Chapter 9 - THE LAST GALLAGHER WAR
Months later, the hearings began.
The Gallagher empire was dismantled.
Properties were seized.
Illegal accounts were frozen.
Declan cooperated with investigators.
Leo testified.
Tessa sat behind him every day.
The press called her many things.
The waitress.
The mysterious girlfriend.
The woman who saved the Gallagher heir.
Tessa hated all of them.
She wasn't a savior.
She was simply the person who had refused to look away.
After the final hearing, Leo walked outside.
Reporters surrounded him.
“Mr. Gallagher!”
“Are you taking control of the family business?”
“Are you going after the remaining criminal operations?”
Leo stopped.
He looked directly at the cameras.
“No.”
The reporters fell silent.
“I am not my father's empire.”
He paused.
“And I am not my family's mistakes.”
Tessa smiled.
Then Leo walked toward her.
“What now?” she asked.
“I don't know.”
“That's terrifying.”
“I know.”
She laughed.
He took her hand.
“I have one idea.”
“What?”
“Coffee.”
Tessa smiled.
“That's your grand plan?”
“For now.”
They walked away together.
But their peace lasted only three weeks.
One morning, Tessa found an envelope beneath her apartment door.
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
Leo's mother.
Alive.
Tessa stared at it.
On the back was a handwritten sentence:
SHE NEVER DIED.
Her hands began shaking.
Leo arrived twenty minutes later.
“What happened?”
Tessa handed him the photograph.
His face went white.
“No.”
“There is more.”
She showed him the second photograph.
It depicted a woman entering a private clinic in Montreal.
The date was three months after the supposed death of Leo's mother.
Leo sat down.
“This is impossible.”
“Maybe.”
He stared at the photograph.
Then he noticed something.
A ring.
His mother's ring.
The same ring Declan had buried with her.
Leo looked at Tessa.
“My father lied.”
“Maybe he did.”
“Or someone wanted him to believe she was dead.”
A chill moved through Tessa.
Leo stood.
“We need answers.”
“Are you sure?”
He looked at her.
“For the first time in my life, yes.”
He kissed her forehead.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Leo answered.
A woman's voice whispered:
“Leo.”
He froze.
“Who is this?”
A pause.
Then:
“Your mother.”
The line went dead.
Leo stared at the phone.
Tessa took his hand.
“Are you okay?”
He looked at her.
“No.”
May you like
Then he smiled faintly.
“But I'm not alone.”
