Chapter 7 - THE ROOM UNDER THE CHAPEL
Water moved beneath their feet.
At first it sounded distant.
Then louder.
A violent rushing through old pipes.
Ethan dropped to his knees beside the steel panel.
“Ethan!”
His son’s voice came faintly from below.
“Dad!”
Hannah knelt beside her brother.
“We’ll get him out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet.”
Gabriel remained behind the altar with the remote raised.
Every gun in the chapel was aimed at him.
None could fire.
He understood that.
Dominic understood something else.
Gabriel had built the trap around everyone believing the remote was necessary to stop it.
Maybe it was.
Maybe not.
Dominic looked at Salvatore.
“Where’s the reservoir shutoff?”
Gabriel smiled.
“Dad doesn’t know.”
Salvatore did not answer.
Dominic saw his father’s left thumb move.
Once.
Toward the old confessional booth.
Gabriel followed Dominic’s eyes.
Too late.
Vincent moved first.
He fired at the chandelier.
Glass exploded.
Gabriel flinched.
Dominic crossed half the room before anyone else reacted.
He hit Gabriel hard enough to drive both of them into the altar.
The remote flew.
Madison lunged for it.
Hannah saw her.
So did Richard.
Richard tackled Madison.
The remote skidded beneath a pew.
Gabriel struck Dominic across the jaw.
Dominic barely moved.
Then hit him back.
Once.
Controlled.
Devastating.
Gabriel crashed against the altar rail.
Marco’s men restrained him.
“Remote!” Dominic shouted.
Hannah crawled beneath the pew.
Her fingers found it.
Red button.
Green button.
No labels.
“Which one?”
Gabriel laughed through blood on his lip.
“Guess.”
Dominic looked at Salvatore.
“Dad.”
“Confessional.”
Vincent ran.
Inside the old booth, behind a wooden panel, he found three brass valves.
No labels.
“Which one?”
Salvatore shouted, “Center!”
Gabriel suddenly twisted against Marco’s men.
“No!”
Vincent turned the center valve.
The rushing water changed.
Slowed.
Then stopped.
Ethan pressed his ear to the steel hatch.
“Junior?”
A weak answer.
“I’m here.”
Hannah almost sobbed.
Vincent found a mechanical release beside the valves.
The hatch opened.
A ladder descended into darkness.
Ethan went first.
Hannah behind him.
Ten feet below, cold water reached Ethan Jr.’s chest.
He had climbed onto a maintenance pipe.
His chair floated nearby.
Ethan pulled him into his arms.
For a long moment father and son simply held each other.
Hannah stood waist-deep in water beside them.
Her brother.
Her nephew.
A family she had never known still existed.
Above them Dominic watched Gabriel being restrained.
He felt no satisfaction.
Only fatigue.
Then Madison screamed.
Richard had released her long enough to check Michael.
She had grabbed the fallen pistol.
Now she pointed it at Noah’s grandfather.
Salvatore.
“Everyone back!”
Marco aimed at her.
Dominic lifted his hand.
“Don’t.”
Madison’s eyes were wild.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Dominic stared.
“What did you think was supposed to happen?”
“You sign. Gabriel takes the trust. I take Noah. Everyone leaves.”
“You take Noah?”
“He promised me custody.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“You believed him.”
“He promised.”
Gabriel smiled from the floor.
Dominic looked at Madison.
“Ask him.”
She glanced toward Gabriel.
“Tell them.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“Gabriel.”
He smiled wider.
Madison’s face changed.
Understanding arrived slowly and cruelly.
“You were going to kill me.”
Gabriel shrugged.
“You knew too much.”
Her weapon trembled.
Dominic spoke quietly.
“Put it down.”
Madison looked at him.
For the first time since the birthday party, the polished elegance was gone.
She looked younger.
Frightened.
Ordinary.
“You hate me.”
“Yes.”
The honesty surprised her.
“But Noah doesn’t need to watch another person die.”
Her eyes filled.
Dominic continued.
“You frightened him. Drugged him. Trained him to lie.”
“I never wanted to hurt him.”
“You did.”
“I was supposed to make him trust me.”
“You failed.”
She laughed through tears.
“I know.”
“Put the gun down.”
For a second Dominic thought she would.
Then Gabriel spoke.
“Madison, he’ll bury you.”
She looked toward him.
“Shut up.”
“He’ll never let you leave.”
“Shut up!”
“Ask what happened to the last woman who betrayed a Caruso.”
Dominic saw the shift.
Gabriel was still controlling her.
Even tied.
Even defeated.
Dominic said, “Madison.”
She looked at him.
“You can believe the man who planned to murder you.”
He paused.
“Or you can believe me when I say Noah will never see you again, but you will walk out of this room alive.”
Her breathing slowed.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel laughed.
“She’ll testify.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Exactly.”
That did it.
Madison lowered the gun.
Marco took it.
She sank onto a pew and began crying.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
The way people cried when the version of themselves they had believed in finally collapsed.
Minutes later, Ethan and Hannah brought Ethan Jr. up from beneath the chapel.
Richard embraced Daniel and Michael.
Salvatore remained seated.
Vincent stood before him.
Eleven years of questions passed between them.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Vincent finally asked.
Salvatore looked at both sons.
“I tried.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“I had Richard prepare contingencies.”
“Richard spent three months betraying me.”
Salvatore glanced toward the attorney.
“People change under pressure.”
