Chapter 6 - THE EMPIRE NEVER BELONGED TO GABRIEL
Nobody spoke after Daniel disconnected.
The farmhouse seemed unnaturally quiet.
Rachel stared at Gabriel.
“I don’t want your money.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“That is not what worries me.”
“What does?”
“That Daniel thinks you have something worth killing for.”
Isabella stood from the table.
“He does.”
Everyone looked at her.
Gabriel’s expression sharpened.
“What haven’t you told us?”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“Alessandro changed his estate plan before he died.”
Marco muttered, “I knew there was a codicil.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You knew?”
“Only that one existed.”
Isabella continued.
“Alessandro discovered Victor’s financial network in 2007. He realized several men inside the organization planned to use Gabriel as the public successor while quietly controlling the legitimate businesses around him.”
Gabriel listened in silence.
“He couldn’t remove them all without starting a war,” Isabella said. “So he created a fail-safe.”
Rachel already hated where this was going.
“The female trust.”
“Partly.”
Isabella looked at Rachel.
“Lucia was his eldest biological child.”
Rachel said nothing.
“Under New York succession law and the private trusts Alessandro created, Lucia’s descendants became controlling beneficiaries of the legitimate holding companies if Gabriel’s branch was compromised.”
Rachel stared.
“In English.”
Gabriel answered instead.
“If Sophie and I were considered compromised, you could control enough voting shares to dismantle the network.”
Rachel looked horrified.
“I clean houses.”
Sophie whispered, “You clean really good.”
Everyone looked at her.
Rachel unexpectedly laughed.
The sound released a little pressure from the room.
Gabriel smiled faintly.
Then reality returned.
“I don’t want it.”
Isabella shook her head.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters.”
“You are a beneficiary whether you accept control or not.”
Rachel paced.
“I have a nine-year-old son who thinks pizza night is a major financial decision. I am not inheriting a criminal empire.”
Gabriel said, “You’re not.”
Rachel looked at him.
“The criminal side isn’t part of the trust.”
“What is?”
“Real estate. Logistics companies. Hotels. Construction firms. Investments.”
“How much?”
Gabriel paused.
Rachel narrowed her eyes.
“How much?”
Isabella answered.
“Approximately eight hundred forty million dollars.”
Rachel sat down.
Sophie looked impressed.
“That’s a lot.”
Rachel stared at the table.
“I think I’m going to throw up.”
Gabriel leaned against the wall.
“Daniel doesn’t need Rachel dead.”
Marco understood first.
“He needs her signature.”
Isabella nodded.
“Or legal incapacity.”
Rachel looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“He could force you to transfer proxy authority.”
“And if I refuse?”
Nobody answered.
Rachel nodded.
“Wonderful.”
Marco began calling teams.
Daniel controlled large portions of the DeLuca legitimate financial operation.
If he had been Victor’s hidden partner, every account and company needed immediate review.
Gabriel turned to Isabella.
“Where is Lucia?”
“I told you. She left.”
“Why would Rachel’s biological mother spend thirty-one years hidden, then suddenly appear tonight?”
“Because Cassandra found the trust documents.”
Rachel frowned.
“How?”
Isabella looked toward Sophie.
“Someone entered Blackthorn Farm two weeks ago.”
Sophie hugged herself.
“A lady.”
“Cassandra?” Gabriel asked.
Sophie nodded.
“She said Grandma sent her.”
“What did she take?”
“A folder from Mom’s room.”
Isabella added, “The original trust certificate.”
Gabriel swore quietly.
Rachel asked, “Why keep that here?”
“Because digital records had been altered. Alessandro insisted on original paper copies.”
“So Cassandra gave it to Daniel.”
“Likely.”
Marco checked his phone.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We have movement at the mansion.”
Gabriel froze.
“Ben.”
Rachel stood instantly.
Marco was already calling.
No response from the first guard.
Second guard.
Nothing.
Rachel’s heart began hammering.
“Call my mother.”
Caroline answered after two rings.
Rachel nearly cried.
“Mom?”
“Rachel.”
“Where is Ben?”
A pause.
Too long.
“Mom.”
“He’s with me.”
Rachel closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
“But we had to leave the mansion.”
“Why?”
“Someone on Gabriel’s staff opened the east gate.”
Marco’s face hardened.
“How did you get out?”
Caroline answered through speakerphone.
“Old service tunnel.”
Gabriel stared.
“What service tunnel?”
Caroline almost laughed.
“Your father had many secrets.”
“Where are you?”
“I won’t say over the phone.”
Rachel snapped.
“Mom, stop doing that.”
Silence.
Then Caroline gave a location.
A church in White Plains.
Gabriel ordered a team there immediately.
Rachel said, “Ben needs me.”
“You’ll meet him there.”
They prepared to leave Blackthorn Farm.
Sophie refused to remain behind without Gabriel.
Isabella joined them.
For the first time in seven years, the three members of the DeLuca family rode in the same vehicle.
Rachel sat beside Marco in another SUV.
He looked troubled.
“You think Daniel betrayed you?”
“I know he did.”
“Why?”
Marco stared through the windshield.
“Our father favored me.”
Rachel waited.
“He trained me for security. Daniel got finance. Daniel thought being behind a desk made him less important.”
“And Victor exploited that?”
“Probably.”
Rachel thought about family resentment.
So many lives had been destroyed because powerful adults could not bear feeling overlooked.
Thirty minutes from White Plains, Marco’s radio came alive.
“Vehicle behind us.”
Marco looked in the mirror.
A black sedan.
