Chapter 3 - The Man Elena Warned Him About
The elevator opened at 3:42 a.m.
Gabriel stepped out alone.
Dominic waited near the nurses' station.
Mara remained inside Noah's room.
Gabriel approached.
“You look terrible.”
Dominic's voice was flat.
“Long night.”
Gabriel glanced toward Noah's door.
“How's the kid?”
“Improving.”
“Good.”
Dominic watched every movement.
The ring was there.
Black stone.
Silver band.
Exactly like the surveillance image.
“Why did you text me about Mara?”
Gabriel looked toward the room again.
“I found out she was at Mercy General when Elena died.”
Dominic's stomach tightened.
“How?”
“I checked her.”
“Why?”
“Because she knows too much.”
Dominic's eyes hardened.
“About what?”
Gabriel stared at him.
“That medication wasn't accidental.”
Dominic felt adrenaline surge.
“You know who did it?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Gabriel reached inside his jacket.
Dominic's hand moved instinctively.
Gabriel stopped.
Slowly removed a folder.
Placed it on the counter.
“Your brother-in-law.”
Dominic froze.
“Ethan is dead.”
“So we thought.”
Mara heard the sentence from inside Noah's room.
She stepped into the hallway.
Dominic stared at Gabriel.
“Explain.”
Gabriel looked annoyed seeing Mara.
“She shouldn't be here.”
Dominic answered immediately.
“She stays.”
Mara noticed Gabriel's surprise.
Small.
But real.
Gabriel opened the folder.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Surveillance images.
A man in Prague.
Another in Montreal.
Another entering a private clinic in Maryland.
The face was older.
Bearded.
Scarred.
But recognizable.
Ethan Cross.
Elena's husband.
Noah's father.
Officially dead seven years earlier in a warehouse fire.
Dominic stared.
“This is impossible.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “It's expensive.”
Mara stepped closer.
“Why would Noah's father tamper with his medication?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“I don't know.”
“You said the medication wasn't accidental.”
“I traced the man who entered the hospital.”
“To Ethan?”
“To someone paid through an account linked to him.”
Dominic's mind raced.
“Why didn't you tell me Ethan was alive?”
“I found out forty-eight hours ago.”
“Before or after you approached Mara?”
“Before.”
Dominic's voice became dangerous.
“And you didn't think that information was relevant?”
“I needed confirmation.”
Mara almost smiled at the irony.
Dominic noticed too.
“Interesting.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What?”
“That's exactly the excuse everyone uses when they decide I can't handle the truth.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“You've changed.”
“Yes.”
“Because of her?”
His eyes moved toward Mara.
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Careful.”
Mara interrupted.
“Can we postpone the testosterone festival until after we figure out who tried to hurt a child?”
Gabriel looked almost offended.
Dominic hid a smile.
They examined the records.
Ethan Cross had apparently survived the warehouse fire by leaving before the explosion.
Someone else died inside.
Dental records were manipulated.
Insurance documents falsified.
For seven years, Ethan lived under aliases.
The question was why.
Then Mara asked:
“What happened before Elena's crash?”
Dominic and Gabriel exchanged looks.
“What?” Mara said.
Dominic answered.
“Elena wanted out.”
“Out of what?”
“My organization.”
Mara stared.
“She was involved?”
“Financially.”
Dominic looked ashamed.
“She handled legitimate accounts. Shipping companies. Real estate.”
“And?”
“She discovered money moving through businesses I didn't recognize.”
Gabriel stiffened.
Mara noticed.
“Whose businesses?”
Dominic looked at Gabriel.
“That was never established.”
Gabriel's voice hardened.
“Elena believed someone inside the organization was stealing.”
Mara stared at him.
“And then she died.”
“Yes.”
“Convenient.”
Gabriel's expression darkened.
“You think I killed her.”
“I think she told me not to let Dominic trust you.”
Silence.
Gabriel looked at Dominic.
“You told her?”
“She told me.”
Gabriel's face changed.
Not guilt.
Pain.
“She said that?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked away.
For the first time, Mara saw something beneath the terrifying exterior.
Grief.
“She had every reason to.”
Dominic froze.
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel slowly sat.
“The night Elena died, she called me.”
Dominic's voice sharpened.
“You told me she called Ethan.”
“I lied.”
The hallway became silent.
“Why?”
“Because she asked me to.”
Dominic stepped forward.
Mara moved subtly between them.
Gabriel continued.
“Elena had evidence Ethan was stealing from you.”
Dominic stopped.
“Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“She asked me to meet her.”
“Where?”
“At Pier Nine.”
Dominic's face drained.
“That was three miles from where she crashed.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She gave me documents.”
“What documents?”
“Accounts. Payments. Names.”
“Where are they?”
“Gone.”
Dominic grabbed Gabriel's shirt.
“You've had eight years to tell me this!”
Gabriel didn't resist.
“She begged me not to.”
“She died!”
“I know!”
Gabriel's roar silenced the hallway.
Mara pulled Dominic's arm.
“Let him go.”
Dominic released him.
Gabriel's eyes filled.
“She thought Ethan would kill Noah if he discovered she had exposed him.”
Dominic went pale.
“Noah was two.”
“Yes.”
“So you hid the evidence?”
“I moved Noah before sunrise.”
Dominic remembered.
Gabriel had personally taken Noah from the family home after Elena died.
At the time, Dominic thought it was protection from rivals.
It had been protection from Noah's own father.
“Why did Elena warn Mara against you?”
Gabriel looked toward Mara.
“Because Elena didn't know whether I had chosen her or Ethan.”
“What?”
“Ethan approached me before she did.”
Dominic stared.
“He offered me five million dollars to betray you.”
“And?”
“I pretended to accept.”
Mara understood.
“You were trying to get evidence.”
“Yes.”
“But Elena discovered the meetings.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She thought I'd turned.”
Dominic stepped backward.
Eight years of assumptions collapsed.
“Did Ethan cause the crash?”
“I've always believed so.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you would've hunted him.”
“I did hunt people!”
“Yes.”
Gabriel stood.
“The wrong people.”
Dominic's face twisted.
“You let me destroy three families over something they didn't do?”
Gabriel said nothing.
That silence answered.
Dominic looked sick.
Mara watched something inside him crack.
His empire had been built partly on revenge.
And the revenge had been wrong.
Before anyone spoke, Noah's monitor alarmed.
Mara spun.
She ran inside.
Noah was awake.
Terrified.
His heart rate climbed rapidly.
“Chest hurts.”
Mara called the physician.
Dominic appeared beside the bed.
“Noah.”
Mara looked at the IV.
Then stopped.
The medication bag had been changed again.
Impossible.
She had personally locked the replacement.
Mara grabbed the line.
“Stop the infusion.”
Another nurse obeyed.
Dominic saw her face.
“What?”
Mara examined the bag.
Then held it up.
A small black marking appeared near the seam.
This time it wasn't E.V.8.
It was a telephone number.
And beneath it:
DOMINIC. CALL ALONE IF YOU WANT THE BOY TO LIVE.
Gabriel read it.
His face hardened.
Dominic reached for the phone.
Mara stopped him.
“You are not going alone.”
The number rang before he could dial.
Noah's bedside phone.
Everyone froze.
Dominic answered.
“Who is this?”
A man's voice came through.
Older.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Hello, Dom.”
Dominic's face lost all color.
“Ethan.”
May you like
The voice laughed softly.
“It's been a long time.”
