Chapter 2 - THE SON AT THE DOOR
Gabriel Romano had faced armed men without blinking.
He had sat across tables from federal investigators, rival crews, politicians, and men who smiled while arranging someone else's funeral.
But when Ethan Ward stepped through the front doorway of his Boston estate, Gabriel looked like he had forgotten how to breathe.
The young man couldn't have been more than twenty-four.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Dark hair pushed back from his forehead.
A gray wool coat damp from the November rain.
He wasn't Gabriel's mirror image.
Not exactly.
But there was enough.
The same dark eyes.
The same strong jaw.
The same habit of becoming perfectly still when angry.
I saw it immediately.
So did Daniel.
And Madison.
Especially Madison.
She stood near the entrance to corridor 214, one hand pressed against the wall as though she might fall.
Ethan looked past the security guards.
His gaze found Gabriel.
“You're Gabriel Romano.”
It wasn't a question.
Gabriel walked slowly toward him.
“Ethan Ward?”
“Yes.”
“How old are you?”
Ethan's expression tightened.
“That's your first question?”
“Right now, yes.”
“Twenty-four.”
Gabriel glanced at the hospital bracelet in his hand.
July 16, 2002.
His fingers closed around the yellowed plastic.
“Your mother is alive?”
Ethan gave a humorless laugh.
“So you really didn't know.”
“Answer me.”
“My mother is alive.”
Gabriel's face changed.
Only slightly.
But I had worked in his home long enough to notice things other people missed.
His shoulders lowered by half an inch.
Relief.
Then anger replaced it.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“Where?”
Ethan stared at him.
“You think I'm going to walk into your house and hand you her address?”
“My father is dead.”
“That doesn't mean everyone who worked for him is.”
Gabriel stopped.
That answer landed harder than any accusation.
Behind us, footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Guests had begun drifting toward the foyer.
People whispered.
Madison straightened immediately.
Her frightened face disappeared beneath the polished expression she wore at charity dinners.
“Gabriel,” she said softly, “this isn't something you should discuss in front of everyone.”
Ethan turned toward her.
His eyes narrowed.
“I know you.”
Madison went pale again.
Gabriel looked between them.
“What?”
Ethan reached inside his coat.
Daniel's hand moved toward his weapon.
“Easy,” Ethan said.
He pulled out a photograph.
Then held it up.
It showed Madison standing outside a small white house.
The picture had been taken from inside a car.
Date-stamped six months earlier.
Gabriel took it.
His voice dropped.
“Where was this?”
“Providence.”
Madison shook her head.
“I've never been—”
“Don't,” Ethan snapped.
Every conversation in the foyer stopped.
“I watched you knock on my mother's door.”
Madison stared at him.
Ethan stepped closer.
“You told her Gabriel was getting married.”
Gabriel slowly turned toward his fiancée.
Madison's lips parted.
“I can explain.”
“You always say that,” he replied.
“Because there is an explanation.”
“Good.”
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
“Give me one.”
Madison looked around at the guests.
Several were pretending not to listen.
Gabriel noticed.
“Daniel.”
“Yes, boss?”
“Lock the front doors.”
The room froze.
Madison whispered, “Gabriel.”
“Everyone stays until I understand why someone has spent twenty-four years hiding a woman and her child from me.”
A senator near the fireplace cleared his throat.
“Gabriel, perhaps some of us should—”
“No.”
Gabriel didn't even look at him.
The locks clicked.
Nobody argued again.
Madison folded her arms.
“You're humiliating me in front of forty people.”
Ethan laughed bitterly.
“My mother spent twenty-four years using fake last names because she thought your family would kill me. But yes, let's talk about your embarrassment.”
Madison glared at him.
That was the first mistake she made.
The second was looking toward the east hallway.
Daniel noticed.
So did Gabriel.
“What are you looking at?” Gabriel asked.
“Nothing.”
Daniel quietly spoke into his radio.
Two guards moved toward the hallway.
Madison's face hardened.
“I'm not your prisoner.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “You're the woman who knew about room 214 before I did.”
He held up the picture Ethan had brought.
“And apparently you've known where Elena lives.”
“I was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Madison said nothing.
Ethan answered instead.
“From knowing the truth about your father.”
Gabriel turned back.
“What did my father do?”
Ethan's jaw flexed.
“My mother said your father found out she was pregnant.”
Silence.
“She was seventeen,” Ethan continued. “You were seventeen. She wanted to tell you.”
Gabriel's eyes darkened.
“She never did.”
“She tried.”
That stopped him.
Ethan pulled a folded envelope from his coat.
“Your father intercepted the letter.”
Gabriel took it.
The paper was brittle.
He recognized the handwriting immediately.
I knew because his breathing changed.
“What does it say?” Daniel asked.
Gabriel opened it.
He read silently.
Then again.
Ethan finally said, “Read the last line.”
Gabriel did.
His face went completely blank.
I stepped closer.
“What is it?”
He looked at me before speaking.
“She wrote that she was pregnant.”
A murmur moved through the guests.
Gabriel continued.
“She asked me to meet her at South Station on November fourth.”
The same date carved under the chair.
