Chapter 5 - THE GIRL VANESSA TOOK
Gabriel became frighteningly calm.
Not angry.
Not loud.
Calm.
Claire had learned that was worse.
Marco spoke rapidly into his phone as they moved through the hospital corridor.
“The estate security feed is down again.”
“How long?”
“Seven minutes.”
“Rosa?”
“Alive. Two guards unconscious.”
“Lily?”
“Gone.”
Gabriel pressed the elevator button once.
Claire stood beside him.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
“The message specifically says—”
“I know what it says.”
“Then you know Vanessa wants me.”
“Yes.”
“So pretending I’m not involved is pointless.”
Gabriel turned.
“Claire.”
“No.”
The elevator doors opened.
Neither entered.
Claire stepped closer.
“Your daughter trusted me enough to tell me what she was hiding.”
“I know.”
“She was threatened because people were trying to reach me.”
“I know.”
“So I’m going.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You don’t understand what Vanessa may do.”
“Neither do you.”
His jaw tightened.
Claire softened.
“I won’t be reckless.”
“You walking into a church because a kidnapper asked nicely qualifies.”
“She isn’t asking nicely.”
Despite everything, Gabriel almost smiled.
Then it vanished.
“You stay behind me.”
Claire nodded.
“Fine.”
“If I say run—”
“I run.”
“If I tell you not to argue—”
“That seems unrealistic.”
Marco looked between them.
“Can we negotiate your relationship later?”
Both turned toward him.
Marco raised his hands.
“Bad timing.”
Twenty minutes later, three vehicles stopped two blocks from St. Anthony’s Church.
The building had belonged to the Romano family’s neighborhood for generations.
Salvatore had funded its restoration.
Gabriel had been baptized there.
So had Lily.
The symbolism wasn’t accidental.
Gabriel entered through the side door with Claire.
Marco and his team surrounded the building.
Inside, candles burned despite the church officially being closed.
Lily sat in the front pew.
Alone.
“Dad!”
Gabriel moved.
Claire grabbed his sleeve.
“Wait.”
Lily looked unharmed.
No Vanessa.
No Evelyn.
No visible weapon.
Too easy.
Gabriel called, “Lily, don’t move.”
Lily’s face crumpled.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Aunt Vanessa said Claire would die if I didn’t go with her.”
Claire’s heart broke.
Gabriel moved slowly toward his daughter.
“Where is she?”
“She left.”
“When?”
“Two minutes ago.”
Gabriel looked toward the exits.
A sound echoed above them.
The organ.
One low note.
Then another.
Claire looked toward the choir loft.
Vanessa stepped into view.
“Always observant.”
Gabriel placed himself between Lily and the balcony.
“Come downstairs.”
Vanessa laughed.
“No.”
“Now.”
“You still think you’re in charge.”
Gabriel’s voice remained flat.
“You took my daughter.”
“I protected her.”
“From whom?”
Vanessa looked at Claire.
“Her.”
Lily cried out.
“That’s not true!”
Vanessa ignored her.
“Claire Bennett walks into your house and suddenly thirty-year-old graves start opening.”
“She didn’t know.”
“That’s what she says.”
Claire looked up.
“You sent the notes.”
“Yes.”
“You planned to frame me.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel turned slightly.
Even Claire was surprised by Vanessa’s admission.
Vanessa smiled.
“Why lie now?”
“Because you’re cornered.”
“No.”
She leaned over the railing.
“Because we finally reached the part where the truth is worse than the crime.”
A side door opened.
Evelyn entered.
Lily gasped.
“Mom?”
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Evelyn looked older than the photographs.
Thin.
Tired.
But unmistakably alive.
Lily took one step.
Gabriel caught her.
“Wait.”
Evelyn’s face broke.
“Baby.”
Lily started crying.
“Where were you?”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Seven years of absence collapsed into one question.
“Why didn’t you come home?”
“I couldn’t.”
“You could have called.”
“I know.”
“You could have written.”
“I know.”
“You let me think you didn’t want me.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“I know.”
Gabriel’s anger became ice.
“Explain.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“I discovered what Salvatore had done.”
“That doesn’t explain abandoning your daughter.”
“No.”
“Then start there.”
Evelyn walked closer.
“Salvatore left records. Vanessa found some. I found others.”
Gabriel glanced toward the balcony.
“Together?”
“At first.”
Vanessa smiled.
“We were very close once.”
Evelyn continued.
“We discovered St. Catherine’s. The children. The payments.”
“And Claire?”
“Yes.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“You knew about me?”
“Not your name.”
“When did you learn?”
“Seven years ago.”
The year Evelyn disappeared.
She looked at Claire.
“I found a file marked CARUSO. It described a baby removed from St. Catherine’s against Salvatore’s orders by an undercover police officer.”
“Thomas.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know who the baby became.”
Gabriel crossed his arms.
“What changed?”
“I found another file.”
Vanessa interrupted.
“The one she stole from me.”
Evelyn looked up.
“You were planning to sell it.”
“I was planning to survive.”
“You were planning to blackmail the Carusos.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“Who is left?”
Vanessa smiled.
“More than you think.”
Claire felt the air change.
Evelyn stepped closer to Gabriel.
“The Caruso family didn’t disappear. They went underground after Salvatore destroyed them.”
