Chapter 5 - The File With Gabriel’s Name
The evidence was impossible to ignore.
Liam had created a file labeled GABRIEL ROSSI six weeks before his death.
Madeline found the encrypted backup on the flash drive.
She refused Gabriel’s help opening it.
“You don't get to stand over my shoulder while I investigate whether you murdered my fiancé.”
The sentence hurt more than Gabriel expected.
But he accepted it.
Marco found a cybersecurity specialist who extracted the files while Madeline watched.
Inside were photographs.
Financial statements.
Port records.
And surveillance images of Gabriel.
Then came the audio recording.
Liam’s voice filled the room.
“If this file is being heard after my death, I need one thing understood. Gabriel Rossi is dangerous, but I no longer believe he is the architect of the operation.”
Madeline's knees weakened.
Gabriel stared at the computer.
Liam continued.
“Someone is using Rossi’s reputation as camouflage. Every trail appears to lead toward him because someone wants investigators to stop looking once they reach his name.”
The next file identified Victor.
The one after that identified Montgomery.
But the final document was stranger.
It concerned St. Jude Library.
Liam believed someone had hidden the original ownership records for several Boston waterfront properties inside St. Jude’s nineteenth-century municipal collection.
Those deeds could prove Victor and Montgomery had illegally seized land worth hundreds of millions.
Gabriel finally understood why his uncle wanted the library.
Not for prestige.
Not for redevelopment.
To destroy evidence.
Madeline understood something worse.
“The archive room.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“Victor convinced you to gut it.”
“Yes.”
“He knew the deeds were there.”
Gabriel's face became stone.
“He used me.”
Madeline laughed bitterly.
“You're not accustomed to that, are you?”
“No.”
“Welcome to the club.”
Their search lasted until midnight.
Madeline finally became dizzy.
Gabriel caught her elbow.
“Sit.”
“I'm fine.”
“You're pale.”
“I'm pregnant. Pale happens.”
“Sit.”
She glared.
“Stop ordering me.”
“Please sit.”
That stopped her.
She sat.
Gabriel brought water and crackers.
Madeline studied him.
“You're terrible at apologizing.”
“I've had little practice.”
“I noticed.”
He looked toward her stomach.
“When is the baby due?”
“March.”
“Boy or girl?”
“A girl.”
Something softened in his eyes.
“Name?”
Madeline hesitated.
“Lily.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Liam chose it.”
Another silence.
Then Gabriel said, “It's a good name.”
For the first time, Madeline saw the loneliness beneath his violence.
She hated herself for noticing.
“You're not what I thought.”
Gabriel gave a humorless smile.
“Don't romanticize me, Madeline.”
“I wasn't.”
“Good.”
He looked directly at her.
“I've done things Liam would have hated. Things you would hate.”
“Then why help me?”
“Because I didn't kill him.”
“That isn't an answer.”
Gabriel’s eyes dropped.
“My mother died when I was nineteen. My father cared more about retaliation than grief. Victor taught me that mercy created weakness.”
He looked around the library.
“Then I watched a pregnant woman who couldn't afford groceries give her food to a stranger.”
Madeline became still.
“You followed me?”
“Yes.”
“That's disturbing.”
“I know.”
“What else did you see?”
“The pawnshop.”
Her face changed.
Gabriel continued quietly.
“You couldn't sell Liam's watch.”
Madeline looked away.
“No.”
“That was when I realized I had mistaken cruelty for strength.”
Their eyes met.
Neither moved.
Then Marco rushed into the room.
“We found Abernathy.”
Madeline stood.
“Where?”
“Mass General.”
“What happened?”
“Someone pushed him in front of a car.”
Madeline's hand flew to her mouth.
“He's alive,” Marco added. “Barely.”
At the hospital, Abernathy regained consciousness for less than two minutes.
Madeline held his hand.
“Who did this?”
His lips moved.
She leaned closer.
“Victor?”
Abernathy shook his head.
“Montgomery?”
Again no.
He struggled for breath.
“The woman.”
Madeline frowned.
“What woman?”
His eyes widened.
“Gala.”
Then monitors began screaming.
Doctors pushed Madeline aside.
Gabriel pulled her backward as nurses rushed in.
They waited in the hallway.
Twenty minutes later the doctor emerged.
Abernathy was alive but unconscious.
Madeline whispered, “The woman at the gala.”
Gabriel remembered dozens.
Then Marco arrived with security footage.
One woman appeared repeatedly near Victor.
Diana Wentworth.
The socialite.
But another frame showed her speaking privately with Liam four months earlier.
Madeline stared at the screen.
“I know her.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“How?”
“She came to Liam's funeral.”
“What did she say?”
May you like
Madeline's face drained of color.
“She told me she had never met him.”
