Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEADThe gunshot echoed through the church.
Dominic felt Rachel wrench his arm and drag him sideways as the bullet struck the wooden pillar behind him.
“Gabriel!” Dominic shouted.
His brother stood at the basement entrance, breathing hard, his face streaked with soot.
For one terrible second, Dominic thought Gabriel had become the monster their father had always wanted him to be.
Then Gabriel lowered the gun.
“Get Lily out of here!”
A second shot tore through the air.
The bullet struck the wall beside Gabriel's head.
Someone was firing from the basement.
Dominic ran toward the stairs while Rachel scooped Lily into her arms. Gabriel fired twice toward the lower doorway, forcing the hidden gunman to retreat.
“There's a passage behind the altar!” Gabriel shouted.
Dominic found the narrow opening beneath a carved wooden panel. It led to a cramped corridor that smelled of damp earth.
Rachel followed with Lily.
Gabriel brought up the rear.
They emerged behind the church into a small graveyard as flames began licking through the broken windows.
Dominic grabbed his brother by the collar.
“Four years!”
Gabriel didn't resist.
“Dom—”
“Four years, Gabriel! I buried you without a body. I spent every day wondering whether I could have saved you. And you were alive?”
Gabriel looked at the ground.
“I couldn't come back.”
“You couldn't call?”
“They were listening to every line. They were watching everyone who knew me. If I contacted you, they'd have used you to find Lily.”
Dominic released him.
“You could have trusted me.”
Gabriel's eyes filled with pain.
“I did trust you. That's what made it so dangerous.”
Dominic stared at him.
Gabriel continued.
“Father had people inside your security team, your companies, and the police department. Every time I tried to send a message, someone disappeared. I couldn't risk it.”
“You sent me letters.”
“Not all of them reached you.”
“Who sent the cakes?”
Gabriel glanced at Rachel.
“Eleanor.”
“Our mother?”
Gabriel nodded.
“She found me three weeks ago. She knew Father was dead, but she didn't know whether Marcus was still working for the people who had helped him.”
Dominic's mind raced.
“Then why didn't she come to me?”
“Because she didn't know if you were involved.”
The words struck Dominic harder than any punch.
Gabriel looked away.
“She watched you for years. She wanted to believe you were different from Father, but she had no proof. The cakes were a test. Vanessa's reaction, your reaction, and whether Marcus would follow you to Boston would tell her whom she could trust.”
Dominic remembered the destroyed cake, the white ribbon, and the letter.
Everything had been designed to force the secrets into the open.
“What about Vanessa?”
Gabriel's expression tightened.
“She was supposed to leave the city with me the night Father attacked us. I told her to run because I thought I could hold him off. By the time I escaped, she was gone.”
“She believed you were dead.”
“I know.”
“She thought she had abandoned you.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“I never blamed her for surviving.”
Dominic looked at his brother for a long moment.
“Were you married?”
Gabriel nodded.
“In a little chapel outside Boston. We had no guests, no photographs except one, and no money for a proper ceremony. I gave her the black rose ring because it was the only thing I owned that had belonged to our mother.”
“Then why did she say you never knew she was going to marry me?”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“Because she didn't know you were my brother when you met her.”
Dominic remembered Vanessa's confession.
She had said she didn't know who he was at first.
Gabriel continued.
“She thought I was dead. She believed Father had arranged the accident and that no one would ever tell her what happened. When she met you, she didn't know your identity until after she fell in love.”
“Why didn't she tell me then?”
“Because she was afraid you'd choose your family over her.”
Dominic looked away.
He couldn't deny that she might have been right.
A siren sounded in the distance.
Gabriel turned toward the road.
“We have to move.”
“Where's Eleanor?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
“Dom, I can't—”
Dominic seized his brother's shoulder.
“No more secrets.”
Gabriel met his eyes.
“Then listen carefully. Father didn't die naturally. He was poisoned. The person who administered the poison was someone he trusted enough to let into his bedroom.”
“Marcus?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Marcus was the man who arranged the cover-up. He wasn't the one who killed Father.”
“Then who?”
Gabriel glanced at Lily.
The little girl had fallen asleep in Rachel's arms, exhausted by the smoke and fear.
“Someone who wanted the family to believe Father was untouchable. Someone who knew every account, every property, and every secret he had buried.”
Dominic's phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
He answered.
A woman's voice whispered, “Dominic, don't trust Gabriel.”
He went still.
“Who is this?”
“You think your brother came back to save you. He came back because he needs something from you.”
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
His brother was watching him with sudden alarm.
The woman continued.
“Ask him what happened to the original wedding certificate.”
The call ended.
Dominic lowered the phone.
“What original wedding certificate?”
Gabriel's face changed.
“Who called you?”
“Answer me.”
Gabriel stared at his brother, then at the child in Rachel's arms.
Finally, he whispered, “I never told you the whole truth about Room 214.”
Dominic felt his blood run cold.
“What did you leave out?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“Vanessa and I weren't the only people in that room.”
A vehicle appeared at the end of the cemetery road.
Its headlights swept across the gravestones.
Gabriel raised his weapon.
Dominic stepped in front of Rachel and Lily.
The car stopped.
The rear door opened.
A woman emerged, holding a white rose.
Dominic recognized her from the photograph at the hotel.
His mother.
May you like
Eleanor Moretti had finally come home.
And she was pointing a gun at Gabriel.
