Chapter 10 - The Man Behind The Truth
“Gabriel…”
The voice echoed through the old house.
A voice he trusted.
A voice he had heard beside him through every victory.
Every crisis.
Every betrayal.
Gabriel stood completely still.
Because the person standing at the top of the staircase was the last person he expected.
Luca.
His head of security.
His closest ally.
The man who had spent years protecting his family.
The man who had promised him loyalty.
Gabriel stared.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Luca slowly walked down the stairs.
His face was tired.
Not angry.
Not defensive.
Just exhausted.
“Boss…”
Gabriel raised his hand.
“Don’t.”
Luca stopped.
The silence between them was heavier than any argument.
“You.”
Gabriel’s voice was cold.
“You were the one.”
Luca looked down.
“I know how it looks.”
“No.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“You don’t understand how it looks.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You were there when Norah disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about Lily.”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“You knew my father was alive.”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Gabriel laughed quietly.
A painful sound.
“So tell me, Luca.”
He looked at the man who had stood beside him for years.
“Which part was real?”
Luca looked at him.
“All of it.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“You lied every day.”
Luca accepted the accusation.
Because he knew Gabriel was right.
“I protected you.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed around the room.
“You protected secrets.”
Luca looked away.
For the first time, Gabriel saw something he had never seen before.
Regret.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I wanted to.”
“But you didn’t.”
Luca nodded.
“No.”
Gabriel walked toward the table.
The file was still open.
The warning still visible.
"Do not trust the person who brings you the truth."
He looked at Luca.
“You knew this message was about you.”
Luca said nothing.
That was the answer.
Gabriel closed his eyes.
All the pieces were finally connecting.
The hidden rooms.
The missing records.
The secret children.
The false death.
Luca had been standing in the middle of everything.
Not as an enemy.
Not exactly.
But as someone who knew more than he ever admitted.
“Why?”
Gabriel asked.
That single word carried more pain than anger.
“Why did everyone decide I couldn’t handle the truth?”
Luca looked at him.
“Because your father believed the truth would get you killed.”
“My father.”
Gabriel repeated the words.
“My father.”
He looked toward Adrian.
“You knew.”
Adrian remained silent.
Gabriel turned.
“You all knew.”
Adrian finally spoke.
“Yes.”
“And you let me hate you.”
His father lowered his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian took a slow breath.
“Because anger kept you alive.”
Gabriel stared.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does.”
Adrian walked closer.
“When you were younger, you wanted answers. You wanted to know everything about the Costa family.”
He paused.
“But there were people watching.”
“Who?”
Adrian looked at Luca.
Then back at Gabriel.
“The people who created the Costa empire.”
Gabriel frowned.
“My family created it.”
“No.”
Adrian’s voice became serious.
“Your family inherited it.”
The room went quiet.
Gabriel looked confused.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian opened the file.
Inside were old documents.
Older than Gabriel’s lifetime.
“This family was never built on money.”
He placed a document on the table.
“It was built on information.”
Gabriel scanned the pages.
Names.
Organizations.
Private agreements.
Hidden networks.
His entire family history looked different.
“Your grandfather started collecting secrets.”
Adrian continued.
“Political secrets. Financial secrets. Family secrets.”
Gabriel looked up.
“And Lily?”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Lily was proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That the people controlling this family were willing to destroy anyone who threatened them.”
Gabriel looked at Norah.
Then Elena.
Then Luca.
“What happened to her mother?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Then Adrian spoke.
“She discovered the truth.”
Gabriel felt a cold sensation.
“And?”
“She tried to expose it.”
“And?”
Adrian looked away.
“She disappeared.”
Silence.
Gabriel understood.
The same pattern.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Someone discovered something.
Someone disappeared.
Someone protected the secret.
But this time…
he was done.
“No more.”
Everyone looked at him.
“No more hiding.”
Gabriel picked up the file.
“I want every name.”
Luca stepped forward.
“Gabriel.”
“No.”
His voice stopped him.
“I spent my whole life thinking I was in control.”
He looked at the documents.
“I wasn’t.”
He looked at his father.
“I was protected.”
Then at Luca.
“I was controlled.”
Nobody argued.
Because nobody could.
His phone suddenly vibrated.
Everyone looked.
A message.
Unknown number.
Gabriel opened it.
A photograph appeared.
A house.
A small house hidden outside the city.
Then a second image.
Lily.
Standing outside.
Alive.
Safe.
But she was not alone.
Someone stood behind her.
Someone Gabriel recognized.
His face changed.
“No…”
Norah moved closer.
“What?”
Gabriel turned the phone toward her.
The person behind Lily was visible.
A woman.
Older.
Tired.
The woman from the hospital photograph.
Lily’s mother.
But beneath the picture was a message.
"She has been waiting twelve years to meet her son."
Gabriel stared.
“She’s alive.”
Adrian looked at the image.
And for the first time…
he looked terrified.
“No.”
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
Adrian stepped back.
“That’s not possible.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked at the photograph.
Because he knew something Gabriel did not.
“She died the night Lily disappeared.”
The room went silent.
Then another message appeared.
Not from an unknown number.
From Lily’s mother.
One sentence.
"Gabriel, your father is lying to you again."
Everyone froze.
Then the old house phone rang.
A phone that had been disconnected for twelve years.
Gabriel slowly walked toward it.
He picked up the receiver.
A woman’s voice whispered:
“Gabriel…”
He closed his eyes.
Because he knew that voice.
It was the voice of the woman everyone believed was dead.
And then she said the words that made him drop the phone:
“Your father didn’t save Lily from them…”
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A pause.
“He saved Lily from himself.”
