Chapter 4 - THE DEAD MAN’S SON
Gabriel read Evelyn’s message four times during the drive back to the estate.
He didn’t speak.
Claire sat opposite him in the armored SUV with the rescued ledger across her lap.
Rain streaked the windows.
Rebecca sat beside Marco.
Nobody asked what everyone was thinking.
Who was Gabriel Romano’s real father?
Claire finally broke the silence.
“Did you ever question it?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“My father?”
“Salvatore.”
“No.”
“You look like him?”
“A little.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“I’m aware.”
His tone was sharper than usual.
Claire let it go.
For thirty years, she had believed Thomas Bennett was her biological father.
She had no right to demand Gabriel absorb the destruction of his own identity gracefully.
Back at the estate, Marco’s team discovered the internal security blackout had been created using the credentials of Leonard Price, Gabriel’s longtime accountant.
Leonard had worked for the Romano family for twenty-three years.
Gabriel summoned him.
The sixty-year-old man entered Gabriel’s study looking offended rather than nervous.
“I was told my access has been frozen.”
“It has.”
“Why?”
“Your credentials disabled my cameras last night.”
Leonard blinked.
“That’s impossible.”
“So was my dead wife calling me this morning.”
Leonard’s face changed.
Only slightly.
Gabriel saw it.
Claire did too.
“You knew Evelyn was alive,” Gabriel said.
“No.”
“You didn’t ask how.”
Leonard said nothing.
Gabriel leaned back.
“You’ve worked for me long enough to know I notice details.”
Leonard’s shoulders dropped.
“She called me once.”
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
Gabriel’s eyes became dangerous.
“My wife disappeared seven years ago, and you spoke to her two years later without telling me.”
“She said Lily’s life depended on it.”
“And you believed her?”
“She gave me information only Evelyn could know.”
“What information?”
Leonard glanced at Claire.
Gabriel noticed.
“Say it.”
“About Salvatore.”
The room tightened.
Leonard took a breath.
“Evelyn discovered financial records after Salvatore died. Payments to St. Catherine’s. Payments to Thomas Bennett. Payments to someone named Hale.”
Rebecca.
Claire’s mind raced.
“She confronted you?”
“Yes.”
“Why you?”
“I handled Salvatore’s old accounts.”
“What did she want?”
“The truth.”
“And?”
“I told her I didn’t have it.”
Gabriel’s voice went colder.
“Were you lying?”
Leonard looked at him.
“Yes.”
Gabriel stood.
Claire had seen men afraid before.
Leonard was more than afraid.
He looked relieved.
As if carrying the secret had become worse than whatever Gabriel might do to him.
“Salvatore kept one account outside the family books,” Leonard said. “Private transfers. Nobody knew why.”
“Who received them?”
“St. Catherine’s. Thomas Bennett. Rebecca Hale’s mother. Several city officials.”
“Michael Caruso?”
Leonard nodded.
Claire’s breath caught.
Gabriel stared.
“My father paid his enemy?”
“They weren’t always enemies.”
“We know that.”
Leonard looked confused.
“You found the photograph.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know they started together.”
“What?”
Leonard swallowed.
“Salvatore Romano, Michael Caruso and Thomas Bennett weren’t originally on opposite sides.”
Claire frowned.
“My dad?”
“He wasn’t a criminal.”
“No?”
“He was a police officer.”
Claire laughed because the alternative was crying.
“My father repaired air conditioners.”
“After 1997.”
Leonard continued.
“Before that, Thomas Bennett was Philadelphia PD.”
Gabriel looked at Claire.
She felt betrayed by a man lying unconscious miles away.
Then immediately ashamed.
Thomas had saved her.
Whatever he had hidden, he had raised her with love.
Leonard continued.
“Bennett was investigating corruption involving both families.”
“Then why is he standing beside them in that photograph?”
“Because he was undercover.”
Silence.
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“Michael knew?”
“Eventually.”
“And Salvatore?”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t Bennett killed?”
Leonard gave Claire a sad look.
“Because Michael Caruso protected him.”
Claire gripped the desk.
“My biological father protected my adoptive father.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because they were trying to expose Salvatore together.”
Gabriel looked away.
Every answer was becoming an accusation against the man who had raised him.
Claire understood exactly how that felt.
“What was Salvatore doing?” she asked.
Leonard closed his eyes.
“Moving children.”
Claire went cold.
“Selling them?”
“Some.”
Gabriel’s hand tightened into a fist.
“Some?”
“Others were leverage.”
Political families.
Criminal families.
People who owed money.
People who needed silence.
A baby could disappear.
A birth certificate could change.
A mother could be told her child died.
Gabriel walked toward the window.
For the first time since Claire had known him, he looked old.
Not forty-one.
Older.
As if his father’s ghosts had climbed onto his shoulders.
“My father built part of this family with stolen children.”
Leonard didn’t answer.
Gabriel looked at him.