“Michael?”
“Dead.”
Claire felt an unexpected ache for a man she had never known.
“Daniel Voss?” she asked.
Evelyn looked at her.
“Also dead.”
“You know who he was?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me.”
“He was an FBI agent.”
Claire stared.
“Working with Thomas?”
“And Michael.”
The photograph.
The three who started it.
But there had been four men, not three.
Gabriel said, “Why did Salvatore kill him?”
Evelyn looked at Gabriel.
“Because Daniel discovered Salvatore had falsified your birth record.”
Gabriel’s shoulders tightened.
“Who is my father?”
Vanessa laughed softly from above.
Evelyn looked up.
“Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because you don’t know if it’s true.”
“I know more than you do.”
Gabriel’s voice cut through the church.
“Vanessa.”
She looked down.
“Who?”
Vanessa rested her hands on the railing.
“Our mother had an affair.”
“With whom?”
“A federal prosecutor named Jonathan Vale.”
Gabriel stared.
Claire saw no recognition.
Evelyn shook her head.
“That’s only half the story.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“What half?”
“Jonathan Vale disappeared before you were born.”
“Dead?”
“No.”
Vanessa smiled.
“He changed his name.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“What name?”
Footsteps sounded behind the altar.
An elderly man emerged.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Walking with a cane.
Claire recognized him.
So did Gabriel.
Leonard Price.
The accountant.
Gabriel’s voice was dangerously soft.
“No.”
Leonard looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re Jonathan Vale?”
“I was.”
Gabriel stared at the man who had handled his finances for twenty-three years.
The man who had attended Lily’s baptism.
The man who had sat at Gabriel’s mother’s funeral.
His father.
“You knew.”
Leonard’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
Gabriel crossed the aisle so quickly Claire barely saw him move.
He grabbed Leonard by the collar.
“You knew.”
Leonard didn’t resist.
“Yes.”
“For forty-one years.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked ready to hit him.
Then Lily whispered:
“Dad.”
Gabriel stopped.
His hand opened.
Leonard stumbled backward.
Gabriel looked at his daughter.
The lesson was immediate.
Secrets had already destroyed one generation.
He would not teach Lily that violence repaired them.
He stepped away.
“Why?”
Leonard’s voice shook.
“Salvatore threatened your mother. He said if I claimed you, he’d kill both of you.”
“So you became his accountant?”
“Years later. To find evidence.”
“You had twenty-three years.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
Gabriel laughed once.
“Apparently everyone who lies to me is protecting me.”
Claire felt that sentence too.
Leonard looked down.
“I deserve that.”
Vanessa began descending the stairs.
“No, you deserve worse.”
Evelyn turned.
“Vanessa, stop.”
“No.”
Vanessa reached the nave.
“Everybody gets to confess now, apparently.”
She looked at Claire.
“Ask Rebecca why she came to the estate.”
Claire frowned.
“She told us.”
“No, she told you what I wanted her to tell you.”
Gabriel looked at Evelyn.
“Where is Rebecca?”
Evelyn’s face changed.
Claire’s stomach sank.
Vanessa smiled.
“Exactly.”
Marco’s voice suddenly came through Gabriel’s earpiece.
“Boss, Rebecca Hale is gone.”
Claire stared at Vanessa.
“What did she take?”
“The ledger?”
“No.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“The ledger was bait.”
“What was she after?”
Vanessa looked toward Leonard.
He went pale.
Gabriel saw it.
“What?”
Leonard whispered, “The trust.”
Claire frowned.
“What trust?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Three hundred and eighty million dollars.”
The church became silent.
“What are you talking about?” Claire asked.
“The Caruso estate.”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Michael Caruso left everything to one person.”
Claire already knew the answer.
Vanessa’s smile widened.
“The daughter everyone believed died at St. Catherine’s.”
Claire’s blood went cold.
“You.”
Evelyn looked horrified.
Vanessa continued.
“Rebecca didn’t come to reveal who you were.”
“She came to prove it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“So she could control the claim.”
Gabriel looked at Leonard.
“How?”
Leonard’s face had gone gray.
“The trust requires two things. DNA confirmation…”
“And?”
“Possession of the original Caruso family seal.”
Claire frowned.
Vanessa looked toward Lily.
Gabriel followed her gaze.
Lily’s face changed.
Claire understood first.
“The lunchbox.”
Lily whispered, “There was something else inside.”
Gabriel crouched.
“What?”
“A gold coin.”
Vanessa smiled.
“Not a coin.”
Claire’s heart dropped.
“The seal.”
Lily nodded.
“Aunt Vanessa told me to hide it.”
Gabriel looked at his sister.
Vanessa’s smile vanished.
“I told her to hide it from Rebecca.”
“Where is it now?”
Lily began to cry.
“I gave it to Mom.”
Everybody turned toward Evelyn.
Evelyn slowly opened her hand.
Empty.
“I had it ten minutes ago.”
Vanessa stared.
“So who took it?”
A phone rang.
Claire’s phone.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Rebecca’s voice came through.
“Claire.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Rebecca was crying.
“For making you believe I came to save you.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Where is the seal?”
“With me.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
May you like
Rebecca continued.
“And if you want Thomas Bennett to survive the night, you’re going to do exactly what I say.”
