Chapter 4 - The Man Behind the Failed Assassination
The message remained on the screen for eleven seconds.
That was all.
Eleven seconds of silence.
Eleven seconds where nobody in the penthouse moved.
Then the words disappeared.
THE BOSS SHOULD HAVE NEVER TRUSTED THE GIRL.
The security system returned to normal.
The red lights stopped flashing.
The elevator remained locked.
But the damage had already been done.
Someone wanted Gabriel Corso to question me.
And for a moment, they succeeded.
Not because Gabriel believed the message.
I knew he didn’t.
But because he understood what it meant.
The person behind this knew us.
Not just Gabriel.
Not just the company.
Us.
They knew I would be standing beside him.
They knew I would warn him.
They knew exactly how to create doubt.
Gabriel stared at the empty screen.
“Can you trace it?”
His voice was controlled.
I moved toward the security panel.
“Not from here.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever sent it didn’t use the building network.”
Victor stood near the elevator, silent.
Too silent.
I noticed him watching me.
Not Gabriel.
Me.
That confirmed something.
Victor was not surprised that I understood the system.
He was surprised that I was still alive.
I turned toward him.
“You knew about the message.”
His expression remained neutral.
“I knew someone had compromised the security system.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
A pause.
“I knew there was a possibility.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Possibility?”
Victor nodded slightly.
“Mr. Corso, with respect, you are assuming this happened tonight.”
“And it didn’t?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
I felt the air change.
Gabriel noticed too.
“What are you saying?”
Victor looked at the security monitor.
“I’m saying this operation started before tonight.”
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone understood the meaning.
This was not an attack.
It was a plan.
A plan that had been waiting.
“How long?” Gabriel asked.
Victor hesitated.
That was the first real mistake he made.
Not the hesitation itself.
The fact that he allowed us to see it.
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“You are the head of my executive protection.”
Victor remained still.
“Yes.”
“You are responsible for every threat assessment.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you don’t know how long someone has been inside my security?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
The answer was honest.
And somehow, that made it worse.
Because if Victor was telling the truth, then someone had bypassed the most protected system in Gabriel Corso’s entire organization.
And if he was lying...
Then the enemy was standing ten feet away from us.
I looked back at the security screen.
The message was gone.
But I remembered every word.
The boss should have never trusted the girl.
Not “the woman.”
Not “Clara.”
The girl.
A strange choice of words.
Almost personal.
“Gabriel.”
He looked at me.
“The person who sent that message knows me.”
Victor glanced at me.
“Or they want you to think they do.”
I ignored him.
“They didn’t say you shouldn’t trust your assistant.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“They said the girl.”
I nodded.
“Someone who knows something about me before I started working here.”
The room became quiet.
Gabriel looked at me carefully.
“Clara.”
I knew that tone.
A question was coming.
“Why would someone know you?”
I looked away.
For the first time that night, I did not have an immediate answer.
Because that was the one possibility I had been avoiding.
My life had always been simple.
At least I thought it was.
A small house.
A normal family.
A father who repaired cars.
A mother who taught piano lessons.
A scholarship.
A career.
Then three years ago, I walked into Corso Holdings for an interview.
And somehow, I ended up becoming the person closest to Gabriel’s private life.
I never questioned why.
Until tonight.
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel studied my face.
He knew when people lied.
He knew when people avoided.
But this time, I was telling the truth.
I didn’t know.
A loud sound interrupted us.
The security door near the hallway opened.
Everyone turned.
Two guards entered.
Both carrying weapons.
Victor relaxed slightly.
Too slightly.
“Why are they here?” Gabriel asked.
Victor answered immediately.
“To secure the floor.”
“Who authorized them?”
“I did.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You don’t have authorization to bring armed personnel onto my private floor without notifying me.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Tonight has changed the rules.”
“No.”
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“Tonight proved why the rules existed.”
The two guards stopped.
They looked uncomfortable.
They were caught between two orders.
