Chapter 9 - THE SECRET HIS BROTHER LEFT BEHIND
The file belonged to Luca.
Gabriel recognized the encryption phrase immediately.
A childhood promise shared between brothers.
Nico left the room when Gabriel opened it.
Paige stayed.
A video appeared.
Luca Moretti sat behind a desk.
He looked remarkably like Gabriel.
“If you’re watching this,” Luca began, “then I probably didn’t make it.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
Paige took his hand.
Luca explained that he had spent years documenting Enzo’s criminal network.
But that was not the final revelation.
Their father had never chosen Gabriel to inherit the syndicate.
He had chosen Gabriel to destroy it.
The legitimate logistics company had been built deliberately as an escape route.
Warehouses.
Trucking contracts.
Real estate.
Legal international shipping.
A future without blood.
Their father had known Enzo would resist.
Luca was supposed to help Gabriel.
Instead, Luca died.
Gabriel watched his brother’s final message without moving.
Then Luca smiled from the screen.
“You always thought Dad chose you because you were harder than me. He didn’t. He chose you because you were the only one stubborn enough to finish something everyone else said was impossible.”
The video ended.
Gabriel lowered his head.
Paige had never seen him cry.
He did not now.
But his hand shook.
She wrapped both arms around him.
For once, Gabriel allowed someone else to hold him.
The evidence changed everything.
Enzo accepted a plea deal after learning Matteo had confessed.
Matteo faced decades in federal prison.
Kevin received reduced charges in exchange for cooperation.
Moretti Logistics underwent a massive restructuring.
Gabriel opened every legitimate financial record to investigators.
The illegal operations were dismantled.
Men who had survived for decades through fear suddenly discovered subpoenas were more difficult to intimidate than rivals.
Three months passed.
Paige returned to the fifth floor.
Only temporarily.
When she walked into the bullpen, thirty keyboards stopped.
Again.
Sylvia’s desk was empty.
A new office manager stared.
Someone whispered, “That’s her.”
Paige sighed.
Apparently being the woman who called Gabriel Moretti honey and survived had become company folklore.
Then the oak doors opened.
Gabriel entered.
The room died.
Some things never changed.
He walked directly toward Paige.
She handed him a folder.
Everyone watched.
Gabriel took it.
Paige smiled sweetly.
“Here you go, honey.”
Someone dropped a stapler.
Gabriel stared at her.
Then, in front of the entire office, he leaned down and kissed her.
Thirty employees collectively forgot how to breathe.
When he straightened, Gabriel said, “Thank you, Paige.”
Then he walked away.
Paige sat down.
Her new coworker stared at her.
“What just happened?”
Paige opened her laptop.
“Long story.”
That evening, Gabriel took her upstairs.
Not to his office.
To an empty suite on the forty-first floor.
“What is this?”
“Yours.”
She stared.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Gabriel—”
“You said you wanted to return to design.”
He had created an internal branding and design studio.
Paige would run it.
On one condition.
She would be paid market salary.
She would report to the board, not to him.
And if their relationship ever ended, her job remained hers.
Paige stared at him.
“You thought about that.”
“I think about everything.”
“You’re learning.”
He stepped closer.
“So are you accepting?”
She looked around the enormous room.
For two years, her portfolio had remained closed.
Survival had replaced ambition.
Now someone was handing ambition back to her.
Not as charity.
As trust.
“Yes.”
Gabriel smiled.
Then Paige noticed another envelope on the table.
Inside was a photograph of Buster.
Her mother’s backyard.
“What is this?”
“Turn it over.”
On the back was an address.
A townhouse in Manhattan.
Pet-friendly.
Paige stared at him.
“You bought me a house?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I bought myself one.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“It has a yard.”
“For?”
“Buster.”
Paige started laughing.
“You bought a Manhattan townhouse for my dog?”
“I needed somewhere less depressing than the penthouse.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Rosa agrees.”
Then Gabriel became serious.
“I’m not asking you to move in.”
Paige’s smile faded slightly.
“I’m asking whether someday you might want to.”
That mattered.
No pressure.
No command.
A choice.
Paige stepped closer.
“Someday?”
“Yes.”
“How far away is someday?”
Gabriel’s hand settled around her waist.
“That depends.”
“On?”
“Whether you keep calling me honey at work.”
She kissed him.
“Absolutely.”
His phone rang.
Nico.
Gabriel answered.
Then went still.
Paige recognized the expression.
“What?”
Gabriel slowly lowered the phone.
“Kevin disappeared.”
Her heart dropped.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“He was moved to protective custody this morning.”
“And?”
“The vehicle arrived empty.”
Paige stared.
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
Then Nico sent a photograph.
Kevin’s transport van.
The rear doors were open.
No blood.
No bodies.
Only an envelope lying on the floor.
Written across the front was Paige’s name.
May you like
Inside was a single sentence.
I STILL OWE YOU THE TRUTH.
