Chapter 4 - WHAT HIS FATHER PAID TO HIDE
“My father died twenty years ago.”
Gabriel’s words were flat.
Victor held his gaze.
“That doesn’t mean what he did died with him.”
Rachel watched Gabriel close his hand around the Saint Christopher medal.
The gold disappeared inside his fist.
“What did Daniel think my father did?”
Victor shook his head.
“He never told me everything.”
Gabriel’s patience thinned.
“You’ve spent the last hour telling me you withheld one thing after another. Stop protecting dead people.”
Victor flinched.
Fairly.
Then he took a long breath.
“Daniel found payments.”
“What payments?”
“Monthly transfers from your father’s private account to Samuel.”
Gabriel frowned.
“For how long?”
“Almost sixteen years.”
Rachel felt the meaning before Gabriel said it.
“Hush money.”
“Maybe,” Victor replied.
Gabriel stared at him.
“That word sounds different when you’re the one who might have been purchased.”
Margaret sat slowly.
“Samuel never told me.”
Victor continued.
“The payments stopped the month your father died.”
“And Samuel supposedly died eight years later.”
“Yes.”
“Except he didn’t.”
“No.”
Gabriel began pacing.
Rachel had seen angry men before.
Her father, when medical bills arrived.
Supervisors, when schedules fell apart.
Customers, when something inconvenienced them.
Gabriel’s anger was different.
It was directed backward in time.
At people he could no longer confront.
Rachel quietly said, “We should talk to Samuel.”
Gabriel stopped.
Victor nodded.
“He’s still in Atlantic City.”
“Then we go.”
Rachel looked at Gabriel.
“We?”
“You stay here.”
“No.”
He turned toward her.
Rachel pulled up her sleeve.
The bruises were darker now.
“This started because I walked into that room. Madeline threatened my sister. I’m already in it.”
“I can protect your sister without taking you to Atlantic City.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No, it’s safer.”
“For you or me?”
Gabriel stared.
Rachel immediately wondered whether she had crossed a line.
Then he said, “Both.”
She shook her head.
“Madeline thinks I know more than I do. If I disappear into some locked room, she’ll still think I’m a threat.”
Victor quietly agreed.
“She’s right.”
Gabriel gave him a look.
Victor lifted his hands.
“I’m already unpopular tonight.”
Despite herself, Rachel nearly smiled.
It vanished quickly.
Gabriel finally said, “You stay beside me.”
“I can do that.”
“And if I tell you to leave—”
“I leave.”
“Immediately.”
“Yes.”
Forty minutes later, they were driving toward Atlantic City.
Margaret remained at the estate with two guards.
Rachel sat in the back seat beside Gabriel.
Victor rode in front.
Gabriel still held the medal.
For several miles, nobody spoke.
Then Rachel noticed an inscription along the rim.
Not initials.
A date.
She leaned closer.
“May I?”
Gabriel handed it to her.
She turned it beneath the overhead light.
“October eighteenth.”
Victor looked back.
“What?”
“The engraving.”
Gabriel took it again.
His birthday was October seventeenth.
“The day after.”
Rachel frowned.
“Margaret said your mother put it around her newborn son’s neck before the nursery took him.”
Gabriel understood.
“So why was it engraved the next day?”
Victor said, “Maybe Elena had it engraved after she got it back.”
“She didn’t get it back,” Gabriel replied.
Silence.
Another inconsistency.
They reached Samuel’s small Atlantic City house shortly before midnight.
The front room showed signs of struggle.
A lamp lay broken.
A chair had overturned.
But Samuel was sitting at the kitchen table.
Alive.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
Exhausted.
He looked at Gabriel and immediately began crying.
Not dramatically.
Just tears slipping down an old man’s face.
“You look like him,” Samuel whispered.
Gabriel stopped.
“Like who?”
Samuel looked at Victor.
Then down at his hands.
“Daniel.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“You have ten seconds to stop speaking in riddles.”
Samuel nodded.
“Fair.”
Rachel remained near the doorway.
Samuel noticed Gabriel’s jacket around her shoulders.
He noticed her bruised wrist.
