Chapter 7 - THE NURSE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Nurse Collins disappeared before anyone reached the hospital.
Her employee file was fake.
Her address belonged to an abandoned building.
Even her nursing license had been issued under another woman's identity.
I remembered every conversation with her.
Her kindness.
Her calls.
The urgency in her voice.
Forty-five minutes.
Had she saved Mom by warning me?
Or helped create the emergency?
Gabriel ordered an investigation.
By morning, Luca found her real name.
Anna Caruso.
Victor's daughter.
The mystery shifted again.
Anna had worked around my mother for 3 months.
Not to kill her.
To protect her.
She contacted us herself.
“I knew my father was involved with Richard Bennett,” she said over the phone. “I didn't know everything until recently.”
“Did you kill Victor?” Gabriel asked.
Silence.
“No.”
“Then why were you in his room?”
“To confront him.”
“About Margaret?”
“About Emily.”
My pulse jumped.
“What about me?”
Anna exhaled.
“My father knew who assaulted your mother.”
Mom sat beside me.
Her hand went cold.
“Who?”
Anna began crying.
“Richard.”
The world stopped.
Mom shook her head.
“No. Richard found me afterward.”
“He didn't find you.”
Anna's voice cracked.
“He was there.”
My mother stared at nothing.
Memories she had survived by burying were rearranging themselves.
“No.”
“My father helped him cover it up.”
Gabriel's jaw clenched.
Anna continued.
“Richard later convinced Matteo Romano that Matteo was responsible. The fake DNA test was part of the cover.”
I felt physically ill.
Richard had raised me while knowing what he had done.
Maybe that was why he hated looking at me.
I was not evidence of another man's violence.
I was evidence of his.
Mom whispered, “Emily…”
I knelt beside her.
“None of this changes who you are.”
She touched my face.
“I should have known.”
“How could you?”
“I married him.”
“You trusted someone who lied.”
My voice shook.
“That is his shame. Not yours.”
Gabriel looked away to give us privacy.
I loved him for that before I was ready to admit I loved anything about him.
Anna agreed to meet federal investigators.
She had documents linking Richard to fraud, extortion, and Victor's financial crimes.
But she never reached them.
Her car was found abandoned.
Blood marked the driver's seat.
No body.
Then Celeste disappeared.
One minute she was inside Gabriel's penthouse.
The next, the guest room was empty.
A note lay on the bed.
I know where Mom is. Don't follow me.
Gabriel swore.
“Track her phone.”
“Already dead,” Luca said.
I grabbed my coat.
“No.”
Gabriel blocked the door.
“She’s my sister.”
“She walked into a trap.”
“Then move.”
“Emily.”
I stepped close enough to touch him.
“You helped my mother because I ran for her. Do you really think I'm going to sit here while Celeste runs toward danger alone?”
His expression changed.
“You forgave her?”
“No.”
“Then why risk yourself?”
“Because forgiveness isn't required before doing the right thing.”
For several seconds he stared at me.
Then he handed me a bulletproof vest.
“I hate arguing with you.”
“You lose often.”
“I have never lost an argument.”
“You met me yesterday.”
Luca muttered, “She has a point.”
Gabriel glared at him.
We found Celeste at an abandoned Bennett construction site beside the river.
Her car stood outside.
Gabriel's men entered first.
Inside, voices echoed through unfinished concrete.
Vivien stood on the upper floor.
Celeste faced her.
“Where's Dad?”
“Gone.”
“Did you help him?”
“I protected this family.”
“You destroyed it.”
Vivien slapped her.
I moved instinctively.
Gabriel caught my arm.
“Wait.”
Vivien spoke again.
“You stupid girl. Everything I did was for you.”
“You tried to kill Margaret.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Vivien laughed.
“Richard.”
Celeste froze.
“He manipulated the insurance claim. I discovered it afterward.”
“Why didn't you stop him?”
“Because Margaret was going to destroy everything.”
“That doesn't answer me.”
“It does when you've spent 20 years building a life.”
Celeste stared at her mother.
“So you let her die.”
“She didn't die.”
“Because Emily begged a stranger after Dad refused her.”
Vivien's expression twisted.
“That girl ruins everything.”
I stepped from hiding.
“My name is Emily.”
Vivien spun around.
Gabriel appeared beside me.
Fear erased her anger.
“Mr. Romano.”
“Where is Richard?”
“I don't know.”
Gabriel walked closer.
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear.”
A gunshot exploded.
Gabriel pulled me down.
Vivien screamed.
Glass shattered.
A sniper round struck the wall behind us.
Gabriel's men returned fire.
“MOVE!”
Chaos erupted.
Luca dragged Celeste toward cover.
Gabriel shielded me with his body.
Another bullet hit concrete.
Dust filled the air.
Then Vivien screamed again.
She had been hit in the shoulder.
I crawled toward her.
Gabriel grabbed me.
“Emily!”
“She'll bleed out!”
“Stay down!”
I pulled off my jacket and pressed it against Vivien's wound.
She stared at me.
“You're helping me?”
“Apparently bad decisions run in the family.”
Despite the pain, she laughed once.
Then her eyes rolled.
Sirens approached.
The shooter escaped.
But police found something in the neighboring building.
Richard's watch.
His fingerprints.
And a rifle.
Celeste stared at the evidence.
“Dad tried to kill us?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
“How can you know?”
“Because Richard is many things.”
He examined the rifle.
“But he isn't stupid enough to leave his own watch beside the murder weapon.”
Someone was framing him.
Again.
Just as he had once framed Margaret.
And I suddenly understood.
“Victor isn't dead because he knew Richard's secrets.”
May you like
Gabriel looked at me.
“He died because he knew someone else's.”