“Did my mother know?”
Leonard’s silence answered.
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“Did she know?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did she know?”
“I don’t know.”
“You just said—”
“She knew enough to leave Salvatore for six months in 1984.”
Gabriel frowned.
“I was born in 1985.”
“Yes.”
Something shifted.
Claire saw him calculate.
“My mother went somewhere during those six months.”
“I believe so.”
“Where?”
“I never knew.”
Leonard swallowed.
“But Michael Caruso did.”
Gabriel turned.
“Why?”
“Because Michael brought her back.”
Nobody moved.
Gabriel asked the next question very slowly.
“Why would my father’s enemy bring my pregnant mother back?”
Leonard looked genuinely frightened.
“I think that’s the secret Evelyn discovered.”
Claire whispered, “Gabriel…”
He ignored her.
“Say it.”
“I don’t know for certain.”
“Say what you think.”
Leonard closed his eyes.
“I think Michael Caruso was your father.”
The room disappeared around Gabriel.
Claire saw it happen.
The man who could control everyone else lost control of himself for exactly one second.
He staggered backward.
Just one step.
Then stopped.
“No.”
Leonard said nothing.
“No.”
Gabriel’s voice was barely audible.
“Michael Caruso had a daughter thirty years ago.”
Claire.
“And if he was also your father…”
Claire’s chest tightened.
Gabriel looked at her.
Not with horror.
With disbelief.
They were half-siblings?
The thought hit both of them.
Rebecca immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She had been standing near the doorway.
“No,” she repeated.
“Michael wasn’t Claire’s biological father.”
Claire stared.
“You said Elena was his wife.”
“She was.”
“You called him my father.”
“I assumed.”
Gabriel’s voice sharpened.
“Then who was Claire’s father?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Leonard looked equally confused.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“The hospital called.”
Claire stood.
“My dad?”
“Thomas Bennett woke up.”
She grabbed her coat.
Gabriel was already moving.
The hospital placed Thomas in a private room under Romano security.
Claire reached him first.
Her father looked smaller than she remembered.
Gray hair.
Thin wrists.
One side of his mouth still weak from the stroke.
But when he saw her, his eyes filled.
“Hey, kiddo.”
Claire broke.
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him.
Thomas cried quietly against her shoulder.
For one minute, there were no Carusos.
No Romanos.
No stolen babies.
Just a father and daughter.
Then Thomas saw Gabriel standing near the door.
His body stiffened.
“Why is he here?”
Claire pulled back.
“Dad.”
“Claire.”
“Did you take me from St. Catherine’s?”
Thomas closed his eyes.
That was answer enough.
Claire swallowed.
“Did you save me?”
“Yes.”
“From Salvatore Romano?”
Thomas looked at Gabriel.
“Yes.”
Gabriel approached.
“Was Michael Caruso my father?”
Thomas’s face changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“You finally found out.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“So it’s true.”
Thomas shook his head.
“No.”
Everyone froze.
“No?”
“Michael Caruso was not your father.”
Gabriel stared.
Thomas continued.
“But Salvatore Romano wasn’t either.”
Claire felt the room tighten.
Gabriel’s voice turned quiet.
“Then who was?”
Thomas looked at Claire.
Then Gabriel.
“The man whose daughter I carried out of St. Catherine’s.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“What?”
Thomas reached toward her hand.
“You and Gabriel are not brother and sister.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Thomas struggled to sit higher.
“Claire…”
His voice cracked.
“Your father was a man named Daniel Voss.”
Claire had never heard the name.
“But Michael Caruso raised you as his own for the first twelve hours of your life because Daniel was already dead.”
“How?”
Thomas looked toward Gabriel.
“Salvatore killed him.”
Gabriel went still.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel knew who your real father was.”
Gabriel’s patience snapped.
“Then tell me.”
Thomas stared at him for a long moment.
“Your father…”
The heart monitor suddenly accelerated.
Claire stood.
“Dad?”
Thomas grabbed his chest.
Nurses rushed in.
Gabriel stepped back.
Claire was pushed toward the door.
“Dad!”
Thomas struggled against the oxygen mask.
His eyes locked onto Gabriel.
He forced out three words.
“Ask… Evelyn… why.”
The nurses shut the door.
Thirty seconds later, Marco’s phone buzzed.
He looked at the message.
Then at Gabriel.
“What?”
Marco turned the screen around.
A photograph had been sent from Lily’s phone.
Lily sitting in the back seat of a car.
Vanessa beside her.
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“That’s impossible. Lily’s at the estate.”
Marco was already calling security.
Nobody answered.
A second message appeared.
IF YOU WANT THE GIRL BACK, BRING CLAIRE TO THE OLD ROMANO CHURCH.
Then another.
COME WITHOUT POLICE.
May you like
And finally:
GABRIEL SHOULD COME TOO. IT’S TIME HE MET HIS FATHER.
