Chapter 4 - THE ROOM WITH NO EXIT
The ballroom had emptied by the time we returned.
Champagne remained on abandoned tables. White flowers stood beneath chandeliers as if nothing ugly had happened beneath them.
Gabriel's men controlled every entrance.
Richard Bennett had vanished from a locked room.
I stood outside the executive office with Celeste.
Vivien was nowhere to be found.
“Where's your mother?” I asked.
Celeste rubbed her arms.
“I thought she left with Dad.”
Gabriel heard.
“She didn't.”
“How do you know?”
“My people checked every vehicle.”
Luca opened the office.
There was one desk, two chairs, a wall of bookshelves, and no visible second exit.
Richard's phone lay on the carpet.
His jacket was draped over a chair.
On the desk sat the contract transferring 40% of Bennett Development to Romano Holdings.
Unsigned.
Gabriel walked to the bookshelf.
“What?” I asked.
He touched one volume.
Dust.
Then another.
No dust.
He pulled it.
A section of shelving clicked.
Celeste whispered, “You've got to be kidding me.”
The wall opened.
Behind it was a narrow service corridor.
Gabriel looked at Luca.
“Find him.”
Men disappeared into the passage.
I approached the desk.
Something beneath the contract caught my attention.
A hospital invoice.
St. Agnes.
My mother's name.
But the date was 12 years old.
“Gabriel.”
He came beside me.
The invoice wasn't for surgery.
It was for genetic testing.
Patient: Margaret Bennett.
Associated minor: Emily Bennett.
My skin went cold.
“What is this?”
Celeste looked over my shoulder.
Then she stopped breathing.
At the bottom was a handwritten note.
Results sealed by request of R. Bennett.
My entire childhood rearranged itself.
“Why would Dad order genetic testing?”
Nobody answered.
I looked at Gabriel.
His face revealed nothing.
But he understood.
“Emily—”
“Don't.”
I picked up the invoice.
“Don't give me that voice.”
“What voice?”
“The one people use before telling you your life isn't what you thought.”
Celeste whispered, “Maybe it was routine.”
“No.”
I knew Richard.
Nothing about him had ever been routine when money was involved.
We returned to the hospital.
Mom was awake.
I placed the invoice beside her.
All color left her face.
“Where did you find this?”
“Richard's office.”
She turned away.
“Mom.”
“Emily, tonight isn't the time.”
“It became the time when my father pretended I didn't exist.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“He isn't your biological father.”
There it was.
A sentence capable of dividing a life into before and after.
I sat down.
Celeste remained near the door.
Gabriel stood outside, giving us privacy.
“Who is?”
Mom began crying.
“I don't know.”
I stared at her.
“You don't know?”
“I was assaulted.”
The anger left me instantly.
“Mom…”
“It happened after a company party. I never saw the man's face clearly. I woke in a hotel room. Richard found me afterward.”
She swallowed.
“He knew there was a possibility you weren't his.”
“And he stayed?”
“At first.”
Her laugh was bitter.
“He acted noble. He said you were his daughter no matter what.”
“What changed?”
“Money.”
Of course.
“When the Romano accounts were compromised, Richard started telling me everything wrong in his life began with me. Eventually, with you.”
I looked at the door.
Gabriel stood beyond the glass.
“He knew about the test?”
“I don't know.”
“Who requested it?”
“Richard.”
“Then who was tested against me?”
Mom closed her eyes.
“I never saw the result.”
A knock interrupted us.
Luca entered.
“Boss needs to see this.”
Gabriel came inside holding a laptop.
Security footage filled the screen.
Richard emerged from the hidden passage into a loading dock.
Vivien waited for him.
They entered a sedan.
But before the vehicle left, another man approached.
He leaned through Richard's window.
The image was grainy.
Gabriel froze it.
Mom made a sound.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“You know him?” I asked.
She stared at the screen.
“That’s Victor Hale.”
Gabriel's face changed.
“Who?”
“Your father's attorney,” Mom said.
Gabriel went completely still.
“My father never had an attorney named Victor Hale.”
Mom pointed at the screen.
“He worked for him. He was at every meeting.”
Luca stepped closer.
“Boss.”
Gabriel already understood.
Someone had spent decades moving between both families using different identities.
Gabriel enlarged the image.
Victor Hale was older now.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
A scar near his left eyebrow.
Mom began shaking.
“He was at the party.”
I grabbed her hand.
“What party?”
“The night I was assaulted.”
The room became silent.
Gabriel looked from the screen to me.
Then back to Victor.
“Find him,” he told Luca.
Mom suddenly tightened her grip around my fingers.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Victor knew I was pregnant before Richard did.”
My pulse thundered.
“How?”
“He came to my office 2 days after I found out.”
“What did he say?”
Mom stared directly at Gabriel.
“He told me never to ask who Emily's father was.”
A phone rang.
Gabriel answered.
He listened.
Then his eyes found mine.
“Richard's car was located.”
“Where?”
“Near the river.”
“And Richard?”
“Gone.”
“Vivien?”
“Gone.”
Gabriel ended the call.
Luca's phone immediately buzzed.
He read the message.
“Boss, there was something inside the vehicle.”
He turned the screen.
A photograph had been left on the driver's seat.
It showed me entering Gabriel's elevator.
May you like
Written across my face in red ink were 4 words.
SHE SHOULD HAVE STAYED INVISIBLE.