Ethan nodded.
“She waited three hours.”
Gabriel's voice was barely audible.
“I never got this.”
“I know.”
“My father told me she'd run away.”
“He told her you'd refused to come.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
For one second, I saw the seventeen-year-old boy buried inside the man everyone feared.
Then he looked at Ethan.
“How did she survive?”
Ethan hesitated.
“That part is complicated.”
“I have time.”
“My mother was taken from Boston the next morning.”
“By my father?”
“No.”
Gabriel frowned.
“By your mother.”
Everything stopped.
I thought I had misheard.
Gabriel did too.
“My mother?”
Ethan nodded.
“Isabella Romano.”
Gabriel looked toward room 214.
The photographs suddenly made sense in a different way.
His mother holding Ethan.
His mother beside Elena.
“She helped them escape,” I whispered.
Ethan looked at me for the first time.
“Yes.”
Madison said sharply, “You don't know what you're talking about.”
Ethan turned.
“I know Isabella paid for the house where I grew up.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“She died twelve years ago.”
“She kept helping us until the month she died.”
Gabriel's eyes moved toward the old chair upstairs.
His mother's chair.
The key hidden inside it.
She hadn't merely known.
She had prepared for this.
Gabriel opened his mouth.
Then one of the guards returned from the east hallway.
“Boss.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“Ms. Crane's overnight bag is gone.”
Madison froze.
Gabriel looked at her.
“What overnight bag?”
The guard continued.
“And her passport isn't in the bedroom safe.”
Madison's composure finally cracked.
“I was going to New York tomorrow.”
Gabriel gave her a cold stare.
“With seventy thousand dollars in cash?”
She said nothing.
The guard held up a leather pouch.
“We found this behind the panel in the coat closet.”
Daniel opened it.
Bundles of hundred-dollar bills.
Two passports.
A burner phone.
And a small black notebook.
Gabriel took the notebook.
The first page contained nothing but dates and initials.
Then Ethan saw one of the initials.
His expression changed.
“What?”
Gabriel followed his gaze.
Ethan pointed.
“R.H.”
“You know it?”
“My mother does.”
“Who is R.H.?”
Ethan swallowed.
“Raymond Hale.”
Daniel stiffened.
Even I recognized that name.
Raymond Hale had been Gabriel's father's attorney for nearly thirty years.
He had handled the Romano estate after Victor Romano died.
Gabriel looked at Madison.
“You know Raymond?”
“No.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Then why did my mother tell me Raymond Hale was the man who found us every time we moved?”
Madison backed away.
“That doesn't prove anything.”
Gabriel flipped through the notebook.
The final page had an address.
Beneath it were three words.
ELENA — SATURDAY — FINAL.
Today was Saturday.
Gabriel slowly raised his eyes.
“Where is Elena?”
Ethan's confidence vanished.
“At home.”
“Call her.”
“My phone died driving here.”
Daniel handed him one.
“Use mine.”
Ethan dialed.
No answer.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Again.
Straight to voicemail.
His face drained of color.
“She always answers at night.”
Gabriel was already moving.
“Daniel, cars.”
Ethan grabbed his arm.
“I'm coming.”
Gabriel looked down at the hand on his sleeve.
Twenty-four years of missing history stood between them.
Then he nodded.
“So is Ava.”
I blinked.
“Me?”
“You found the photograph. You found the carving. You found the picture behind the crib.”
Madison laughed shakily.
“She's a maid, Gabriel.”
He turned toward her.
“No.”
The coldness in his voice made everyone silent.
“She's the reason I know any of this.”
Madison's face twisted.
For the first time, she looked at me with open hatred.
Gabriel noticed.
“Keep her here,” he told two guards.
Madison stepped backward.
“You can't do this.”
“Watch me.”
We were nearly at the door when Daniel's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then stopped walking.
“Boss.”
Gabriel turned.
Daniel's expression had changed completely.
“That was Providence police.”
Ethan went white.
“What happened?”
Daniel looked at him.
“There was a fire at your mother's house.”
Ethan lunged forward.
“My mother?”
“They haven't found anyone inside.”
Relief lasted less than one second.
Daniel continued.
“But they found blood in the kitchen.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Gabriel's voice became dangerously quiet.
“How long ago?”
“Forty minutes.”
Gabriel looked toward Madison.
She was smiling.
Barely.
But I saw it.
And Gabriel saw it too.
He crossed the foyer in three steps.
“Where is Elena?”
Madison's smile disappeared.
“I don't know.”
Gabriel leaned close.
“If she dies tonight, every lie you've told me becomes the least of your problems.”
Madison stared at him.
Then whispered something I wasn't prepared for.
“You still think Elena is the one you should be trying to save?”
Gabriel went still.
Madison looked past him.
Directly at Ethan.
“You brought him here exactly like they wanted.”
Ethan frowned.
“Who?”
Madison's eyes filled with terrified tears.
“Your father.”
Gabriel's voice dropped.
“My father is dead.”
Madison slowly shook her head.
“No, Gabriel.”
May you like
Then every light in the mansion went out.
And somewhere in the darkness, a gunshot exploded.
