Chapter 6 - The Night Gabriel Chose DifferentlyGabriel didn't move toward Bianca.
He moved toward Daisy.
That choice saved three lives.
Daisy sprinted across the warehouse floor.
Bianca grabbed for her.
Gabriel reached them first.
He lifted Daisy into his arms and turned his body away.
Bianca pulled something from her coat.
Penelope, arriving with investigators outside, saw the movement through the open warehouse door.
“Gabriel!”
Officers shouted.
Bianca froze.
It wasn't a gun.
It was a small remote.
Her thumb hovered over a button.
Gabriel stared.
“What did you do?”
Bianca smiled through tears.
“You want to give everything to the police?”
Gabriel went pale.
“There are fuel tanks beneath this section.”
Officers stopped advancing.
Bianca lifted the remote.
“This place belonged to my father.”
Daisy buried her face against Gabriel.
“Daddy.”
He held her tighter.
“It's okay.”
It wasn't.
Penelope wanted to run toward them.
An officer blocked her.
“Ma'am, stay back.”
Inside, Gabriel spoke calmly.
“You don't want to kill Daisy.”
Bianca's jaw trembled.
“No.”
“Then give me the remote.”
“You ruined everything.”
“I helped ruin plenty.”
“You used me.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“We used each other.”
Bianca flinched.
That hurt more than denial.
“I loved you.”
Gabriel's expression changed.
For a moment, the criminal empire and court hearings disappeared.
There was simply a man and woman standing inside the wreckage of terrible decisions.
“I know,” he said.
Bianca's eyes filled.
“Did you ever love me?”
Gabriel answered quietly.
“No.”
Penelope closed her eyes.
Cruel.
But honest.
Bianca gave a broken laugh.
“You loved her.”
Gabriel looked toward Penelope outside.
“Yes.”
Penelope felt nothing romantic hearing it.
Only sadness.
Because love had not prevented betrayal.
Love had not prevented manipulation.
Love was never enough by itself.
Bianca followed his gaze.
“She'll never take you back.”
“I know.”
“Then why sacrifice everything?”
Gabriel kissed Daisy's hair.
“Because being sorry only matters when it costs you something.”
Bianca's thumb moved.
Gabriel took one slow step.
“Don't.”
“You think prison scares me?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
He looked at her.
“Becoming exactly what you believed my family was.”
Bianca stopped.
Her father.
The revenge.
The years.
Everything inside her expression collapsed at once.
“You don't know anything about him.”
“I know he loved you.”
Bianca cried silently.
“And I know if he loved you the way I love Daisy, he wouldn't want this to be your ending.”
For almost ten seconds, nobody moved.
Then Bianca lowered the remote.
Police rushed forward.
They seized it.
Gabriel immediately placed Daisy down and lifted his hands.
He made no attempt to flee.
Penelope ran to Daisy.
Daisy collided with her.
“Mama Penny!”
Penelope held her so tightly Daisy squeaked.
Gabriel stood several feet away as officers handcuffed Bianca.
Then another officer approached him.
Gabriel extended his wrists.
Daisy saw.
“Daddy?”
He looked at her.
She began crying.
“Are you going away?”
Gabriel crouched before the handcuffs closed.
“For a while.”
“No.”
“Daisy.”
“Don't go.”
His composure finally broke.
Gabriel's eyes filled with tears.
Penelope had seen him order men twice his size from rooms with a glance.
She had seen CEOs sweat before meetings with him.
She had never seen Gabriel cry.
He held Daisy's face gently.
“I did things that were wrong.”
“But you're my daddy.”
“I know.”
“Say sorry.”
“I am sorry.”
“Then stay.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Sometimes sorry doesn't mean you get to skip consequences.”
Daisy sobbed.
Penelope crouched beside her.
Gabriel looked at Penelope.
He didn't ask forgiveness.
Instead he said, “Don't let her think this was her fault.”
“I won't.”
“And Samuel?”
Penelope stiffened.
He whispered, “Keep him safe.”
“You mean our son?”
His eyes dropped.
“If you still want me acknowledged as his father.”
Penelope stared at him.
“You are his father.”
Gabriel looked surprised.
“That doesn't guarantee you access to him,” she added. “But I won't lie to my son about who he is.”
He nodded.
“That is more kindness than I've earned.”
Police led him away.
Penelope watched.
Daisy held her hand.
Bianca sat in another vehicle.
The old warehouse glowed beneath police lights.
Eleanor walked toward Penelope.
“It is over.”
Penelope looked down at her stomach.
“No.”
A contraction tightened unexpectedly.
She froze.
Eleanor frowned.
“What?”
Penelope gasped.
Another wave came.
Too soon.
“Penelope?”
Water spread across the pavement beneath her dress.
Daisy's eyes widened.
“Mama Penny?”
Penelope grabbed Eleanor's arm.
“The baby.”
An ambulance was called.
Gabriel, already inside the police vehicle, saw paramedics rush toward Penelope.
He slammed both hands against the window.
An officer opened the door halfway.
“What happened?”
Gabriel shouted.
“My wife!”
“She appears to be in labor.”
His face drained.
“She's thirty-four weeks.”
“Sir, stay inside.”
Gabriel watched Penelope being placed on a stretcher.
She turned her head.
Their eyes met across flashing blue lights.
For seven years, whenever Penelope was afraid, Gabriel had been the person she reached for.
Tonight she didn't.
And Gabriel understood exactly why.
The ambulance doors closed.
Twenty-three minutes later, Penelope arrived at St. Vincent Hospital.
Her contractions were coming rapidly.
Doctors tried slowing labor.
It didn't work.
At 2:14 a.m., Samuel Thomas Albright entered the world six weeks early.
He weighed four pounds, nine ounces.
He cried immediately.
Penelope cried harder.
The neonatal doctor smiled.
“That's what we want to hear.”
Daisy stood behind the glass later wearing a child-sized hospital mask.
“That's Sammy?”
Penelope nodded.
“He's tiny.”
“He's tough.”
“Like you?”
Penelope smiled.
“No.”
She kissed Daisy's forehead.
“Like himself.”
At sunrise, a nurse delivered an envelope.
No return address.
Inside was a single document.
Gabriel had signed away any claim to Penelope's trust.
Not negotiated.
Not traded.
Relinquished.
There was a note.
Samuel should inherit his mother's freedom, not his father's debts.
Penelope stared at those words for a long time.
Then turned toward her premature son sleeping beneath warm lights.
May you like
Gabriel had finally given her something she had begged him for throughout their marriage.
A choice.
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