had planned to leave together.
Dominic discovered the ledger.
Patrick Tierney helped Elena escape before Gabriel could join her.
Gabriel followed months later, secretly visiting whenever it was safe.
Then Elena died.
Dominic's men came for Gabriel next.
Patrick staged Gabriel's death.
Josephine was placed with distant relatives under her new identity.
"Why didn't you come for me after Dominic believed you were dead?"
"Patrick wouldn't allow it."
Roman frowned.
"My father didn't have that authority."
"No. But he had a point."
Gabriel looked at Josephine.
"If I appeared, Dominic might discover you."
Josephine sat.
"So everybody decided what was best for me."
Gabriel nodded painfully.
"Yes."
"And nobody asked me."
"You were twelve."
"I'm thirty-three now."
"I know."
"Yet you still didn't come."
Gabriel had no answer.
Roman did.
"He should have."
Gabriel looked at him.
Roman's expression was hard.
"Protection without choice becomes a cage."
Josephine looked at Roman.
He knew he was talking about himself too.
That mattered.
Gabriel removed another envelope.
"Elena left this for you."
Josephine almost refused.
Then she opened it.
The letter was shorter.
Her mother wrote that if Josephine ever learned the truth, she wanted her daughter to understand one thing.
She was never born into Dominic Carbone's world.
She was born away from it.
Elena had risked everything so Josephine could choose her own life.
Josephine cried quietly.
Roman sat beside her.
He didn't tell her to stop.
Didn't promise to fix it.
He simply stayed.
An hour later, Roman gathered Marcus, Gabriel and the remaining trusted security team.
Samuel Price had Daniel.
Price also believed Roman possessed the original ledger.
They needed leverage.
Josephine entered carrying it.
Roman immediately shook his head.
"No."
"You haven't heard the idea."
"It involves you holding that, so I'm already against it."
Gabriel almost smiled.
Josephine placed the ledger on the table.
"Price wants Dominic and you to destroy each other. Why?"
Roman answered.
"Money."
"More than that."
She opened the ledger.
Elena had documented shell companies.
Price's father's name appeared repeatedly.
Roman leaned closer.
Samuel Price's father had handled financial transfers for Carbone decades earlier.
Millions disappeared.
Dominic blamed Patrick Tierney.
Patrick blamed Carbone.
But Elena's ledger showed the truth.
Price's father stole the money.
Roman understood.
"Samuel has spent fourteen years inside my organization erasing evidence."
Marcus nodded.
"And when Josephine appeared, he realized the ledger might surface."
Gabriel added, "So he set Roman and Dominic against each other."
Josephine looked at Roman.
"We don't give him the war."
Roman's eyes narrowed.
"We give him the truth."
Roman contacted Dominic.
Dominic arrived two hours later with four men.
The atmosphere inside Roman's office became glacial.
Josephine stood between two men who had every reason to hate each other.
She placed Elena's ledger on the desk.
Dominic stared at it.
"My sister's."
"Yes."
"You opened it."
"Yes."
Dominic looked at her.
She refused to lower her eyes.
"You murdered my mother."
Dominic's face changed.
For the first time, his confidence cracked.
"I gave an order."
Josephine's stomach turned.
Roman stepped closer to her.
Dominic continued.
"I ordered Gabriel killed."
Gabriel stared.
"Elena wasn't supposed to be in the car."
Josephine froze.
"What?"
Dominic looked older suddenly.
"I learned afterward."
"Then why did you let me believe you killed her?"
"Because the truth doesn't make me innocent."
Nobody spoke.
Dominic had ordered violence.
His sister had died because of it.
Whether he intended her death changed the details.
Not the devastation.
Josephine opened the ledger to Price's father's accounts.
Dominic read.
His face darkened.
"Price."
Roman nodded.
"He manipulated both of us."
Dominic closed the book.
"Where is Samuel?"
"We're finding him."
Dominic looked at Josephine.
"I can help."
She didn't thank him.
She wasn't ready.
Maybe she never would be.
But Roman accepted the alliance for one reason.
Daniel.
Price contacted them that evening.
He wanted Josephine and the ledger at an abandoned courthouse.
Roman listened.
"No."
Josephine took the phone.
"I'll come."
Roman glared at her.
Price laughed.
"Smart woman."
Josephine continued.
"But I want proof Daniel is alive."
A video arrived.
Daniel sat tied to a chair.
Bruised but conscious.
Behind him was a clock.
Josephine noticed the sound.
A bell every fifteen seconds.
Roman noticed something else.
A reflection.
Train tracks.
They identified the location.
Not the courthouse.
An old rail depot three blocks away.
Price intended to ambush anyone sent to the courthouse while holding Daniel elsewhere.
Roman planned two teams.
Dominic would approach the courthouse.
Roman would go to the depot.
Josephine insisted on going with him.
This time Roman didn't say no.
He gave her a long look.
"Stay beside me."
"I can do that."
They reached the depot at 11:40.
Daniel was inside.
So was Dr. Cole.
Marcus restrained Cole while Roman freed Daniel.
Too easy.
Josephine felt it.
"Roman."
He looked at her.
"What?"
"Where's Price?"
Daniel's eyes widened.
"He's not here."
Roman turned.
Daniel struggled upright.
"He left twenty minutes ago."
"Where?"
Daniel looked at Josephine.
"He said he finally understood what Roman would protect more fiercely than the ledger."
Josephine's blood went cold.
"The boys."
Roman grabbed his phone.
No signal.
Marcus tried his radio.
Nothing.
They ran outside.
Roman's vehicle exploded into alarms—not flames, but every electronic lock triggered at once.
Sabotage.
They took Marcus's car.
Roman called the mansion repeatedly.
No answer.
Finally, a house phone connected.
Matteo answered.
"Dad?"
Roman nearly collapsed with relief.
"Where are you?"
"In Jo's room."
"Where's Luca?"
Silence.
"Matteo?"
"He went downstairs."
"Why?"
"A man said Jo came home."
Roman looked at Josephine.
She shook her head.
Then Matteo whispered something.
"Dad... somebody's coming upstairs."
The line went dead.
Roman drove faster.
When they reached the mansion, the front door stood open.
Josephine ran inside.
A wooden train lay in the hallway.
Then another.
Luca had left a trail.
Roman followed it.
The final train sat outside the old service door.
Roman reached for the handle.
It moved from the other side.
May you like
Someone was opening it.
And Luca whispered, "Dad, don't."
