Chapter 8 - THE SON OF CARUSO
Nobody believed Victor.
That was the problem.
They wanted not to.
Gabriel stood in the Atlantic City casino as officers escorted Victor toward the exit.
“Stop.”
Victor smiled over his shoulder.
Gabriel walked toward him.
“Prove it.”
Victor’s smile widened.
“I don’t have to.”
“Then you’re lying.”
“Maybe.”
Gabriel grabbed his coat.
Officers tensed.
Victor looked delighted.
“Careful. Your father had the same temper.”
Gabriel released him.
Claire watched.
Victor was provoking him deliberately.
Why?
“Gabriel,” she said.
He stepped back.
Claire approached Victor.
“You spent thirty years trying to find me.”
“Yes.”
“You wanted the trust.”
“Yes.”
“You killed Daniel Voss?”
Victor’s smile weakened.
“Your father got in the way.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
Thomas moved beside her.
Victor noticed.
“Still pretending to be a hero, Bennett?”
Thomas said nothing.
Claire continued.
“If Michael was Gabriel’s father, why would Michael help hide me from you?”
Victor looked at Gabriel.
“Because Michael discovered Salvatore had taken his first child.”
Gabriel stopped moving.
Claire felt cold.
“Gabriel?”
Victor nodded.
“Michael didn’t know for years.”
Leonard looked devastated.
“So Isabella…”
“Loved him.”
Victor said it casually.
As if destroying lives was conversation.
“Jonathan Vale was the cover story.”
Leonard’s face crumpled.
“You’re lying.”
Victor laughed.
“You thought Isabella loved you?”
Leonard took one step.
Gabriel blocked him.
“No.”
Leonard looked at him.
Gabriel shook his head.
“We verify.”
Four hours later, they did.
A preserved medical sample belonging to Michael Caruso had existed in a private university research archive following surgery in 1999.
The emergency court order came quickly.
DNA comparison followed.
Gabriel Romano was Michael Caruso’s biological son.
Claire sat with Gabriel in a private hospital consultation room when the result arrived.
Gabriel read it without expression.
Then set the paper down.
Claire waited.
Finally:
“So Salvatore stole two Caruso children.”
“You weren’t stolen from a hospital.”
“No.”
“Your mother stayed.”
“She let Salvatore raise me.”
“We don’t know what choices she had.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“You’re very generous with dead people.”
“No.”
Claire looked at him.
“I’ve just learned that the people we love can make terrible decisions and still love us.”
Gabriel glanced toward Thomas’s room.
“Your father is easier.”
“Which one?”
That startled a laugh out of him.
A real one.
Short.
Unexpected.
Claire smiled.
“I mean Thomas.”
“I know.”
“He lied to me for thirty years.”
“To keep you safe.”
“Probably.”
“Are you angry?”
“Yes.”
“Do you love him?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked down at the DNA report.
Claire continued.
“Both can be true.”
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Gabriel said, “Michael was your father in every way except blood for twelve hours.”
“Yes.”
“He was mine by blood and never knew me as his son.”
“Yes.”
“That feels unfair.”
“It is.”
He nodded.
Simple.
No performance.
Claire liked him most in moments like this.
Not the feared boss.
Not the man everyone obeyed.
Just Gabriel.
Then Lily burst into the room.
Security behind her looked apologetic.
“Dad!”
Gabriel stood.
She ran into him.
He lifted her.
Evelyn remained in the doorway.
Unsure whether she was welcome.
Lily looked at Claire.
“Is Dad a Caruso now?”
Claire smiled.
“Technically?”
Gabriel groaned.
“Please don’t encourage this.”
Lily looked delighted.
“Does that mean Claire is your sister?”
“No.”
Three adults answered simultaneously.
Lily blinked.
Claire started laughing.
Even Evelyn smiled.
For sixty seconds, the world felt almost normal.
Then Gabriel looked at Evelyn.
“We need to talk.”
Lily’s smile faded.
Claire took her hand.
“Come find hot chocolate with me.”
“There isn’t any here.”
“We’ll intimidate someone.”
Gabriel looked at her.
Claire shrugged.
“I’m learning from the family.”
In the cafeteria, Lily stirred marshmallows around a paper cup.
“Is Mom coming home?”
Claire considered carefully.
“I don’t know.”
“Does Dad hate her?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because hate is easier.”
Lily thought about that.
“You like my dad.”
Claire nearly spilled her coffee.
“Your father is my employer.”
“That wasn’t what I said.”
Ten-year-olds were dangerous.
Claire looked toward the window.
“I care about him.”
Lily smiled.
“Same thing.”
“No.”
“Almost.”
“Drink your cocoa.”
