Chapter 6 - Lucy’s Teddy Bear
Hannah Bennett had never hated anyone before.
She discovered at 2:07 in the morning that hatred was surprisingly quiet.
No screaming.
No breaking things.
Just a cold certainty inside her chest as she stood in Gabriel’s lakeside kitchen staring at Lucy’s empty chair.
“This is because of me.”
Daniel stood by the wall.
Hannah turned.
“No.”
“If I hadn’t come—”
“Don’t.”
Daniel fell silent.
Gabriel entered.
Hannah crossed the room.
“Where is she?”
“Old Rowan warehouse.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
She slapped him.
Everyone froze.
Even Marcus.
Hannah’s hand trembled.
Gabriel touched his cheek.
“I deserved that?”
“You were about to tell me to stay here while my daughter is with a man who threatened her.”
“Yes.”
“Then you deserved two.”
Marcus suddenly found the floor fascinating.
Gabriel exhaled.
“You’re not trained for this.”
“I’m her mother.”
“That’s precisely why you shouldn’t be there.”
“That’s precisely why you will not stop me.”
Gabriel stared at her.
Then nodded once.
“Fine.”
Daniel looked shocked.
“You’re letting her come?”
Gabriel picked up his coat.
“I’m learning.”
The warehouse had once belonged to Gabriel’s father.
Abandoned for twelve years, it stood beside frozen rail lines near the river.
Evan waited inside.
Lucy sat on a chair twenty feet away.
Unhurt.
Hannah tried to run toward her.
Gabriel caught her arm.
Evan raised a pistol.
“Predictable.”
Gabriel stepped in front of Hannah.
“You wanted Daniel.”
“I wanted leverage.”
Daniel emerged behind them.
“Dad.”
Evan’s expression changed.
For one second, he looked like an ordinary father.
“Come here.”
“No.”
Evan blinked.
Daniel continued.
“I’m done.”
“You’re confused.”
“No. I was confused when I believed you.”
Evan’s face hardened.
Gabriel understood then that Evan loved his son in the same way he loved everything else.
As property.
“You betrayed me for him?” Evan asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“I stopped betraying myself for you.”
Evan aimed the pistol toward Gabriel.
Lucy suddenly spoke.
“You lie a lot.”
Everyone looked at her.
Evan frowned.
“What?”
“You lied about Mr. Pierce being downstairs.”
Hannah nearly cried.
Even kidnapped, Lucy was keeping score.
Evan walked toward her.
Gabriel’s entire body tightened.
“Stay away from her.”
Evan smiled.
“There he is.”
“Who?”
“The real Gabriel.”
Evan’s voice filled the warehouse.
“For years you’ve pretended you became respectable. Suits. Audits. Charities. You thought changing the paperwork changed where we came from.”
“We?”
“I built everything beside you.”
“And I paid you.”
“You inherited a kingdom!”
Gabriel’s voice remained calm.
“And you wanted it.”
“I deserved it.”
Finally.
The truth.
Not business.
Not principle.
Envy.
Fourteen years condensed into four words.
Evan continued.
“Your father treated me like hired help.”
“You were hired help.”
Evan’s face twisted.
Gabriel knew immediately he had struck the oldest wound.
“You think you’re better than me?”
“No.”
Gabriel glanced toward Lucy.
“But I’m trying to become better than I was.”
For the first time, Evan had no answer.
Then sirens sounded.
Distant.
Growing closer.
Evan spun toward Daniel.
“You called them?”
Daniel shook his head.
Gabriel hadn’t either.
Lucy raised her teddy bear.
“I did.”
Everyone stared.
Hannah blinked.
“What?”
Lucy squeezed the bear’s paw.
A tiny electronic chirp sounded.
Gabriel almost laughed.
Marcus had installed a tracker and emergency transmitter in the bear before they left the safe house.
Lucy had remembered his instructions.
“If you get scared,” Marcus had apparently told her, “hold the paw for five seconds.”
Evan grabbed Lucy.
Hannah screamed.
Gabriel moved.
The gun fired.
The sound exploded through the warehouse.
Hannah dropped.
For one unbearable second Gabriel thought she had been hit.
Then Evan stumbled.
Daniel had struck his father’s arm sideways just as he fired.
The bullet buried itself in a steel beam.
Gabriel crossed the distance.
One punch.
Evan hit the concrete.
The pistol slid away.
Gabriel stood over him.
Fourteen years of betrayal stared up from the floor.
Evan smiled through blood.
“Do it.”
Gabriel could have.
Years ago, he would have.
Instead he stepped backward.
“No.”
Evan’s smile disappeared.
Gabriel looked toward the approaching officers.
“You don’t get to turn me back into the man I’ve spent ten years trying to leave behind.”
Police flooded the warehouse.
Hannah reached Lucy first.
Mother and daughter collapsed together, crying.
Gabriel stood several feet away.
Then Lucy stretched one arm toward him.
“Mr. Rowan.”
Gabriel approached.
She wrapped that arm around his neck.
He froze.
Hannah looked at him over Lucy’s shoulder.
“Apparently you’re included.”
Gabriel slowly placed an arm around them both.
For several seconds, the feared Gabriel Rowan stood in an abandoned warehouse holding a maid and her daughter while police arrested the man he had once called brother.
It should have been the end.
It wasn’t.
Because as Evan was handcuffed, he looked at Gabriel and smiled.
“You still don’t understand.”
Gabriel frowned.
Evan leaned closer.
May you like
“The money wasn’t the biggest secret in that cabinet.”
Then officers dragged him away.