Richard accepted the judgment without protest.
Dominic’s anger sharpened.
“You don’t get to sit there and judge him.”
Salvatore looked back.
“No?”
“You disappeared.”
“I was taken.”
“You prepared a replacement body.”
“For Gabriel, if he came for me.”
“So the lie was already built.”
Salvatore didn’t deny it.
Dominic continued.
“You raised us to think secrets were protection.”
“Often they are.”
“Look around.”
Salvatore did.
The chapel was filled with the consequences of secrets.
Ethan.
Hannah.
Daniel.
Michael.
Noah, though absent.
Vincent’s stolen years.
Madison’s manipulation.
Gabriel’s entire empire.
Salvatore lowered his eyes.
“You’re right.”
Dominic had prepared for arguments.
Not that.
Salvatore looked old.
Not powerful.
Not feared.
Just old.
“I thought if each person knew only what they needed, Gabriel could never destroy the whole network.”
Vincent said, “So you divided everyone.”
“Yes.”
“He used the divisions.”
“Yes.”
Hannah stepped toward Salvatore.
“My mother.”
His expression changed.
“I loved Evelyn.”
“Not romantically.”
“No.”
“Did you love her enough to tell her Ethan was your son?”
Salvatore flinched.
“I knew.”
Hannah stared.
“What?”
“Evelyn told me after Ethan was born.”
“And Daniel?”
“Knew before the birth.”
Hannah swallowed.
“Did you love Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you get him back?”
“I tried.”
“You had money. Men. Connections.”
“And Gabriel had a twelve-year-old boy he could move anywhere in the world.”
Salvatore’s voice cracked.
“I chose patience because I thought patience would keep him alive.”
Hannah looked toward her brother.
“Did it?”
Salvatore followed her gaze.
“Yes.”
“For seventeen years in captivity.”
“No.”
Ethan stepped forward.
Everyone turned.
He held his son’s shoulder.
“I wasn’t Gabriel’s prisoner for seventeen years.”
Hannah stared.
“What?”
“I escaped after three.”
Her face changed.
“Then where were you?”
Ethan looked at Salvatore.
“With him.”
Silence.
Dominic turned sharply toward his father.
“What?”
Ethan continued.
“Salvatore found me when I was fifteen.”
Hannah looked sick.
“You were free?”
“No.”
“Did you know Mom was alive?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know I was alive?”
“Yes.”
Her voice broke.
“And you never came home?”
Ethan’s eyes filled.
“I couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel believed I was dead.”
Hannah laughed bitterly.
“So everyone in this family solves problems by pretending to die?”
Vincent muttered, “Fair.”
Ethan continued.
“Salvatore put me into witness protection through people he trusted. New name. New state. I met someone. I had Junior.”
Hannah looked at her nephew.
“You had a life.”
“For a while.”
“What happened?”
“Gabriel found us five years ago.”
“And Salvatore?”
“Taken six years ago.”
Dominic frowned.
“But Dad disappeared eleven years ago.”
Salvatore answered.
“For five years I was free under another identity.”
“While Mom grieved?”
Salvatore closed his eyes.
Dominic stepped away.
That betrayal hit deeper.
Their mother had died seven years earlier.
Salvatore had still been alive and free for four of those years.
“Did you know she was sick?”
“Yes.”
“Did you go to her?”
“No.”
Vincent turned away.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel watched her.”
“She died thinking you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You let her.”
Salvatore had no defense.
For once, he offered none.
Dominic looked toward the chapel door.
He suddenly wanted air.
Distance.
Anything.
Marco approached.
“We need to move.”
Dominic nodded.
“Gabriel goes with us.”
Gabriel smiled.
“You think this is over?”
“No.”
Dominic looked at him.
“I think it finally started.”
Gabriel laughed.
Then turned toward Salvatore.
“Tell him.”
Salvatore froze.
Dominic stopped walking.
“Tell me what?”
Gabriel’s smile widened.
“The reason Evelyn wrote both Dominic and Hannah on the envelope.”
Hannah looked at Salvatore.
“What reason?”
Salvatore said nothing.
Gabriel continued.
“You all assumed it was because Ethan connected the families.”
He shook his head.
“It wasn’t.”
Dominic stepped closer to his father.
“What is he talking about?”
Salvatore whispered, “Not here.”
Gabriel laughed.
“Of course not.”
Hannah’s face hardened.
“No more secrets.”
Salvatore looked at her.
Then Dominic.
He appeared suddenly more frightened of these two people than of Gabriel.
Finally he said:
“Evelyn wasn’t protecting Ethan from the truth.”
Hannah’s pulse accelerated.
“She was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Salvatore looked toward Dominic.
“From him.”
Silence.
Dominic’s face became unreadable.
Hannah whispered, “Why would I need protection from Dominic?”
Salvatore closed his eyes.
Gabriel answered for him.
“Because twenty-four years ago, when Dominic was eighteen, someone ordered the car bombing that killed Hannah’s biological father.”
Hannah stared.
“Daniel Reed was my father.”
Gabriel smiled.
“No.”
Salvatore whispered, “Hannah…”
She backed away.
“No.”
Gabriel delivered the final blow.
“Daniel raised you.”
He looked directly at Dominic.
“But Salvatore Caruso was your biological father too.”
Nobody moved.
Vincent’s face emptied.
Ethan whispered, “What?”
May you like
Gabriel smiled at Hannah.
“Welcome home, little sister.”
