Chapter 2 - The Woman Behind the Glasses
Gabriel had built his life around one rule.
Coincidences were simply plans whose architects had not yet been identified.
He stood beside the windows of his penthouse, staring down at the rain-covered city.
Behind him, Norah sat on the sofa while Dr. Elias Mercer examined her hand.
“Two small fractures,” Mercer said.
Norah sighed.
“I knew it.”
Gabriel turned.
“You knew?”
“It hurts.”
“That tends to happen when bones break.”
She looked at him.
“You’re unusually talkative tonight.”
“And you’re unusually arrested.”
Dr. Mercer hid a smile.
Gabriel did not.
He watched while the doctor wrapped Norah’s fingers properly.
There was bruising along her ribs too.
Nothing broken.
But enough to confirm Gabriel’s suspicion.
The attacker had hurt her before she escaped.
Gabriel felt the familiar cold anger returning.
“Gabriel.”
Norah caught his gaze.
“Don’t.”
He understood immediately.
She could read him too.
That bothered him almost as much as the attack itself.
The doctor finished shortly before sunrise.
When he left, Gabriel found Norah standing near the windows.
His jacket remained around her shoulders.
“You should sleep.”
“I should go home.”
“No.”
She turned.
“No?”
“Whoever sent that man knows your name, your face, where you work, and where you spend your evenings.”
“That was the first bar I’ve visited in six months.”
“Which makes it worse.”
Norah said nothing.
Gabriel walked toward her.
“Someone knew you would be there.”
A flicker appeared in her eyes.
He caught it.
“You know something.”
“No.”
“Norah.”
“I said no.”
“You’re a terrible liar.”
“That’s interesting coming from you.”
He stopped.
“You’ve lied to governments, corporations, police departments and probably your own mother.”
“My mother is more difficult than the federal government.”
Despite herself, Norah smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
Gabriel lowered his voice.
“Who knew you were going to that bar?”
“No one.”
“Someone did.”
She looked toward the city.
“I decided after work.”
“Why?”
Her shoulders tightened.
Gabriel waited.
Finally, she said, “Yesterday was my brother’s birthday.”
Gabriel searched his memory.
Norah had never mentioned a brother.
“You have a brother?”
“Had.”
The word landed softly.
“He died eleven years ago.”
Gabriel’s anger shifted into something quieter.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
She folded her arms.
“Every year on his birthday, I go somewhere alone and order gin. He liked gin.”
Gabriel studied her.
“You never told me.”
“You never asked.”
That was true.
For three years, he had known which hotel she preferred when arranging business travel, how she took her coffee, what time she arrived, what handwriting meant she was irritated.
He knew nothing important.
“Who else knew about this tradition?”
Norah hesitated.
“My father.”
“Anyone else?”
“No.”
“Where is your father?”
Another pause.
“Dead.”
Gabriel frowned.
“When?”
“Eight years ago.”
Something did not fit.
If both people who knew were dead, someone else had learned.
“Your brother’s name?”
Norah turned sharply.
“Why?”
“Because someone followed a tradition connected to him.”
“No.”
“Norah.”
“No.”
For the first time, genuine fear entered her face.
Gabriel noticed.
Not sadness.
Fear.
He moved closer.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
She stepped away.
“You should leave this alone.”
“Someone attacked you to get to me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“They mentioned my name.”
“That doesn’t mean you were the target.”
Gabriel became still.
Norah realized too late what she had said.
His voice dropped.
“Then who was?”
She closed her eyes.
“Forget it.”
“Who were they targeting, Norah?”
She turned toward him.
“Me.”
The word hung between them.
Gabriel waited.
Norah removed his jacket and carefully placed it over a chair.
Then she walked toward the elevator.
Gabriel stepped into her path.
“You’re not leaving.”
“You’re my employer, not my jailer.”
“I’m the reason you may be in danger.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“You’re the reason they found me.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“Who?”
