Chapter 20 - The Unbroken Horizon|
The room went dead silent.
“Your father?” I gasped. “I thought your father died of a heart attack in Palermo!”
“That’s what the Marconi family told the city,” Gabriel said, his voice dropping into an icy, razor-sharp pitch. “Dominic Marconi didn't just try to destroy my wife four years ago, Hannah. Twenty years ago, he forged my father’s will, seized the shipping docks, and framed my uncle for murder.”
He looked down at the black ledgers sitting inside the iron box.
Isabella hadn't left a threat in that black envelope. In her desperation and hatred, she had tried to use her father’s ultimate leverage against Gabriel—unknowingly handing him the final key to destroying the entire Marconi criminal dynasty once and for all.
Gabriel closed the heavy iron box with a sharp, echoing CLACK.
He turned around slowly, looking at me and his daughter standing beside the grand fireplace.
The past was finally laid bare. Every lie, every betrayal, every dark shadow that had haunted the DeLuca name for twenty years was now lying helpless in his hands.
Sophie walked over to her father, reaching up with her small hand to hold his pinky finger.
She signed three simple, quiet shapes: Are we safe now, Daddy?
Gabriel dropped to one knee in front of his daughter, taking her small face in his broad palms, kissing her forehead with an eternal, unwavering love.
“Yes, my sweet girl,” Gabriel signed back, his dark eyes rising to meet mine with absolute, unshakeable devotion. “We are finally safe.”
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He stood up, wrapping one heavy arm around my waist, pulling me close against his chest while holding his daughter's hand with the other.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the autumn rain had finally stopped over Chicago, giving way to a brilliant, golden dawn that broke over the horizon—illuminating a future, a home, and a love that no shadow on earth could ever tear apart again.
