Chapter 4 - WHAT ELENA KNEW BEFORE THE FIRE
“Before what fire, Leo?”
Gabriel's voice was barely audible.
His son looked at the floor.
“The bad one.”
The room seemed to shrink around us.
Gabriel crouched until his eyes were level with Leo's.
“Did you see Mr. Victor talking to Mommy?”
Leo nodded.
“Was Daddy there?”
“No.”
“Where were you?”
Leo twisted the sleeve of his pajamas.
“In my seat.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“The car seat?”
Another nod.
I watched Gabriel struggle to keep his expression calm.
He wanted answers.
But his son was six years old, and whatever Leo remembered had clearly frightened him for years.
I touched Gabriel's wrist.
“That's enough for now.”
He looked at me.
For a second, I saw the powerful man who was accustomed to getting whatever he wanted.
Then I saw a father who didn't know how to help his little boy.
Gabriel let go of Leo's hand.
“You did good, buddy.”
Leo stared at him uncertainly.
“Am I bad?”
The question nearly broke me.
“No, sweetheart,” I whispered. “You haven't done anything wrong.”
Gabriel pulled his son into his arms.
“Nothing. Not one thing.”
Leo rested against his father's chest.
And for the first time since I had known them, Gabriel didn't seem embarrassed to hold his son where other people could see.
Mrs. Gable took Leo to get some lunch.
Gabriel remained beside my bed with the receipt in his hand.
“Elena died on Route 9,” he said. “Her car hit the guardrail, rolled down an embankment, and caught fire.”
“Was Leo with her?”
He nodded.
“A passing driver pulled him out. Elena never made it.”
“Who was the driver?”
Gabriel stared at the paper.
“Victor.”
The realization settled between us.
For three years, Gabriel had believed Victor saved his son.
Now Leo was telling us Victor had threatened Elena shortly before the crash.
“Gabriel,” I said carefully, “it doesn't mean he caused the accident.”
“I know.”
But neither of us believed coincidence explained everything.
Pierce returned with the results of Victor's alibi.
“He was at the charity luncheon,” he confirmed. “Photographs, security footage, dozens of witnesses.”
Gabriel frowned.
“Then he couldn't have been at the estate.”
“Not personally.”
Pierce placed a second report on the table.
“His office approved a security maintenance request six days ago. Someone used that request to reactivate Elena's credentials.”
“Who signed it?”
“An employee named Colin Mercer.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“Where is he?”
“Missing. Didn't report to work this morning.”
I watched Gabriel's jaw tighten.
“Find him.”
Pierce hesitated.
“There's something else. Mrs. Gable didn't simply call in sick. She received a written notice saying her husband had an urgent specialist appointment yesterday morning.”
Gabriel looked up.
“From whom?”
“An outside medical office. But the appointment didn't exist.”
I felt sick.
Mrs. Gable had been deliberately removed from the sunroom.
Someone wanted Leo alone.
Except I had been there.
Mending a wool sock.
A small, ordinary accident that had changed everything.
“What would have happened if I'd taken those socks downstairs?” I whispered.
Gabriel looked at me.
He didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
That evening, Gabriel did something even more unexpected.
He told me the truth about the last week of his marriage.
“Elena wanted me to inspect several shipments,” he said. “Medical supplies donated through the Rossi Foundation.”
I recognized the name.
The foundation supported children's clinics across three counties.
Elena had created it after Leo was born.
“She said some supplies weren't reaching the hospitals. I told her Victor handled those accounts.”
“And she didn't believe him?”
“No.”
Gabriel leaned against the window.
“She wanted me to stop trusting him. She had receipts, names, dates. I told her I'd look into it after a meeting.”
He closed his eyes.
“That meeting lasted three hours.”
“What happened afterward?”
“She accused me of caring more about the business than the people it was supposed to help.”
I remained quiet.
“She was angry. She packed a bag for herself and Leo. I thought she was leaving me.”
“Was she?”
“I don't know.”
For the first time, his voice cracked.
“She died before I could ask.”
I looked down at the old freight receipt.
“Maybe she wasn't leaving you, Gabriel. Maybe she was trying to keep Leo safe while she found proof.”
His eyes met mine.
For a moment, he looked almost grateful.
Then he turned away.
“I should have listened.”
I didn't tell him it wasn't his fault.
Because sometimes refusing to listen is a choice with consequences.
And Gabriel already knew that.
The following morning, Dr. Keene brought an envelope into my room.
“Mr. Rossi asked me to review the medical records connected to those missing shipments,” she explained.
I frowned.
“Why you?”
“Because I worked at St. Anne's before coming here.”
She pulled out an old inventory report.
“Three years ago, the center reported that several refrigerated medicines had arrived unusable. Other shipments never arrived at all.”
“Were children hurt?”
Her expression changed.
“Yes.”
She sat down.
“A twelve-year-old girl named Nina Alvarez suffered a medical emergency when the treatment she needed wasn't available. She survived, but she spent months in the hospital.”
I thought of Leo.
Of a mother somewhere waiting outside an emergency room.
“Did anyone investigate?”
“An internal inquiry. It ended when the supplier provided replacement stock and claimed there had been a transportation error.”
“Who supplied the original shipment?”
Dr. Keene turned the page.
“Rossi Logistics.”
My stomach tightened.
“And who signed the report?”
She didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she placed the paper in front of me.
The signature belonged to Gabriel.
I stared at it.
It was unmistakable.
His name.
His handwriting.
His approval.
Gabriel had authorized the replacement shipment and the closure of the complaint.
A part of me wanted to believe Victor had forged it.
But another part remembered what Gabriel had just told me.
He had trusted Victor.
He hadn't checked.
When Gabriel returned, I showed him the document.
He read it without speaking.
“Is that your signature?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you know what happened to those children?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
Silence.
His silence was the answer.
I turned my face away.
“Clara—”
“You keep telling me how dangerous your enemies are,” I whispered. “But sometimes people get hurt because the powerful men in their lives don't bother to look.”
He absorbed that without defending himself.
Finally, he said, “You're right.”
I wasn't expecting those words.
Neither was he, judging by his expression.
Then Pierce entered carrying a thin folder.
“We found the original insurance photographs from Elena's accident.”
Gabriel immediately stood.
Pierce spread several images across the table.
The burned car.
The damaged guardrail.
A blue maintenance truck parked nearby.
And a photograph of Victor carrying three-year-old Leo away from the wreckage.
I leaned closer.
Something about the picture bothered me.
“Why isn't Victor's jacket burned?”
Gabriel examined it.
“What's wrong?”
“He supposedly pulled Leo out of a burning car. Look at his cuffs.”
Clean.
Not even a scorch mark.
Pierce turned over the photograph.
A handwritten note from the original investigator described Victor's statement.
Witness reported removing child before vehicle ignited.
Gabriel stared at the words.
Then he looked at the blue truck.
“Who owned that vehicle?”
Pierce checked the report.
His expression hardened.
“Rossi Logistics.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Pierce turned another page.
“There was a driver assigned that night. The insurance investigator never interviewed him.”
“Why?”
“Victor told them the driver had already left the company.”
Gabriel held out his hand.
“Name.”
Pierce read it aloud.
“Colin Mercer.”
The same man who had reactivated Elena's security credentials six days earlier.
May you like
The same man who was now missing.
And suddenly, three years of lies began pointing toward one living witness.