Then another.
Gabriel’s SUV was ahead.
The first sedan accelerated.
“Hold on.”
Rachel grabbed the door.
The sedan struck their rear quarter panel.
Marco kept control.
Another vehicle appeared from a side road.
This wasn’t an attempt to frighten them.
It was an extraction.
“They want me.”
“Yes.”
“Then stop putting everyone else in danger.”
Marco looked at her sharply.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Let them think they got me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Gabriel would kill me.”
“I’m not asking permission.”
Rachel watched the road.
Ahead, a construction zone narrowed traffic.
She quickly explained.
Marco rejected the plan three times.
Then the attacking sedan rammed them again.
He changed his mind.
At the construction barrier, their vehicle abruptly stopped.
Marco and two guards exited, exchanging controlled gunfire toward the tires of the attackers.
Rachel slipped through a service opening between concrete barriers.
One attacker saw her.
Exactly as intended.
She ran toward an unfinished building.
Footsteps followed.
Rachel entered.
She hid behind a column.
A man approached.
“Rachel Bennett.”
She stepped backward.
Another appeared behind her.
They grabbed her arms.
She screamed once.
Then allowed them to drag her toward a white van.
Because Marco had placed a tracker inside her coat.
Because Gabriel’s convoy had intentionally continued ahead.
Because for once, Rachel wanted to choose how she entered the trap.
The van drove for forty minutes.
She kept her eyes closed and counted turns.
When it stopped, she was brought into an office.
Daniel Santoro sat behind a polished desk.
He looked like Marco around the eyes.
Same dark hair.
Same broad shoulders.
But Daniel smiled more.
“Ms. Bennett.”
Rachel stared.
“You threatened my son.”
“No.”
“Your people photographed him.”
“Cassandra’s people.”
“Convenient.”
Daniel poured water.
Rachel didn’t touch it.
“You resemble Lucia.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
“She was difficult too.”
Rachel’s pulse changed.
“You knew her.”
Daniel smiled.
“Very well.”
“How?”
“She once tried to kill me.”
Rachel stared.
“Did she fail?”
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
“Obviously.”
He opened a folder.
Inside were legal documents.
“You sign these, and you walk away.”
“What am I signing?”
“Proxy transfer.”
“To you.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Daniel leaned back.
“Think carefully.”
“I did.”
“Eight hundred million dollars.”
“Not interested.”
“You should be.”
“Why?”
“Because your son inherits after you.”
Rachel froze.
Daniel smiled.
“There it is.”
Rachel understood.
Ben.
If something happened to her, her child could inherit the trust.
Which meant Daniel would never stop.
“You people really destroy everyone around you for paperwork.”
“It’s not paperwork. It’s power.”
“No. It’s insecurity with a lawyer.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
Good.
Angry men made mistakes.
Rachel continued.
“Gabriel scares you.”
Daniel stood.
“Gabriel is a sentimental fool.”
“Then why spend seven years hiding from him?”
Daniel slapped the desk.
Rachel didn’t flinch.
“I built half his empire.”
“And still nobody knows your name.”
That landed.
Daniel walked around the desk.
“Sign.”
“No.”
He grabbed her wrist.
Rachel remembered Cassandra doing the same thing beside the trash chute.
Funny how powerful people always started with wrists.
Then a voice came from the doorway.
“Let her go.”
Daniel froze.
Lucia stood there.
Rachel stared at her biological mother.
Lucia held a gun low at her side.
Daniel smiled carefully.
“Lucia.”
“Move away from my daughter.”
Rachel’s breath caught at the word.
Daughter.
Daniel stepped backward.
Then lights flashed through the windows.
Gabriel’s people had arrived.
Daniel looked toward Rachel.
“You brought them.”
Rachel smiled.
“No.”
Lucia raised her weapon.
“I did.”
The office erupted.
Daniel knocked over the desk and ran through a rear door.
Lucia grabbed Rachel.
They escaped into the hallway.
Gabriel’s men entered from below.
Marco shouted his brother’s name.
A vehicle engine roared outside.
Daniel escaped through the loading bay.
Gabriel reached Rachel.
“You all right?”
“Yes.”
His eyes went to Lucia.
Gabriel stared at his half sister’s daughter’s mother—family connections becoming increasingly absurd.
“You’re Lucia.”
She looked at him.
“You grew up.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“So did you.”
Then Marco entered.
His face was pale.
“We found the files.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“What files?”
Marco handed him a hard drive.
“Daniel kept records.”
“Of Victor?”
“Of everyone.”
Rachel noticed blood on Marco’s sleeve.
“You’re hurt.”
“Not mine.”
He looked at Gabriel.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Daniel has been paying someone inside your household for eleven years.”
Gabriel opened the file.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Monthly transfers.
Large amounts.
The recipient was not Cassandra.
Not Teresa.
Not Caroline.
Gabriel stared at the name.
Isabella came into the doorway behind him.
She saw the screen.
Her face drained of color.
Rachel read the recipient aloud.
“Marco Santoro.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Marco looked at the records.
Then at Gabriel.
“I never received that money.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
Marco continued quickly.
“That account isn’t mine.”
Gabriel scrolled.
The account required biometric authorization.
Marco’s fingerprints.
Gabriel slowly raised his eyes.
Marco whispered:
“Someone has been using my identity for eleven years.”
From outside came a shout.
One of Gabriel’s guards ran in.
“Boss!”
“What?”
“We found another man in the building.”
“Who?”
May you like
The guard looked directly at Marco.
“He says he’s Marco Santoro.”