Norah said nothing.
He moved closer.
“Who found you?”
Her professional mask finally cracked.
“I spent eleven years making sure they couldn’t.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“Who?”
Norah looked at him.
“The people who killed my brother.”
Silence filled the penthouse.
Gabriel had expected many answers.
Not that one.
“Start talking.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You always make everything sound like an order.”
“Because people usually listen.”
“I’m not one of your soldiers.”
“No. You’re the woman someone tried to drag through a back door because they knew she worked for me.”
His voice softened.
“And I need to understand why.”
Norah looked exhausted.
Then she walked back toward the sofa.
“My brother’s name was Daniel Hayes.”
Gabriel sat opposite her.
“He worked in accounting.”
“For whom?”
She looked directly at him.
“For your father.”
Gabriel stopped breathing for half a second.
Vittorio Rossi had been dead for nine years.
The old man had built the Rossi empire through intimidation, alliances and secrets.
Gabriel had inherited all three.
“I would know his name.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel Hayes wasn’t his real name.”
Gabriel waited.
Norah’s voice became quieter.
“He was Daniel Bellini.”
Gabriel stood.
Bellini.
The name belonged to a family that had vanished from the city more than a decade earlier after a brutal internal collapse.
Gabriel remembered whispers.
Missing money.
Missing records.
Several dead men.
“What was your real surname?”
Norah stared at the floor.
“Bellini.”
“Norah Bellini.”
“I haven’t used it since I was nineteen.”
“Why?”
“My brother found something in your father’s books.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I was nineteen, Gabriel.”
Her eyes flashed.
“Daniel came home one night and told me to pack. He gave me cash, documents, a new identity. He told me if anyone ever asked, I was Norah Hayes and I had never heard the name Bellini.”
“What happened to him?”
“He disappeared three days later.”
“You said he died.”
“He did.”
“How do you know?”
Her voice broke slightly.
“Because they sent my father Daniel’s watch.”
Gabriel looked away.
For once, he had no immediate response.
Norah continued.
“My father died three years later. Heart attack. After that, there was nobody left who knew where I was.”
“Then you applied to work for me.”
She nodded.
“Why?”
“I needed to know.”
“Know what?”
“Whether your father ordered Daniel’s death.”
Gabriel’s gaze hardened.
“And?”
“For three years I searched your files.”
Gabriel turned slowly.
“You used your position to investigate my family.”
“Yes.”
“You accessed confidential records.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me every day.”
“Yes.”
He stared at her.
She stared back.
Then Gabriel asked the only question that mattered.
“Did you find proof?”
“No.”
Something unexpected happened.
He believed her.
“Then why stay?”
Norah looked at him for a long moment.
“That became complicated.”
“How?”
She looked away.
Gabriel understood before she answered.
Because of him.
Whatever she had expected to find when she entered Rossi Tower, Gabriel himself had disrupted the plan.
He stepped closer.
“Norah.”
“Don’t.”
“You came to me because you thought my family murdered your brother.”
“Yes.”
“And stayed for three years.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Her eyes met his.
“You know why.”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
Frankie.
Gabriel answered.
“What?”
“We found something else.”
“What?”
“The attacker had a storage locker key.”
“And?”
“We opened it.”
Gabriel listened.
His face changed.
Norah stood.
“What happened?”
Gabriel ended the call.
He looked at her.
Inside the locker, Frankie had found photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Norah entering Rossi Tower.
Norah buying groceries.
Norah sitting alone in cafés.
Norah visiting her father’s grave.
Three years of surveillance.
But one photograph was different.
It showed Norah leaving Gabriel’s office only two days earlier.
Written across the back were five words:
SHE FOUND THE LEDGER. TAKE HER.
Norah stared at Gabriel.
“I never found any ledger.”
Gabriel believed her.
Which meant someone else thought she had.
May you like
And somewhere inside Rossi Tower, someone had been watching her for three years.
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