Chapter 6 - Antonio’s Hidden Ledger
“Move away from her,” Gabriel said.
Shaw’s hand shook.
“Not until you listen.”
Chalice remained still.
“Why point a gun at me?”
“Because Gabriel listens when he’s afraid.”
Gabriel looked furious.
Shaw lowered the weapon.
It was unloaded.
Gabriel nearly exploded.
“You have three seconds.”
Shaw interrupted.
“Victor has someone inside your house.”
Silence.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel laughed without humor.
“Convenient.”
“I knew there was a leak before Hanover Street. Antonio knew too.”
She pointed toward the certificate.
“That proves why.”
Gabriel handed it to Chalice.
It was not Douglas’s certificate.
It belonged to Gabriel.
Father: Anthony Holmes.
Mother: Elena DeLuca.
Gabriel stared at Shaw.
“My mother was Catherine Holmes.”
“No. Catherine raised you.”
Gabriel went still.
Shaw explained.
Elena DeLuca had been a witness in a federal corruption case.
Gabriel’s father hid her.
When Gabriel was born, Catherine agreed to raise him as her own.
Victor never knew.
Antonio eventually discovered the truth.
Why did it matter?
Because Elena DeLuca had inherited a controlling interest in a waterfront development Victor had spent decades trying to acquire.
Those shares passed legally to Gabriel.
Victor had unknowingly spent years trying to steal something Gabriel already owned.
Antonio discovered that too.
The ledger could prove it.
Gabriel sat down.
Chalice watched the strongest man she knew absorb the fact that half his life had been constructed around a lie.
“Is Elena alive?”
Shaw hesitated.
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked up sharply.
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“She disappeared after Antonio was killed.”
Chalice studied Shaw.
“Why did Isabella know my mother?”
“Because your mother saved Elena.”
The connections finally formed.
Their mothers.
Antonio.
Isabella.
Shaw.
All pieces of a secret that had outlived nearly everyone who created it.
Gabriel opened the ledger.
Page after page of transactions.
Then Chalice noticed something.
The final page had been removed.
Cleanly.
Recently.
“Someone got here before us.”
Shaw nodded.
“The missing page contains the name of Victor’s informant inside Gabriel’s organization.”
Gabriel looked toward Luca.
Then Mercer.
Neither man spoke.
A vibration came from Chalice’s pocket.
Her phone.
Unknown number.
A photograph arrived.
Douglas’s nursery.
Empty crib.
Taken inside Gabriel’s compound less than one minute earlier.
Under it:
YOU BROUGHT THE BABY HOME. THANK YOU.
Gabriel called security.
No answer.
Mercer tried his radio.
Static.
Luca drew his weapon.
They raced toward the exit.
Then a second photograph arrived.
This one showed the compound’s underground room.
A man stood beside Douglas’s empty crib.
Chalice enlarged the photograph.
She recognized him.
The guard who had helped kidnap her from her apartment.
Gabriel stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“I killed him three years ago.”
The hospital lights went out.
May you like
Somewhere in the corridor, footsteps began approaching.
And the man Gabriel swore was dead whispered his name.
