Chapter 6 - The Secret Gabriel Never Told Her
Thomas Bell looked at Beatrice.
For eighteen years, she had imagined this moment.
Anger.
Questions.
Tears.
Instead she could not move.
Her father stared at her pregnant belly.
Then at Gabriel.
“You married him.”
Beatrice’s shock became rage.
“That’s what you have to say?”
Thomas looked older than his sixty years.
A scar crossed his temple.
“You need to leave.”
“No.”
“Beatrice.”
“No.”
His eyes softened.
“You still do that.”
“Do what?”
“Say no exactly like your mother.”
Her eyes filled.
“You don’t get to talk about her.”
Thomas flinched.
“She died believing you abandoned us.”
“I know.”
“I buried her without you.”
“I know.”
“I got married without you.”
“I watched.”
Beatrice froze.
“What?”
Thomas looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel’s face told her the truth before he spoke.
Beatrice turned.
“You knew.”
“Not at first.”
“How long?”
Gabriel said nothing.
“How long?”
“Two years.”
The betrayal hit differently.
Not Chloe.
Worse.
“You knew my father was alive for two years?”
“I knew there were signs.”
“Did you see him?”
“Once.”
Beatrice stepped back.
Adrian moved closer but did not touch her.
Gabriel looked sick.
“He made me swear.”
“And you chose his secret over your wife.”
“I chose keeping you alive.”
“Stop saying that!”
Her shout echoed.
The baby moved sharply.
Beatrice caught her breath.
Everyone stopped.
She steadied herself.
Thomas stepped forward.
She raised one hand.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Start talking.”
Thomas explained.
The organization behind the ledger called itself Meridian.
Not a family.
Not a gang.
A network.
Judges.
Bankers.
Politicians.
Corporate executives.
Crime bosses.
They financed conflicts and profited from them.
Eighteen years earlier, Thomas discovered Meridian had engineered the Vale-Rossi feud.
Both patriarchs had begun asking questions.
Both were marked for death.
Adrian’s father died.
Vittorio Rossi survived but believed Vale had ordered the attack.
Thomas disappeared to keep Beatrice and her mother alive.
“Why not take us?”
“They would have followed.”
“So you let us believe you were dead.”
“Yes.”
Her voice broke.
“You don’t get to call that love.”
Thomas lowered his eyes.
“No. I don’t.”
That answer hurt.
Beatrice looked at Gabriel.
“And you?”
Gabriel explained Thomas had contacted him after discovering Beatrice was pregnant.
Meridian had become active again.
Gabriel had increased security.
Tracked vehicles.
More guards.
He had not told her why.
“So the prison really was for me.”
“It was protection.”
“Protection without truth is still a cage.”
Gabriel had no answer.
Thomas placed the black box on the table.
“I came back because the child changes everything.”
“Why?”
“The encryption has two layers. Yours opens the first. A direct descendant opens the second.”
“My son.”
“Yes.”
“What happens if they open it?”
“Meridian is exposed.”
“And if they destroy it?”
“The evidence disappears.”
Adrian crossed his arms.
“Then copy it.”
Thomas shook his head.
“Impossible without opening it.”
Beatrice stared at the box.
“Then we open it.”
Gabriel objected.
“No.”
She turned.
“Careful.”
He stopped.
Thomas explained the first biometric scan could be done now.
The second required cells from the baby after birth.
“So Meridian needs me alive until delivery.”
“Yes.”
“And afterward?”
Nobody answered.
Beatrice understood.
Thomas looked at her.
“There’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“The Rossi family didn’t find you by accident.”
Gabriel stiffened.
Beatrice looked between them.
“What?”
Thomas spoke carefully.
“Years before you met Gabriel, Vittorio knew exactly who you were.”
Gabriel’s face darkened.
“My father arranged our first meeting.”
Beatrice stared at her husband.
The restaurant.
The spilled wine.
Gabriel laughing.
Their first date.
Everything she believed was chance.
“Did you know?”
“Not then.”
“When did you learn?”
“After we were engaged.”
She closed her eyes.
Another secret.
Another choice made for her.
Thomas touched the black box.
“Your marriage began because Vittorio wanted access to Bell blood.”
Beatrice looked at Gabriel.
“But did you marry me because of it?”
“No.”
She studied him.
For once, she believed him.
That did not erase anything.
A phone rang.
Thomas’s.
He stared at the screen.
His face drained.
“What?” Adrian asked.
Thomas answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“Thomas.”
Everyone heard.
“You have finally gathered them all.”
Thomas looked around.
Beatrice.
Gabriel.
Adrian.
Chloe.
Then the voice said something that changed his expression completely.
“Tell your daughter why her mother really died.”
Beatrice stopped breathing.
The caller continued.
“She was never sick, Thomas.”
Then a file arrived.
An autopsy report.
May you like
Beatrice opened it.
And the cause of death had been altered.
