Chapter 6 - THE SECOND SON
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Ethan looked at Gabriel.
“Brother?”
Gabriel took the phone back.
“My father lies.”
Madison didn't move.
That told me enough.
Gabriel saw it too.
“You know something.”
“No.”
He stepped toward her.
“Madison.”
She closed her eyes.
“Victor mentioned another child once.”
Ethan stared.
“What child?”
“He never gave me a name.”
Gabriel's voice sharpened.
“Mine?”
“I don't know.”
“Try again.”
Madison exhaled.
“Victor said Elena wasn't the only woman he had watched.”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“He said there had been a second pregnancy.”
Ethan went still.
Gabriel looked disgusted.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“When?”
“Around 2005.”
“That child couldn't be Elena's.”
Ethan shook his head.
“My mother never had another baby.”
Madison nodded.
“I don't think the child belonged to Elena.”
Daniel had been searching old Romano records.
He found payments to a private clinic in Vermont beginning in 2005.
The patient name was fake.
But the account was authorized by Victor.
Payments continued for eighteen years.
Then stopped in 2023.
The listed dependent was named Michael.
Gabriel looked at the screen.
“No last name.”
Daniel said, “There's an address.”
We had less than two hours before Victor's deadline.
Gabriel made the decision.
Daniel would lead a team toward the old Romano Hotel.
Gabriel, Ethan, Madison, and I would visit the Vermont address using helicopter transport.
I protested.
“My sister is in Boston.”
“And Daniel has forty men looking for her.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“If Victor is using this second son as leverage, I need to understand why.”
Ethan stared through the helicopter window during the flight.
At one point he asked Gabriel, “How many children do you think you have?”
Gabriel didn't smile.
“Until tonight, zero.”
“Great family planning.”
Gabriel almost reacted.
Almost.
Then Ethan looked away.
It was the first joke either of them had made.
Painful as it was, something human existed between them now.
The Vermont address belonged to a private residential facility.
Gabriel showed identification.
The administrator visibly recognized his name.
That was our first warning.
“Michael left three years ago,” she said.
“Michael what?” Gabriel asked.
The administrator hesitated.
“Michael Romano.”
Ethan looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“Date of birth?”
“March 2, 2005.”
“Mother?”
The woman checked the file.
“Confidential.”
Gabriel placed Victor's medical payment records on her desk.
“My father paid for him.”
She swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He had developmental treatment here as a child. Severe trauma. Anxiety. Periodic aggression.”
“What trauma?”
“I can't disclose—”
Madison leaned forward.
“You should.”
The administrator looked at her.
Madison quietly said, “Victor Romano is alive.”
The woman went white.
She opened the record.
Michael had entered the facility at age nine.
Before that, he had lived in a secluded house owned by one of Victor's companies.
His guardian was listed as Raymond Hale.
Gabriel frowned.
“Raymond raised him?”
“Officially.”
“What about his mother?”
The administrator removed a photograph from the file.
When she placed it on the desk, Madison gasped.
I didn't recognize the woman.
Gabriel did.
“No.”
Ethan asked, “Who is she?”
Gabriel picked up the photograph.
“Lydia Hale.”
Raymond's daughter.
Madison whispered, “She died.”
Gabriel nodded.
“2006.”
The administrator looked surprised.
“According to our records, she died during childbirth.”
Gabriel stared.
“If Michael was born in 2005, that doesn't match.”
The woman frowned.
She checked another document.
“You're right.”
Lydia Hale had died eleven months after Michael's birth.
Her death certificate called it an accidental overdose.
Gabriel's expression told me he didn't believe that anymore.
Daniel called.
“We found Claire.”
My knees weakened.
“Is she okay?”
“Yes. Alive. Scared. Victor released her outside the hotel.”
“Why?”
Daniel paused.
“Because he says he doesn't need her anymore.”
Gabriel asked, “What changed?”
“He knows you found Michael's file.”
My skin turned cold.
“How?”
Madison whispered, “He's watching us.”