His expression hardened.
“Madeline?”
Rachel nodded.
“Partly.”
Samuel looked ashamed.
“I should have spoken years ago.”
Gabriel sat across from him.
“Speak now.”
Samuel began with Elena.
After the birth, she had become convinced something was wrong.
Not because Gabriel looked different.
Not because of some mother’s instinct.
Because her husband, Carlo DeLuca, behaved strangely.
“He refused to let her return to St. Matthew’s,” Samuel said.
“He replaced the family doctor. Paid the hospital administrator. Told Elena she was exhausted and imagining things.”
Gabriel’s mouth tightened.
“Why?”
Samuel looked at him.
“Because Carlo knew what happened.”
There it was.
“What happened?”
Samuel rubbed his forehead.
“The bracelets were switched intentionally.”
Rachel’s stomach dropped.
“But were the babies?”
Samuel hesitated.
“I never saw it happen.”
Gabriel slammed his palm against the table.
“Then what do you know?”
“I drove your father to the hospital at four that morning.”
“Why?”
“He got a call.”
“From whom?”
“Anna Reed.”
Victor’s head snapped up.
“My aunt?”
“Yes.”
Samuel looked sick.
“Anna worked nights in the laundry department at St. Matthew’s before Daniel was born. She knew people there. She knew your father.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“How well?”
Samuel closed his eyes.
Too well.
Victor stood.
“No.”
Samuel looked at him.
“Daniel wasn’t your uncle’s biological son.”
Victor’s face changed.
Rachel whispered, “Carlo?”
Samuel nodded.
“Carlo DeLuca was Daniel’s father.”
The entire mystery shifted again.
If Carlo had fathered both children, the inheritance issue became even uglier.
Gabriel’s voice was barely audible.
“My father got two women pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“On the same night?”
“Within weeks.”
“And when both sons were born at the same hospital—”
“He panicked.”
“Why?”
“Because Anna intended to tell Elena.”
Gabriel stared at Samuel.
“So he arranged the bracelets.”
Samuel shook his head.
“No.”
“That’s what you just said.”
“I said he knew.”
Samuel leaned forward.
“Anna switched the bracelets.”
Victor looked stunned.
“Why?”
“To force Carlo to acknowledge Daniel.”
Rachel tried to understand.
“She put REED on Elena’s baby?”
“Yes.”
“And DELUCA on hers?”
“Yes.”
“But that still doesn’t mean she switched the babies.”
“No.”
Samuel’s eyes filled with regret.
“That part came later.”
Gabriel went motionless.
“What part?”
Samuel looked toward the broken lamp.
“Carlo arrived before dawn.”
“And?”
“He told Anna he would take care of everything.”
“Meaning?”
Samuel’s face twisted.
“I drove him there. I waited outside. Forty minutes later, he came out holding two blankets.”
Rachel’s skin went cold.
Gabriel whispered, “Two?”
Samuel nodded.
“One baby was returned to the nursery.”
“And the other?”
Samuel looked Gabriel directly in the eyes.
“Your father brought him to my car.”
Gabriel’s breathing changed.
“What happened to that child?”
Samuel’s answer came slowly.
“Carlo told me he was fixing Anna’s mistake.”
Gabriel stood.
“Which baby was in your car?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I didn’t know then.”
“But you learned.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Victor stepped forward.
“When Daniel came here?”
Samuel nodded.
Gabriel’s hand tightened around the table.
“Tell me.”
Samuel looked at the gold medal in Gabriel’s hand.
“Daniel brought me that.”
Then he reached beneath the kitchen table and pulled loose a narrow wooden panel.
Inside was an old envelope.
He placed it before Gabriel.
“Elena gave me this after Daniel died.”
Gabriel opened it.
Inside was a second hospital bracelet.
Yellowed.
Brittle.
Across it was written:
DELUCA, MALE.
And beneath the bracelet lay a handwritten note from Carlo DeLuca.
Gabriel unfolded it.
He read one sentence.
Then sat down.
Rachel moved closer.
The note said:
May you like
Elena took home Anna’s son. I made certain my own son disappeared before either woman could undo it.
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