Chapter 2 - GABRIEL’S LAST PROMISE
Rocco did not speak for several seconds.
Hannah did.
“He told you?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Yes.”
“You knew I was pregnant?”
“He thought you might be.”
Hannah went still.
Gabriel had died before she took the test.
Before she knew.
Dominic wiped flour from his face with the cloth Rocco had thrown down.
His hands shook.
It was the first sign that the arrogant man in the expensive suit was beginning to disappear.
Rocco pointed toward a wooden chair.
“Sit.”
Dominic sat.
Not because he had suddenly become obedient.
Because his knees looked uncertain.
Hannah remained standing.
Rocco leaned against the bakery table.
“Start at the beginning.”
Dominic looked toward the ovens.
Four years earlier, Gabriel had been thirty.
Dominic was thirty-five.
They had grown up more like brothers than cousins.
Dominic’s father died when he was thirteen.
Rocco brought him into his home constantly after that.
Gabriel shared clothes with him.
Fights with him.
Birthday dinners.
Punishments.
Everything.
Dominic loved Gabriel.
That truth made what came later more complicated.
Gabriel began visiting Carter Bakery after midnight.
At first he came for coffee.
Then bread.
Then Hannah.
Dominic discovered the relationship six months before Gabriel died.
He hated it immediately.
Hannah’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Because he changed.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Because he became happy.”
Dominic did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Gabriel stopped attending every Bellini dinner.
He stopped spending nights at the club.
He talked about opening a small restaurant with bread from Hannah’s bakery.
Nothing grand.
Nothing carrying the Bellini name.
Dominic thought he was throwing away everything Rocco had built.
Rocco listened without moving.
“What did I think?”
Dominic looked at him.
“You thought he was going through a phase.”
Rocco remembered.
Gabriel had become restless that year.
Rocco assumed it was temporary.
He never asked the right question.
Dominic continued.
Two days before Gabriel died, he found his cousin sitting behind the bakery with Hannah asleep against his shoulder.
Gabriel told him something.
“I think she’s pregnant.”
Hannah’s hand covered her mouth.
Gabriel had seen her become sick twice that week.
Her cycle was late.
She had not noticed.
He had.
Dominic laughed at him.
Asked whether he intended to become a baker.
Gabriel answered:
“Maybe.”
That single word infuriated Dominic.
Not because baking was shameful.
Because Gabriel sounded free.
Dominic had spent his entire adult life believing family duty was something a Bellini man endured without complaint.
Gabriel was simply preparing to walk away.
“What happened the night he died?” Rocco asked.
Dominic looked down.
There had been a family dinner.
Gabriel arrived late.
He and Rocco argued.
Rocco remembered that too.
Gabriel said he was tired of being introduced as Rocco Bellini’s son before anyone learned his name.
Rocco told him every man carried something he did not choose.
Gabriel answered:
“That doesn’t mean I have to build my life around it.”
Then he left.
Rocco was furious.
He looked at Dominic.
And said four words.
“Bring him back tonight.”
Dominic stared at the table.
Rocco remembered the sentence.
He had not remembered it until now.
“What did you do?”
“I followed him.”
Gabriel drove toward Carter Bakery.
Dominic called twice.
No answer.
Then Gabriel finally picked up.
They argued.
Dominic told him Rocco was furious.
Gabriel said he would speak to his father tomorrow.
Dominic demanded he come back tonight.
Gabriel refused.
Then Dominic said something designed to make him turn around.
Hannah watched him.
“What?”
Dominic did not answer.
Rocco’s voice lowered.
“What did you tell my son?”
Dominic looked at Hannah.
“I told him you were in trouble.”
Hannah stared.
“What kind of trouble?”
“I said some men had come to the bakery looking for him.”
“That never happened.”
“I know.”
“You used me.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel believed him.
He turned his car around.
Rain had begun.
The road between the Bellini estate and the bakery curved along a wooded hillside.
Dominic followed several minutes behind.
Then traffic stopped.
A truck had pulled across one lane.
Gabriel’s car had gone through the guardrail.
Rocco’s face became stone.
Dominic spoke more quietly.
“I climbed down.”
The car had not burned.
It rested against trees below the road.
The front was crushed.
Gabriel was alive.
Conscious.
Bleeding.
Dominic reached him before anyone else.
Gabriel knew immediately why he had turned around.
“Hannah?”
Dominic told him the truth.
There were no men.
No threat.
No danger.
Gabriel stared at him.
Then laughed once.
Not from humor.
From disbelief.
“You lied.”
Dominic tried to apologize.
Gabriel grabbed his sleeve.
He was struggling to breathe.
Then he said:
“Hannah might be pregnant.”
Dominic remembered every word.
“If she is, keep the Bellinis away until she decides otherwise.”
Rocco looked down.
Dominic continued.
“Don’t let them turn my kid into another man who thinks being loved means being owned.”
Hannah began crying quietly.
Dominic’s voice broke.
“I promised.”
Rocco stared at him.
“For nearly four years you kept the promise.”
“Yes.”
“Then why treat Maeve like that today?”
Dominic looked toward the stairs.
His face collapsed a little.
“I don’t know.”
Hannah answered.
“Yes, you do.”
Dominic looked at her.
“You’ve been punishing her because she proves Gabriel chose a life you couldn’t understand.”
Dominic said nothing.
Rocco pushed away from the table.
“There’s more.”
Dominic’s eyes shifted.
Rocco saw it.
“What?”
Dominic stood.
“Nothing.”
Rocco stepped into his path.
“What?”
Dominic’s voice became defensive again.
“I called for help.”
“I didn’t ask that.”
“I stayed with him.”
“Dominic.”
The cousin looked directly at him.
Then said:
“Gabriel didn’t die at the crash site.”
Rocco froze.
Hannah stopped breathing.
Dominic continued.
“He was still alive when they took him away.”
Rocco’s eyes narrowed.
“I know that.”
“No.”
Dominic shook his head.
“You know they said he lost consciousness.”
Rocco waited.
Dominic’s next words changed everything.
“He woke up again at the hospital.”
Hannah stared.
“For how long?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Long enough to speak.”
Rocco’s voice became almost inaudible.
“To whom?”
May you like
Dominic swallowed.
“Me.”