Gabriel surveyed the office.
The administrator looked terrified.
Daniel continued.
“Victor sent another message.”
Gabriel put the call on speaker.
Daniel read it.
Bring Ethan to the hotel instead.
Ethan's face hardened.
“Me?”
Madison shook her head.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because Victor doesn't want the ledger anymore.”
“What does he want?”
Madison looked at Ethan.
“He wants both boys in the same room.”
Ethan frowned.
“Why?”
Gabriel already understood.
“He's trying to prove something.”
We found Michael's current address in the file.
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
An apartment only twelve miles from Gabriel's estate.
He had been living near us the entire time.
We drove straight there.
The apartment door was unlocked.
Inside were photographs covering every wall.
Gabriel.
Ethan.
Elena.
Me.
Madison.
Even Daniel.
Michael had been watching all of us.
Ethan found a recent photograph of himself leaving work.
“Who is this guy?”
Gabriel searched the desk.
There were newspaper clippings about the Romano family.
Financial articles.
Pictures from Gabriel's charity events.
And a photograph of Victor.
Across Victor's face Michael had written:
HE LIED ABOUT MY FATHER TOO.
Gabriel found a laptop.
No password.
A video file had been left open.
Michael appeared on screen.
Mid-twenties.
Dark blond hair.
Thin face.
Tired eyes.
“My name is Michael Hale,” he began.
Ethan sat down.
“If you're watching this, Victor has finally decided I'm useful.”
Michael continued.
“Raymond Hale raised me as his grandson.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“He told me my father abandoned my mother.”
Gabriel didn't move.
“When I turned eighteen, Raymond admitted that wasn't true.”
Michael held up a document.
A paternity test.
“He told me Gabriel Romano was my father.”
Ethan looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel stared at the screen.
Michael continued.
“But Victor told me Raymond lied.”
He leaned closer.
“Victor says Ethan Ward is Gabriel's only son.”
Ethan whispered, “Then who is Michael's father?”
The video continued.
“Victor says my real father is someone Gabriel trusts more than anyone.”
Daniel entered the apartment behind us.
He had arrived directly from Boston.
Michael spoke again.
“If Victor gets Ethan and me in one room, he says he'll prove everything.”
The video ended.
Daniel looked uneasy.
Gabriel noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“Daniel.”
Daniel looked at the paternity-test image frozen on the screen.
Then at Michael's photograph.
His face changed.
I had never seen Daniel frightened.
Not until then.
Gabriel asked, “Do you know Lydia Hale?”
Daniel didn't answer.
Ethan stood.
“Do you?”
Daniel finally whispered, “Yes.”
Gabriel went still.
“How?”
Daniel looked sick.
“Because before I worked for your family…”
He swallowed.
“I was engaged to her.”
Silence.
Gabriel's eyes moved to Michael's photograph.
Then back to Daniel.
“How old were you in 2005?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Did you sleep with Lydia?”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Ethan whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“Did you know she was pregnant?”
“No.”
“Did my father know?”
Daniel looked at him.
“I think so.”
Gabriel understood before I did.
Victor had spent years using Michael as a weapon because Michael wasn't Gabriel's son.
He might be Daniel's.
Daniel's phone suddenly rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A young man's voice said:
“Dad?”
Daniel stopped breathing.
Gabriel grabbed the phone.
“Michael?”
A pause.
“Gabriel Romano.”
“Where are you?”
“At your hotel.”
Ethan stood.
Michael continued.
“Victor has my mother.”
Daniel's face twisted.
“Your mother is dead.”
Michael laughed softly.
“That's what your family keeps telling people, isn't it?”
Daniel went white.
Michael said, “Lydia Hale is alive.”
Then another voice entered the call.
An old man's voice.
Victor Romano.
“Bring Ethan.”
Gabriel's entire body went rigid.
Victor chuckled.
“And bring Daniel.”
May you like
A pause.
“It is time all my sons learned what their fathers are willing to sacrifice.”
