Chapter 3 - The Man Everyone Hated
The ambulance ride to Swedish Hospital felt endless.
Chloe sat beside Evelyn while a paramedic monitored her heart. Mia was with Carmen, protected by two men Gabriel had stationed outside the diner's owner's house despite Chloe's objections.
Gabriel followed in another vehicle.
Evelyn regained consciousness before they reached the hospital, but the clarity was gone.
She didn't remember collapsing.
She didn't remember Gabriel.
She asked Chloe whether she had finished her homework.
At the emergency room, doctors determined that stress had triggered an arrhythmia. Evelyn needed observation.
Chloe sat beside the hospital bed until daylight turned the windows gray.
At nine, she found Gabriel standing alone near a vending machine.
He had removed his coat.
The tattoos along his neck were more visible beneath his black shirt.
“Why are you still here?” she asked.
He looked at her.
“Your mother knew mine.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
“I don't have another answer.”
Chloe crossed her arms.
“She said Leo wasn't the target.”
“I heard.”
“You believe her?”
Gabriel looked toward Evelyn's room.
“I don't know.”
“At least you're consistent.”
“With what?”
“Not trusting anyone.”
A dry smile touched his mouth.
“That keeps people alive.”
“Seems lonely.”
Something changed in his eyes.
Chloe regretted the observation immediately.
“Sorry.”
“You're not wrong.”
For a moment they stood beneath the fluorescent hospital lights, two strangers connected by a ring neither of them understood.
Then Dean approached.
“I found something.”
Gabriel straightened.
“What?”
Dean looked at Chloe.
“You should probably hear it too.”
They went to an empty consultation room.
Dean placed a thin folder on the table.
“Thomas Vance rented an apartment under an alias in Rogers Park between 1997 and 2004.”
Chloe's pulse accelerated.
“So?”
“The listed emergency contact was Evelyn Mercer.”
Gabriel opened the folder.
Inside were photocopies of old rental documents.
Chloe recognized her mother's handwriting.
“She knew him.”
“More than knew him.”
Dean slid forward another paper.
A marriage license.
Thomas Andrew Vance.
Evelyn Rose Mercer.
Married privately in Wisconsin.
Twenty-eight years earlier.
Chloe stared until the words blurred.
“My mother was married?”
“Apparently.”
“She told me my father died before I was born.”
Dean looked uncomfortable.
Gabriel didn't.
“When were you born?”
“Twenty-seven years ago.”
Dean exhaled.
Chloe looked at him.
“What?”
He tapped the marriage date.
“You were born nine months after this.”
The room went silent.
Chloe sat down.
Thomas Vance.
The fugitive.
The murderer.
The traitor.
Her father.
“No.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Chloe shook her head.
“No. My mother wouldn't—”
“She was protecting you,” Gabriel said.
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
His voice was quiet.
“But I know what it looks like when someone spends years hiding a name.”
Chloe looked at the photograph of Thomas.
She saw her own eyes again.
It felt like someone had replaced the foundation beneath her life while she wasn't looking.
“Did you hate him?”
Gabriel's answer came immediately.
“Yes.”
The honesty stung.
“Did you want him dead?”
“For twelve years.”
Chloe looked up.
“And now?”
He glanced toward the room where Evelyn slept.
“Now I want the truth.”
Dean opened another folder.
“There is more.”
Chloe laughed bitterly.
“Of course there is.”
“Thomas didn't vanish immediately after Leo's death.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What are you talking about?”
“We always believed he left Chicago that night. But I found a toll-camera record under one of his known aliases.”
“Where?”
“Indiana.”
“When?”
“Six days later.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“That means he stayed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Dean placed a grainy photograph on the table.
A man who resembled Thomas stood outside a storage facility.
Beside him was Evelyn.
And in Evelyn's arms was a baby.
Chloe.
Her breath disappeared.
“My mother.”
Gabriel took the photograph.
On the back someone had written a unit number.
C-117.
Dean continued.
“The storage company still exists.”
Chloe stood.
“We're going.”
“No,” Gabriel said.
She turned on him.
“Excuse me?”
“We don't know who took that photograph.”
