Chapter 8 - GABRIEL’S MOTHER LOSES CONTROL|
The men entered the house before Gabriel’s security team reached the street.
Catherine pushed Margaret into the laundry room and locked the door. She heard furniture scrape across the floor, followed by a man demanding the records.
“Where are they?”
Margaret clutched Catherine’s hand.
“Don’t let them take the statement.”
Catherine slipped the envelope inside her dress.
The door handle rattled.
Then a familiar voice cut through the noise.
“Step away from her.”
Gabriel.
A brief struggle followed, accompanied by the sharp sound of something striking the floor. When Catherine opened the laundry-room door, Gabriel stood in the hallway with Marcus behind him.
One intruder lay facedown near the sofa. The other had been disarmed and was kneeling beside the wall.
Gabriel looked directly at Catherine.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He glanced at Margaret.
“Mrs. Bell, we need to leave.”
Margaret nodded shakily.
As they moved toward the door, Catherine noticed a black vehicle pulling away from the curb. Someone inside photographed them before disappearing around the corner.
“Who sent those men?” she asked.
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“I have a guess.”
He was right.
At the Romano estate, Elena waited in the library, dressed in a tailored navy suit. She did not pretend to be surprised when Gabriel entered with Catherine and Margaret.
“You brought her here,” Elena said.
Gabriel closed the door.
“You sent men to threaten my wife.”
“I sent people to recover stolen family documents.”
“You sent armed men into a private home.”
Elena’s eyes flashed.
“Because your wife has been digging through matters she does not understand.”
Catherine stepped forward.
“Then explain them.”
Elena looked at her.
For the first time, there was something almost human beneath her anger.
“You were never supposed to discover the truth this way.”
“Which truth?”
“That your mother died because of this family.”
Margaret gasped.
Catherine went still.
Elena continued, her voice trembling with restrained fury.
“Lorenzo wanted to expose the people who had taken control of our shipping operation. Your mother helped him gather evidence. When she realized how dangerous it had become, she tried to leave with you.”
“Why did she die?”
“Because someone intercepted her car.”
“Who?”
Elena looked at Gabriel.
He did not move.
“I never learned who gave the order,” she said. “But I know your mother’s death was not an accident.”
Catherine felt the floor shift beneath her.
“You knew that all these years?”
“Yes.”
“And you let me grow up believing I was nobody.”
Elena’s expression hardened again.
“I believed that was the only way to keep you alive.”
“You humiliated me tonight. You sent me to eat with the staff.”
“I wanted you away from the family table.”
“Because you were afraid I would recognize the silver?”
Elena said nothing.
Gabriel turned toward his mother.
“You used my marriage to hide a crime.”
“I used what I had to protect this family.”
“No,” he said quietly. “You protected your control over it.”
Elena slapped him.
The sound echoed through the library.
Gabriel did not react.
He looked at his mother with an expression Catherine had never seen before: not anger, but disappointment so deep it seemed to have exhausted itself.
“You’re going to tell us everything,” he said.
Elena’s chin lifted.
“And if I refuse?”
Gabriel placed the hospital bracelet and Lorenzo’s statement on the table.
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“Then the truth goes to the authorities, and you lose the right to decide how it is told.”
For the first time, Elena Romano looked frightened.
