Chapter 12 - The Choice Gabriel Never Expected
Sarah reached the restaurant entrance before Gabriel could stop her.
She pulled the door open.
Thomas Reynolds stood beneath the awning.
Beside him was Daniel.
For one impossible second, nobody moved.
Sarah had imagined him frozen in time at thirty-one.
The man in front of her was thirty-six now.
His hair longer.
Beard darker with strands of gray.
A thin scar crossed one eyebrow.
He looked tired.
Older.
Alive.
"Sarah."
His voice.
Not a recording.
Not a memory.
Her husband.
Sarah walked toward him.
Daniel opened his arms.
She slapped him.
Hard.
Reynolds looked away.
Gabriel stopped behind her.
Daniel touched his cheek.
"Okay."
Sarah hit him again.
"Also fair."
Then she collapsed against him.
Daniel caught her.
Sarah sobbed into his coat.
"You were alive."
"I know."
"Five years."
"I know."
"Lucy buried you."
His expression broke.
"I know."
Sarah pulled away.
"You don't get to say that like it explains anything."
"It doesn't."
"You watched us?"
"Sometimes."
"You knew where we lived?"
"Yes."
"You paid Keller?"
"Yes."
She hit his chest.
"Then why didn't you come home?"
Daniel didn't defend himself.
"Because I was a coward."
Sarah stopped.
No excuses.
No Victor.
No network.
No protection.
"A coward?"
"I told myself I was keeping you safe."
His eyes filled.
"Eventually I realized I was also terrified you'd hate me."
Sarah laughed in disbelief.
"So you solved that by making sure I'd hate you more?"
"Not my best plan."
Despite herself, a broken laugh escaped her.
Gabriel looked away to give them privacy.
Then Daniel saw him.
"Gabe."
Gabriel faced him.
Eight years had passed since they had stood in the same room.
Gabriel walked forward.
Daniel braced himself.
Gabriel hugged him.
Hard.
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I thought you were dead."
"Twice."
"Don't make jokes."
"Sorry."
Gabriel pulled away.
Then punched him in the shoulder.
Daniel winced.
Sarah almost smiled.
"You deserved that."
"I definitely did."
Reynolds cleared his throat.
"We should probably go inside."
Sarah looked at him.
"I haven't decided whether I hate you."
"Get in line."
They entered Laurel & Vine.
Table Eleven waited.
Daniel stopped when he saw it.
"You kept it."
Gabriel said, "I keep stupid things."
"Apparently."
They sat.
One bowl, three plates.
Now four adults.
And one missing child.
Sarah immediately asked.
"When does Lucy see you?"
Daniel's face changed.
"Tonight."
"No."
He looked at her.
"What?"
"Not like this."
"Sarah—"
"You disappeared for five years. You don't walk into her bedroom and expect her to understand."
Daniel lowered his eyes.
"You're right."
"You're going to tell me everything first."
"Everything."
Gabriel asked, "Final list."
Reynolds placed the blue box on the table.
Inside was a stack of documents and a hard drive.
"The last people still using Victor's network."
Gabriel looked toward Daniel.
"Victor says he wants it destroyed."
"He does."
"You trust him?"
"No."
"Good."
"But I believe him."
"That's worse."
Daniel smiled faintly.
Sarah looked between them.
"The network?"
Daniel explained.
After his accident, he discovered Reynolds had betrayed him but also wanted out.
Victor, meanwhile, had become frightened of what his own system had become.
He had created a method of controlling people through secrets.
Others were now using it without him.
Daniel decided exposing everything publicly would destroy hundreds of innocent lives.
Instead, he began separating criminal evidence from personal leverage.
Five years.
Thousands of files.
Dozens of people.
Sarah stared.
"And during all of that, not once did you think your wife deserved to know you were alive?"
Daniel's face fell.
"Every day."
"That's not an answer."
"No."
He inhaled.
"The first year, I was injured and hiding."
"Second?"
"I was working with Reynolds."
"Third?"
"I thought I was close."
"Fourth?"
Daniel looked away.
"By the fourth year, there was no excuse."
Sarah nodded.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For finally admitting it."
Daniel looked at her.
"I failed you."