“I don't care.”
“You should.”
“My entire life is sitting inside a storage unit.”
“Maybe.”
“Then I'm going.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“You have a daughter.”
“And that means I should stay ignorant?”
“It means you should stay alive.”
“Stop using Mia to control me.”
His expression sharpened.
“I am trying to make sure she still has a mother tomorrow.”
Chloe stared at him.
Neither moved.
Finally Dean muttered, “This seems like a good time for me to become invisible.”
Gabriel ignored him.
“Give me two hours.”
“For what?”
“To secure the location.”
“This isn't one of your warehouses.”
“No. It's worse.”
“How?”
“Because somebody photographed your parents there twelve years ago.”
Chloe's anger cooled.
That fact was difficult to argue with.
“Two hours.”
“Three.”
“Two.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“Two.”
They arrived at the storage facility shortly after noon.
Gabriel had sent four men ahead.
The manager confirmed Unit C-117 had been prepaid for thirty years.
The account holder's name was Daniel Mercer.
Chloe's maternal grandfather's name.
She entered with Gabriel and Dean.
Dust covered everything.
There were boxes.
A broken rocking chair.
Tools.
An old suitcase.
And one steel cabinet secured with two locks.
Dean opened them.
Inside were files.
Photographs.
Cassette tapes.
And a black ledger.
Gabriel picked it up.
The first pages contained numbers.
Account codes.
Dates.
Initials.
Then names.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
Union officials.
Members of the Costa organization.
Gabriel's face darkened.
“What is it?” Chloe asked.
“A record.”
“Of what?”
“Payments.”
Dean turned several pages.
“Thomas kept receipts on everybody.”
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Against your family?”
Gabriel shook his head slowly.
“Against someone inside it.”
Then Chloe noticed an envelope taped beneath the cabinet shelf.
It bore her mother's name.
EVELYN — IF I DON'T COME BACK
She pulled it free.
Inside was a letter.
The handwriting matched the note beneath the cigar-box lining.
Chloe read silently at first.
Then aloud.
“Evie, if you're reading this, I failed to get Gabriel out before Vincent moved.”
Gabriel froze.
Dean's head snapped up.
“Vincent?”
Chloe continued.
“He knows Leo found the offshore accounts. He thinks Leo told Gabriel. The bomb was meant for Gabriel's car, but Leo took it that night.”
Gabriel stumbled backward.
For twelve years, he had believed his brother had been murdered because Thomas wanted control.
Now a dead man's letter said Leo had died because Gabriel had lent him his car.
Chloe looked up.
Gabriel's face had gone completely blank.
She continued carefully.
“I moved the money before Vincent could. Not for myself. The account keys are separated. The ledger proves who received payments. Do not trust anyone carrying the scales unless the break runs left.”
Gabriel looked at his ring.
Then at Chloe.
“Mine runs right.”
Dean checked.
“So does Thomas's?”
Chloe pulled the ring from her pocket.
The jagged line split left.
Dean swore.
Gabriel whispered, “The rings were altered.”
“What does that mean?” Chloe asked.
Gabriel stared at Thomas's ring.
“It means Thomas knew someone had copied the crest.”
A gunshot exploded outside the unit.
Dean grabbed Chloe and pulled her down.
Gabriel drew a weapon.
Another shot struck the metal door.
“Stay behind me,” he ordered.
Men shouted outside.
Dean spoke into his radio.
No answer.
Someone had jammed communications.
Gabriel pushed Chloe behind the steel cabinet.
“Do not move.”
She grabbed his sleeve.
“Where are you going?”
“To find out who followed us.”
He looked at her hand.
Then into her eyes.
For the first time, Chloe didn't see a feared criminal.
She saw a man who had just learned that twelve years of his life might have been built on a lie.
“Gabriel.”
He paused.
“My father didn't kill Leo.”
His jaw tightened.
“I know.”
Then the lights went out.
And from somewhere outside the storage unit, a man called through the darkness.
“Gabriel Costa.”
Chloe heard the unmistakable click of a gun being cocked.
May you like
“Your father should have killed Thomas's entire family when he had the chance.”
---
