Chapter 5 - A Mother’s Bargain|
Gabriel read the payment report in silence.
Marco stood across the study, waiting for an order.
“Who authorized the transfer?”
“The account requires your mother's approval and a second signature from her financial adviser.”
“Name?”
“Peter Lang.”
Gabriel recognized that name too. Peter had managed Lucia's investments for nearly a decade, handling property purchases, charitable donations, and private accounts that rarely appeared on the family's annual reports.
“Bring me the authorization records.”
“Your mother will know we're investigating.”
“She already knows something is wrong. I want facts before I speak to her.”
Marco hesitated.
“Boss, there's something else. Anthony Vale's payment was followed by a withdrawal from an account registered to a medical transport company.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Why would a medical transport company pay a former security employee?”
“We don't know. But the company has a contract with the cancer center where Mrs. Moretti receives treatment.”
For a moment, Gabriel felt the room tilt.
“Is Anna in danger?”
“We have no evidence that anyone intends to harm her physically. But someone has been looking at her schedule, and now money is moving through accounts connected to the hospital.”
“Find out who controls the company.”
Marco nodded and left.
Gabriel remained at his desk until the light outside turned gray.
He had spent years building a network that could find a missing shipment within an hour, trace a stolen payment across three countries, or identify the person who had betrayed him from a single phone call.
Yet he couldn't explain why his own mother was paying someone to access his wife's medical records.
At eight, he went to Lucia's sitting room.
She was arranging flowers in a crystal vase.
“Peter Lang authorized a payment to Anthony Vale,” Gabriel said.
The scissors in her hand stopped.
“What payment?”
“Don't pretend you don't know.”
Lucia set the scissors down.
“I paid Anthony to locate a document.”
“What document?”
“A medical consent form.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because Anna signed something she didn't understand.”
His anger rose so quickly that he had to steady himself against the doorframe.
“What did she sign?”
Lucia turned away.
“Several years ago, your father established a private medical fund for members of the family. The fund has conditions. One of them concerns the release of certain health information to the trustees.”
“My father has been dead for years.”
“The fund still exists.”
“And what does that have to do with Anna?”
Lucia folded her hands.
“Before she married you, she signed a document allowing the family physician to share information with me if she became seriously ill.”
Gabriel felt sick.
“Why would she agree to that?”
“She was young. She wanted to reassure me that she wasn't marrying you for money.”
“That makes no sense.”
“She believed it was a routine form. I should have explained it more clearly.”
“Did you use it to access her records?”
“No. I used it to determine whether the document was still enforceable. Anthony was supposed to find the original.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You paid a former security employee to investigate my wife's medical records, and you didn't think I should know?”
“I was trying to protect her.”
“From what?”
Lucia's eyes filled with an emotion he rarely saw in her.
“From the same thing that destroyed your father.”
He went still.
“What are you talking about?”
She looked toward the closed door.
“Your father had a medical condition that he concealed from everyone. He believed the family would see him as weak if they knew he was ill. He continued working until the day he collapsed.”
Gabriel remembered the stories. His father had died suddenly, leaving behind unfinished business and a family that treated grief like a private embarrassment.
Lucia continued.
“When he became ill, people began using his weakness against him. Business partners threatened him. His own men questioned his judgment. I watched him become a prisoner of his reputation.”
“And you think Anna is going to suffer the same fate?”
“I think this family has a habit of turning illness into leverage.”
Gabriel's anger faltered, but only slightly.
“Then why didn't you tell me the truth?”
“Because I was afraid you would react as you are reacting now.”
He laughed bitterly.
“Everyone in this family seems to believe that hiding things from me is the same as protecting me.”
Lucia's face hardened.
“Perhaps because you have spent your life proving that people are safer when they tell you what you want to hear.”
The silence that followed was painful.
Gabriel wanted to deny it.
Instead, he thought of Anna in the bathroom, asking him to let her be frightened without carrying his fear as well.
“What exactly did Anthony find?”
Lucia looked down.
“He found a letter from your father. It was hidden with the original consent form.”
“What did the letter say?”
“I don't know. Anthony told me he needed more time.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don't know.”
Gabriel stared at his mother.
For the first time, he wondered whether she had been manipulated by Anthony—or whether she was deliberately withholding the truth.
Before he could ask another question, Lucia's phone rang.
She glanced at the screen and declined the call.
Gabriel saw the name.
ANTHONY VALE.
“Call him back,” he said.
Lucia didn't move.
“Mother.”
She lifted the phone, but before she could press the number, a message appeared.
I found the original letter. You need to see it before Gabriel does.
Lucia's face drained of color.
Gabriel took the phone from her hand and read the message again.
Then he looked at his mother.
“What letter?”
She swallowed.
“The one your father wrote shortly before he died.”
“And what does it say?”
May you like
Lucia's answer was barely audible.
“It says that someone in this family knew about his illness before he did.”
