Chapter 7 - A Voice Adrian Thought He’d Never Hear Again
Adrian did not remember sitting down.
One moment he was standing with the photograph in his hand.
The next he was in his father’s old chair while Victor remained across the room.
“My father had another son.”
“Yes.”
“And everyone decided I didn’t need to know?”
Victor’s voice was quiet.
“Gabriel was sent away before you were old enough to remember him clearly.”
“Why?”
“Because he frightened your mother.”
Adrian looked up.
Victor continued.
“Gabriel’s mother died when he was very young. Your father brought him into the family before he married Isabella.”
“So Gabriel is my half brother.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
Victor hesitated.
Adrian stood.
“No more pauses. No more deciding what I can handle.”
Victor nodded.
“Gabriel was brilliant. Charming when he wanted to be. But even as a teenager he had a way of turning people against each other.”
“Children manipulate.”
“Gabriel enjoyed the damage.”
Adrian said nothing.
“At fifteen, he stole money from one of your father’s businesses and blamed Luca.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Dad found out?”
“Eventually.”
“What happened?”
“Gabriel attacked Luca when Luca confronted him.”
Adrian looked at the photograph.
Luca, thirteen.
Gabriel, fifteen.
Two boys smiling beside a birthday cake.
“What did my father do?”
“Sent Gabriel to Switzerland.”
“That was punishment?”
“It was exile.”
“And he stayed gone?”
“For years.”
“Then?”
Victor looked tired.
“He returned when you were in college.”
Adrian searched his memory.
Nothing.
“Why don’t I remember?”
“Your father kept him away from the house.”
“Did Luca know?”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
“She feared Gabriel would eventually demand a place in the family.”
Adrian suddenly understood the letter.
The person who betrayed this family shares our blood.
“Gabriel was working with Bellandi.”
Victor nodded.
“I believe so.”
“Believe?”
“I never had proof.”
“What did he want?”
“Everything he thought your father denied him.”
Adrian laughed without humor.
“So Luca discovered the financial leak. Mom realized Gabriel was behind it. They staged Luca’s death.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad?”
“Knew most of it.”
“Most?”
“Your mother never told him she believed Gabriel had ordered the warehouse fire.”
Adrian stared.
“Why?”
“Because your father still loved his firstborn son.”
The room went silent.
There were betrayals born from hatred.
Others from greed.
The worst came from love applied in the wrong direction.
Adrian looked again at the photograph.
Gabriel’s face had been almost completely cut away.
Only half a smile remained.
“Find him.”
Marco was already typing.
Gabriel had changed names several times.
Gavin Dell.
Gabriel Costa.
G. Anthony Lucas.
Corporations linked to all three identities led through Nevada, Delaware, and the Cayman Islands.
One company owned a private security consulting firm.
Another controlled medical transport services.
A third owned the motel where Elena had hidden.
Adrian felt the pieces lock together.
“He knew where she was because he owned the building.”
Marco nodded.
“And he could have watched her from the moment she checked in.”
They found something else.
A vehicle registered to Gabriel’s company had been captured near Adrian’s estate the night the window was broken.
The warning had not come from Samuel Bellandi.
It came from Gabriel.
By dawn, Adrian’s phone rang again.
Luca.
Adrian answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Adri, listen.”
“I know about Gabriel.”
Silence.
Then Luca exhaled.
“How?”
“Mother left evidence.”
“You weren’t supposed to find out this way.”
“I wasn’t supposed to find out anything, apparently.”
“Adrian—”
“No. You do not get to say my name like I’m unreasonable.”
Luca went quiet.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“For six years, you let me think you were dead.”
“I know.”
“You had a daughter.”
“I know.”
“You built an entire life.”
“I know.”
“And now you call because it finally exploded.”
“I know.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
The anger was real.
But beneath it lived something worse.
Hurt.
“Why didn’t you trust me?”
Luca answered after a long pause.
“Because six years ago, Gabriel was your adviser.”
Adrian opened his eyes.
“What?”
“He contacted you through the Ashford consulting group.”
Adrian remembered.
A risk management consultant.
Gavin Ashford.
Polished.
Smart.
Helpful.
Worked with Adrian for fourteen months.
Then disappeared after the fire.
Adrian felt ill.
“That was Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“I never saw him before.”
“He had changed. Surgery. Beard. Different hair. Twenty years older than the boy you barely remembered.”
Adrian gripped the desk.
“And you knew?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you discover it?”
“Two weeks before the fire.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
Adrian remembered Luca confronting him.
Telling him Ashford could not be trusted.
Adrian had laughed.
Worse.
He had accused Luca of jealousy.
He remembered saying:
You don’t get to sabotage everyone I trust just because you hate losing control.
Luca’s voice came softly through the phone.
“Now you remember.”
Adrian sat down.
“Yes.”
“I knew Gabriel had spent a year earning your confidence. If I suddenly told you he was our half brother and working against us, I didn’t know whether you would believe me.”
“I wouldn’t have.”
The admission hurt.
Luca said nothing.
Adrian stared out the window.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For making it impossible to tell me.”
The silence changed.
Six years of distance did not vanish.
But something moved.
Luca finally spoke.
“I’m sorry too.”
“Where are you?”
“This time I’ll tell you.”
He gave an address.
An abandoned commercial property two towns north.
“I’m injured.”
Adrian stood.
“How badly?”
“Not fatal.”
“Stay there.”
“I wasn’t planning a jog.”
Despite everything, Adrian almost smiled.
Then Luca’s voice became serious.
“Bring no one.”
“Marco comes.”
“No.”
“I trust him.”
“You shouldn’t.”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
“Because Marco was the last person I saw talking to Gabriel before the warehouse fire.”
Adrian looked through the doorway.
Marco stood twenty feet away.
Watching him.
May you like
Luca continued.
“And I never knew what they were discussing.”
