Chapter 4 - The Man in Bellhaven
Gabriel found Matteo in a house beside a frozen lake.
No guards.
No gates.
No luxury cars.
Only an old wooden porch and a row of wind chimes moving in the cold.
Gabriel sat in his car for nearly five minutes before stepping out.
He had spent his entire adult life entering rooms knowing exactly who he was.
Gabriel Gallow.
Son of Antonio Gallow.
Protector of Rosa Gallow.
Heir to an empire he had never asked to inherit.
Now every part of that sentence seemed uncertain.
He knocked.
An old man opened the door.
White hair.
Heavy cardigan.
Walking cane.
But Gabriel recognized the eyes immediately.
His own.
Neither man spoke.
Finally Matteo whispered:
“You look like your mother.”
Gabriel felt something inside him collapse.
“You knew I was coming?”
“No.”
Matteo looked at him carefully.
“But I hoped you would someday.”
Gabriel entered.
The house smelled like coffee and cedar.
Photographs covered the walls.
None showed Gabriel.
But several showed Rosa.
Young.
Laughing.
Happy.
Gabriel stopped before one.
Rosa stood beside Matteo at a county fair.
Matteo followed his gaze.
“We were engaged.”
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
“Before Antonio.”
“Antonio was my father.”
Matteo's expression broke.
“No.”
Gabriel stared.
Matteo lowered himself into a chair.
“You're mine.”
Back at the estate, Norah sat beside Rosa with the locket in her hand.
“Why didn't you tell him?”
“Because secrets kept him alive.”
“Maybe once.”
Norah closed the locket.
“But now they're destroying him.”
Rosa looked toward the door.
“I was nineteen when I met Matteo.”
The story emerged slowly.
Rosa and Matteo had planned a life together.
Then Antonio returned from military service and took control of the family business after their father became ill.
Antonio wanted respect.
Control.
And Rosa.
Rosa married him because her family believed it would prevent a feud between brothers.
But she had already been pregnant.
With Gabriel.
Antonio knew.
And for years he raised Gabriel anyway.
“That doesn't make him evil,” Norah said.
“No.”
Rosa's eyes became wet.
“He wasn't always.”
Antonio loved Gabriel.
Until paranoia grew.
Until he became convinced Matteo would return and take everything.
Rosa feared Gabriel would become trapped between the brothers.
So she took him away.
The accident happened that night.
Gabriel lost pieces of memory.
Matteo agreed to disappear.
Antonio died less than a year later.
And everyone decided the lie was safer than the truth.
Norah felt anger rise.
“You let Gabriel build his entire life around a lie.”
“I let my son live.”
Rosa's voice broke.
“You weren't there.”
Norah softened.
No.
She hadn't been.
And judging old choices from a safe room decades later was easy.
Rosa reached for her.
“Promise me something.”
Norah held her hand.
“What?”
“When Gabriel comes back…”
Rosa struggled for breath.
“Don't let him become Antonio.”
Norah frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Rosa looked toward the window.
“Men in this family turn pain into power.”
She closed her eyes.
“And power into loneliness.”
In Bellhaven, Gabriel sat across from Matteo.
“You abandoned me.”
Matteo's face tightened.
“I protected you.”
“You disappeared.”
“Because Rosa begged me.”
“For thirty years?”
“She believed Antonio's enemies would use you if they learned the truth.”
“Antonio died.”
“His enemies didn't.”
Gabriel stood.
“You could have contacted me.”
“Yes.”
Matteo looked down.
“I was afraid.”
That answer affected Gabriel more than any excuse could have.
He had spent his life surrounded by men who pretended fear did not exist.
Matteo admitted it plainly.
“I watched from a distance.”
Gabriel's voice sharpened.
“You watched?”
“Newspaper photographs. Business reports. Charity events.”
Matteo smiled sadly.
“You looked miserable in most of them.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
Instead he asked:
“Why now?”
“What?”
“Why leave the photograph with my mother?”
Matteo frowned.
“I didn't.”
Gabriel stopped.
“The photograph appeared beside her bed.”
“I haven't been inside that estate in thirty-one years.”
Gabriel's thoughts shifted instantly.
If Matteo had not placed it there, someone else had.
Someone wanted Gabriel to discover the truth.
His phone rang.
Norah.
He answered immediately.
“What's wrong?”
Norah's voice sounded controlled.
Too controlled.
“Gabriel, Rosa's breathing has changed.”
He was already moving toward the door.
“How bad?”
“You need to come home.”
His heart dropped.
“Norah.”
A pause.
Then the words he had feared every night for months.
“I think your mother is running out of time.”
Gabriel drove back through the night.
But halfway home his phone rang again.
This time it was Jude.
And Jude told him something that made Gabriel take his foot off the accelerator.
The photograph had not come from Matteo.
It had been placed in Rosa's room by someone Gabriel trusted.
Someone who had worked inside the estate for twenty-seven years.
Someone whose name Norah had never suspected.
Benny.
May you like
And Benny had disappeared.
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