Meanwhile, Gabriel sat opposite Evelyn.
Seven years separated them.
So did anger.
Betrayal.
Grief.
“Why did you leave Lily?”
Evelyn cried quietly.
“Victor threatened her.”
“You had security.”
“Security loyal to Vanessa.”
“Vanessa was helping you.”
“Not then.”
Gabriel frowned.
Evelyn explained.
Vanessa had discovered the truth slowly.
At first, she believed Evelyn had abandoned Lily.
Only two years later did she find Victor’s network.
That was when the sisters-in-law began secretly working together.
Gabriel stared.
“So the notes?”
“Vanessa’s terrible idea.”
“The staged kidnapping?”
“Also Vanessa.”
“She threatened Claire.”
“She believed Claire was attracting Victor.”
“That’s not a defense.”
“No.”
Evelyn wiped her eyes.
“I’m not asking you to forgive her.”
“Or you?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
“I want Lily to know I loved her.”
“You can tell her.”
Evelyn looked up.
“You’ll let me?”
“Supervised.”
Pain crossed her face.
She accepted it.
“That’s fair.”
Gabriel leaned back.
“Why didn’t you trust me?”
Evelyn answered with the one thing he couldn’t dismiss.
“Because you were Salvatore’s son.”
He stiffened.
“I thought if I showed you what he had done, you would defend him.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“But not then.”
“No.”
They sat with the tragedy of that.
Two people whose marriage had been built partly on assumptions inherited from dead men.
Finally Gabriel asked, “Do you want to come home?”
Evelyn looked toward the cafeteria where Lily was laughing.
“To Lily.”
He understood.
Not to him.
Their marriage had ended long before either admitted it.
“That can be arranged.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“Thank you.”
Gabriel nodded.
Not reconciliation.
Something healthier.
Truth.
By morning, federal agents had Victor’s microfilm.
It contained names of judges, officers, adoption attorneys and doctors involved in Salvatore and Victor’s network.
The case would take years to unravel.
But one fact became urgent.
A payment made three days ago.
To someone inside Thomas Bennett’s rehabilitation center.
Claire stared at the record.
“Victor did try to kill Dad.”
Marco nodded.
“The nurse who altered his medication has disappeared.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“Find her.”
They did.
Six hours later.
At Philadelphia International Airport.
She gave up one final secret in exchange for protection.
Victor had not ordered Thomas poisoned merely because Thomas knew about Claire.
Thomas had recently received something in the mail.
A key.
Bank box number 918.
The nurse had been ordered to steal it.
She failed.
Claire returned to Thomas’s hospital room.
“Dad.”
Thomas looked guilty immediately.
“Bank box.”
He sighed.
“Of course.”
“What’s inside?”
“A letter.”
“From whom?”
“Michael.”
Gabriel stepped into the room.
Thomas looked at him.
The expression on his face changed.
“He wrote it to you.”
Gabriel stopped.
“Michael knew?”
“Before he died.”
“Knew what?”
“That you were his son.”
Silence.
“Why didn’t he contact me?”
Thomas looked devastated.
“Because Michael believed contacting you would get you killed.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“Everyone has the same excuse.”
“I know.”
“When did he write it?”
“2009.”
“Seventeen years ago.”
“Yes.”
“And you kept it?”
“Because he ordered me to deliver it only if Victor was exposed or dead.”
Gabriel’s eyes turned cold.
“You followed a dead man’s order for seventeen years.”
“I protected Claire for thirty.”
Thomas looked at both of them.
“I got used to waiting.”
The next morning they opened box 918.
One envelope.
Gabriel’s name.
Inside was a handwritten letter from Michael Caruso.
Gabriel read silently.
Then stopped.
Claire saw his hands begin to shake.
“What?”
Gabriel handed her the final page.
Michael had written:
If you are reading this, then Claire is alive and Victor has finally been exposed. There is one final truth you must know. Salvatore did not order Evelyn’s disappearance.
Claire frowned.
Gabriel continued reading.
His face changed.
I did.
Impossible.
Michael had supposedly died before Evelyn disappeared.
Gabriel looked at Thomas.
“Michael died in 2012.”
Thomas nodded.
Evelyn disappeared in 2019.
Claire read the next line.
The death certificate bearing my name is false.
Gabriel looked up.
Thomas closed his eyes.
Claire whispered:
“Michael Caruso is alive.”
Then a man’s voice came from behind them.
“You always were quick.”
Gabriel turned.
An elderly man stood in the bank vault doorway.
Silver hair.
Dark eyes.
A cane in one hand.
He looked directly at Gabriel.
May you like
And smiled sadly.
“Hello, son.”