"Yes."
"I failed Lucy."
"Yes."
"I'm sorry."
Sarah's eyes filled.
"That doesn't fix it."
"I know."
"But it's a start."
Daniel almost smiled.
Gabriel watched them.
He realized something then.
Daniel had spent years trying to repair corrupt systems because machines made sense to him.
Broken compressor?
Replace the part.
Blocked line?
Clear it.
Bad wiring?
Reconnect it.
But people weren't refrigeration units.
Sometimes damage didn't disappear because the cause had been found.
Sometimes repair required waiting.
Daniel looked toward Gabriel.
"Agent Carter."
"You trust her?"
"With the evidence."
"Not the file."
"Correct."
Gabriel opened the blue box.
"What's this?"
A sealed envelope.
Daniel's face darkened.
"For you."
Gabriel opened it.
Inside was a legal document.
Antonio Vale's signature.
Transfer of controlling ownership in several companies.
To Gabriel.
Dated nine years ago.
"Why?"
"Your father gave up everything before disappearing."
Gabriel stared.
"He wanted you free."
"I was already running the companies."
"Legally, yes."
Daniel leaned closer.
"But he also transferred hidden holdings."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"What holdings?"
"Money."
"How much?"
Daniel said the number.
Sarah nearly choked.
Gabriel didn't react immediately.
"Where?"
"Accounts frozen under trusts."
"Why didn't I know?"
"Because Antonio told me not to release them until you chose what kind of man you wanted to be."
Gabriel laughed without humor.
"My father loved tests."
"He loved you."
Gabriel's expression hardened.
"Don't."
Daniel nodded.
"Fair."
Sarah saw pain behind Gabriel's anger.
Daniel continued.
"That money came from things neither of you should be proud of."
"Then I don't want it."
Daniel smiled.
"That's what Antonio predicted."
Gabriel looked at him.
"He said that?"
"He said if you refused, I'd know you were finally free."
Gabriel stared at the documents.
"What happens to it?"
Daniel leaned back.
"That's your choice."
Gabriel looked around Laurel & Vine.
At the room that had once been a meeting place for three young men trying to escape the worlds they'd inherited.
Then toward Sarah.
"What would Daniel do?"
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"I'm sitting here."
"Unfortunately."
Sarah smiled.
Gabriel became serious.
"I could give it away."
"To who?"
"People hurt by the old organization."
Daniel's face softened.
"That's a lot of people."
"So we start somewhere."
Sarah looked at him.
"The money that came from fear becomes something else."
Gabriel nodded.
Daniel smiled.
"That's the choice I hoped you'd make."
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
"Did everyone plan my life except me?"
"Pretty much."
Before Gabriel could respond, Sarah's phone rang.
Adrian.
She answered.
"Lucy?"
His voice was tense.
"She's fine."
Sarah's heart hammered.
"Then what?"
"Someone arrived at the townhouse."
"Who?"
Adrian paused.
"A woman."
"So?"
"She says she's Daniel's sister."
Sarah looked at Daniel.
His face went completely blank.
"You don't have a sister."
Daniel whispered:
"I do."
Sarah stared.
Gabriel remembered Sarah saying the same thing at Table Eleven.
Daniel didn't have a sister.
Apparently Daniel had lied about that too.
Sarah closed her eyes.
"Daniel."
"I can explain."
"You are dangerously close to getting slapped again."
Daniel stood.
"My sister's name is Emily."
Gabriel frowned.
"The memorial payment."
Daniel nodded.
"You sent money after the warehouse fire."
Sarah stared.
"Why did you tell me you had no family?"
Daniel looked ashamed.
"Because I thought she was dead."
Gabriel's expression sharpened.
Sarah laughed hysterically.
"Of course you did."
Daniel didn't laugh.
"Sarah, Emily disappeared when we were teenagers."
"Then why is she at Gabriel's house?"
Daniel looked toward Reynolds.
Reynolds had gone pale.
"What?"
Gabriel asked.
Reynolds whispered:
"Because Emily Mercer was the first person Victor ever used against Daniel."
May you like
And if she was alive, then the story had begun long before Gabriel Vale ever met a mechanic named Daniel Mercer.
---
