Chapter 9 - The Father Who Never Died
Gabriel stared at the phone screen.
The message was simple.
No explanation.
No warning.
Just a name.
His father.
Adrian Costa.
A number that had not been active for twelve years.
A number Gabriel had watched disappear after the funeral.
A number that should have belonged to a dead man.
His fingers tightened around the phone.
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone in the room understood what this meant.
If the message was real…
then Adrian Costa had never died.
And if Adrian Costa had never died…
then every memory Gabriel had of his father’s final days was a lie.
The phone vibrated again.
A second message appeared.
"Come alone."
Gabriel looked at the screen.
Then at Norah.
Then Elena.
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
Nobody expected that answer.
The man beside him looked confused.
“No?”
Gabriel placed the phone on the table.
“I spent twelve years believing my father was gone.”
He looked around the hidden room.
“Twelve years believing I knew why he died.”
His eyes hardened.
“And now someone wants me to walk into a trap because they sent a message from his phone?”
Norah stepped closer.
“Gabriel…”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You knew.”
Her expression changed.
“Not everything.”
“But enough.”
She lowered her eyes.
That hurt him more than anger.
Because it meant she was admitting it.
“I knew your father might still be alive.”
Gabriel stared.
“Might?”
Norah swallowed.
“I never saw him die.”
The room became silent.
Gabriel felt the weight of those words.
“You were there?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Norah looked at Elena.
Elena finally spoke.
“Because I was.”
Gabriel turned.
“You saw him?”
Elena nodded.
“The night everyone believed Adrian Costa died.”
She paused.
“He was alive.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because your father made me promise.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“Another promise.”
He walked away.
Everyone had promised to protect him.
Everyone had lied to him.
His father.
His wife.
His closest people.
And every promise had taken something from him.
“My father knew about Lily.”
“Yes.”
“He knew about Norah.”
“Yes.”
“He knew about everything.”
Elena nodded.
“But there is one thing you don’t understand.”
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
“Your father wasn’t hiding because he wanted power.”
She looked at him.
“He was hiding because someone was trying to destroy him.”
Gabriel stared.
“Who?”
Nobody answered.
And that silence told him there was still another secret.
Another person.
Another enemy.
Norah picked up the phone.
“Gabriel.”
He looked at her.
“If you go there…”
She stopped.
“What?”
Her eyes were filled with fear.
“You might finally get the answers you wanted.”
A pause.
“But you might also find out why your father never came home.”
Gabriel looked at the location.
A place outside Chicago.
An old private property.
A place connected to his family.
He knew it.
Everyone in the room knew it.
The Costa estate’s first residence.
The place his father abandoned after his supposed death.
Gabriel took his coat.
Norah grabbed his arm.
“Don’t go alone.”
He looked at her hand.
Then at her face.
“You told me to trust nobody.”
“I was wrong.”
That surprised him.
Norah rarely admitted anything.
“I should have trusted you with the truth.”
Gabriel looked away.
The pain between them was still there.
But beneath it was something else.
A reason to keep going.
Their children.
Lily.
The truth.
“I’ll be back.”
Norah looked at him.
“You don’t know that.”
Gabriel stopped.
Because she was right.
For the first time in years…
he didn’t know what waited ahead.
The drive took forty minutes.
Gabriel went alone.
No guards.
No backup.
No Luca.
No one.
Exactly what the message demanded.
The old Costa property appeared through the trees.
The place looked abandoned.
Broken windows.
Overgrown grass.
A house frozen in time.
Gabriel parked outside.
He stayed inside the vehicle for several minutes.
Thinking.
Remembering.
He had been here as a child.
His father used to bring him here.
Before everything changed.
Before secrets.
Before lies.
Gabriel stepped out.
The front door was unlocked.
That bothered him.
He entered slowly.
Dust covered everything.
But someone had been there recently.
A cup of coffee sat on the table.
Still warm.
Gabriel stopped.
Someone was waiting.
He moved deeper into the house.
Every room brought back memories.
His father’s office.
The library.
The room where Adrian used to teach him about business.
Then he saw it.
A photograph on the desk.
A recent photograph.
Not old.
Not damaged.
Recent.
It showed Adrian Costa.
Alive.
Standing beside someone Gabriel never expected.
His own father.
And beside him…
Lily.
Gabriel picked up the photograph.
His hands shook.
A note was attached.
"She knows the truth."
Before he could understand, a voice came from behind him.
“You finally came.”
Gabriel turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
Older.
Gray hair.
But unmistakable.
His father.
Adrian Costa.
Alive.
For twelve years, Gabriel had imagined this moment.
He imagined anger.
Questions.
Pain.
But seeing him standing there changed everything.
Because Adrian did not look like a man who had abandoned his family.
He looked like a man who had been hiding.
“Why?”
That was all Gabriel could say.
Adrian looked at him.
“I knew you would find out eventually.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“You let me bury you.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“Yes.”
“You let me grow up thinking I lost my father.”
Adrian lowered his eyes.
“I had no choice.”
Gabriel’s anger exploded.
“Everyone says that.”
He pointed toward the photograph.
“You hid my daughter.”
Adrian looked at Lily’s picture.
“I protected her.”
“You destroyed my life.”
“No.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Someone else did.”
Gabriel froze.
“What does that mean?”
Adrian walked toward the desk.
He opened a drawer.
Inside was a file.
A thick file.
Filled with documents.
Photographs.
Records.
He placed it in front of Gabriel.
“This is the reason Norah ran.”
Gabriel opened it.
The first page made his face change.
A list of names.
People inside his organization.
People he trusted.
People who had been close to him for years.
Then he saw the final name.
The one that made him stop.
Because it was impossible.
Because that person had been beside him from the beginning.
Adrian watched his reaction.
“You finally see it.”
Gabriel slowly looked up.
“Who else knows?”
Adrian’s expression changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
“Too many.”
Gabriel looked back at the file.
The last page contained one sentence.
A warning.
"Do not trust the person who brings you the truth."
Then the lights inside the old house suddenly turned off.
A sound came from upstairs.
A door opening.
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
And whispered:
“No…”
Gabriel looked at him.
“What?”
Adrian stepped backward.
Because he recognized the sound.
Someone was inside the house.
Someone who should not have been there.
Then a voice called from upstairs.
“Gabriel…”
May you like
His blood froze.
Because the voice belonged to someone who was supposed to be on his side.
