Chapter 8
Gabriel was not overseas.
He was thirty minutes away.
Living under another name above a closed auto shop owned by one of my old crews.
I did not send everyone.
Just Rafe and two men.
Dominic watched them leave and said nothing.
That frightened me more than his earlier panic.
“You think Gabriel saves you?” he finally asked.
“No.”
I looked toward Isabella.
“He might save the truth from you.”
Dominic laughed.
“You always needed somebody to tell you what truth was.”
That hit.
Because it was partially true.
My father.
My mother.
Dominic.
I had spent my life surrounded by people who translated events for me before I saw them myself.
Isabella noticed my silence.
“You didn’t know.”
I looked at her.
“That stopped being enough three years ago.”
She did not argue.
Good.
Lucia came back to the table carrying a pastry box Teresa had folded into a crooked crown.
She placed it on my head.
Everyone froze.
I let her.
Dominic stared.
Then laughed.
“The great Marco Caruso.”
Lucia frowned.
“It’s a king hat.”
I looked at her.
“Apparently.”
She smiled.
Something inside me shifted.
Not healed.
Just moved.
Rafe returned an hour later.
Gabriel came with him willingly.
He looked older than I remembered.
Tired.
The first person he saw was Dominic.
His face hardened.
“Still alive.”
Dominic smiled.
“Disappointed?”
Gabriel ignored him.
Then he saw Isabella.
Then Lucia.
His expression changed.
“You made it.”
Isabella stared.
“You knew me?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Rosa’s photograph.
“But Aunt Rosa told me about you.”
I stood.
“What did Dominic do?”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“Which year?”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Gabriel sat.
He told me Enzo had planned my father’s poisoning.
Dominic knew something was going to happen but claimed he did not know exactly what.
After my father died, Dominic helped bury the truth because exposing Enzo would destroy his own branch.
I looked at Dominic.
“You chose your father.”
He said nothing.
Gabriel continued.
Years later, Rosa learned enough to confront him.
Dominic panicked.
Not because she could prove murder.
Because she could prove he had built his position beside me by hiding it.
“And Isabella?”
Gabriel looked toward her.
“He removed her because Rosa had started trusting her.”
That was it.
Not succession.
Not scandal.
Dominic feared Isabella would become the bridge between my mother and me.
May you like
So he cut the bridge.
Then convinced both sides the other had walked away.