Victor noticed.
And that told me something else.
His control over his own team was not as complete as he believed.
Gabriel turned toward the guards.
“Remove your weapons.”
Neither moved.
Victor looked at them.
A silent command.
Then Gabriel said one sentence.
“Do it.”
The guards immediately lowered their weapons.
Victor’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Gabriel had just proven something.
Even inside a betrayal, loyalty was not completely gone.
People were choosing.
And that terrified whoever planned this.
Because plans depended on everyone following instructions.
Chaos ruined plans.
Gabriel walked toward the security desk.
“Clara.”
“Yes?”
“Find out who accessed the system tonight.”
I sat down immediately.
The security network was complicated.
But complicated did not mean impossible.
I started reviewing logs.
Camera access.
Door controls.
Elevator activity.
Internal messages.
Most of it was normal.
Too normal.
That bothered me.
A perfect record was usually a fake record.
I searched deeper.
Then I found something.
A hidden access point.
My fingers stopped.
“What?”
Gabriel noticed.
I enlarged the screen.
“There.”
A small connection appeared.
No name.
No employee ID.
No authorization.
Just a blank access code.
Victor moved closer.
“What is that?”
I looked at him.
“You tell me.”
He stared at the screen.
For the first time tonight...
He looked afraid.
Not angry.
Not defensive.
Afraid.
“What?”
Gabriel noticed immediately.
“Victor.”
Victor did not answer.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“What is it?”
Victor swallowed.
Then slowly said:
“That code doesn’t belong to the security department.”
“Then who does it belong to?”
Victor looked at the screen.
And his answer changed everything.
“It belongs to someone who used to work for Gabriel’s father.”
The room froze.
Gabriel’s father.
A man whose name was rarely spoken.
A man who built the foundation of the Corso empire before Gabriel changed everything.
A man who left behind enemies, secrets, and unfinished business.
Gabriel’s expression became colder.
“My father’s employees are dead or retired.”
Victor shook his head.
“Most of them.”
The word echoed.
Most.
Not all.
I looked at Gabriel.
He understood before I did.
Someone connected to his past had returned.
Someone who knew the old organization.
Someone who knew the family.
Someone who knew exactly where to strike.
“Name.”
Victor looked at him.
“I don’t know if I should say it.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“After tonight, you lost the privilege of deciding what I should know.”
Victor looked down.
Then finally spoke.
“Adrian Vale.”
The name meant nothing to me.
But Gabriel reacted.
A small change.
A flash of recognition.
“You know him.”
Gabriel’s face remained unreadable.
“I thought he was dead.”
Nobody moved.
The rain continued outside.
The city continued shining.
But inside the penthouse, the past had just walked back through the door.
“Who is Adrian Vale?” I asked.
Gabriel looked at the security screen.
At the hidden access code.
At the evidence that someone had entered his world without being seen.
Then he answered quietly.
“The first person who taught me that betrayal doesn’t always come from enemies.”
A pause.
“He was my father’s closest friend.”
I felt a chill.
Because suddenly the attack made sense.
Ricky.
The fake driver.
The compromised security.
The message.
This was not someone trying to kill Gabriel randomly.
This was someone who knew exactly how Gabriel thought.
Someone who knew the building.
Someone who knew the people around him.
Someone who knew me.
Gabriel looked toward the locked elevator.
Then at me.
“Clara.”
“Yes?”
“From this moment forward, you stay beside me.”
I hesitated.
“Because you trust me?”
His eyes held mine.
“No.”
The answer surprised me.
“Because whoever is behind this wants you away from me.”
A pause.
“And I want to know why.”
The security screen flickered again.
Everyone turned.
A new message appeared.
This time, only two words.
ASK HER.
My heart stopped.
Gabriel looked at me.
Victor looked at me.
May you like
And for the first time that night, I realized the enemy was not trying to convince Gabriel that I betrayed him.
They were trying to force me to reveal a secret I didn’t even know I had.
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