Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
Gabriel Rossi had faced men with guns without blinking.
But Hazel’s six quiet words left him unable to move.
“That ultrasound belongs to your sister.”
He stared at her.
Hazel looked exhausted.
She wore a simple brown coat over a pale sweater. Her hair was pulled into the same loose knot Gabriel had seen almost every morning for eleven months.
She looked exactly like the woman who used to place coffee beside his newspaper.
And completely unfamiliar.
“My sister is fifty,” Gabriel said slowly.
Hazel nodded.
“The ultrasound is old.”
“How old?”
“Twenty-nine years.”
Gabriel looked at the photograph again.
The date had been partially smudged.
He had assumed the numbers represented the current year.
They did not.
He looked at Hazel.
“You're the baby.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel sat down.
His entire understanding of the last twenty-four hours collapsed.
Hazel was his niece.
Sofia's daughter.
His family.
Samuel remained silent near the window.
Gabriel rubbed both hands over his face.
“Why did you have it?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
Gabriel looked up sharply.
“She's alive?”
Hazel hesitated.
“Yes.”
Gabriel stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
“Where?”
Hazel flinched.
It was small.
Barely noticeable.
But Gabriel saw it.
He immediately stopped.
For the first time, he understood Samuel’s question.
Why had Hazel believed running was safer than telling him?
Gabriel lowered his voice.
“Where is Sofia?”
Hazel looked at Samuel.
Samuel nodded.
“She's in Vermont.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
His sister had been alive for decades.
He had mourned her beside an empty grave.
Every year on March 8, his mother had placed white roses beside a headstone bearing Sofia Rossi’s name.
Gabriel had stood beside her.
Had his mother been pretending?
Or grieving a daughter she had been forced to abandon?
“Why didn't she find me?”
Hazel’s eyes softened.
“She tried.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“When?”
“After your father died.”
“That was twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
Hazel swallowed.
“She came to Chicago. She reached out to someone inside your organization.”
“Who?”
Hazel hesitated.
“Anthony Caruso.”
Gabriel's blood chilled.
Anthony was Gabriel's godfather.
His father's closest friend.
And currently the second-most powerful man in the Rossi organization.
“What did Anthony tell her?”
“That you had become exactly like Vittorio.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
Hazel continued.
“He told her you knew she was alive. He said you considered her a threat to the family inheritance.”
“He lied.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
“Because I lived in your house.”
The words struck him.
Hazel had spent eleven months studying him.
Not as a spy.
As family.
“I took the job because my mother was sick,” Hazel admitted. “She wanted to know whether Anthony had told the truth before she died.”
Gabriel's anger vanished.
“Sofia is dying?”
Hazel looked down.
“Cancer.”
The room became very quiet.
Gabriel turned toward the window.
He had found his sister and was already losing her.
“How long?”
“Doctors don't know.”
Gabriel pressed his hand against his mouth.
Hazel watched him.
This was the image from the room he had imagined without understanding it: a powerful man sitting beneath warm lamplight, a letter shaking between tattooed fingers, his control disappearing.
But there was still something missing.
“Why leave?” Gabriel asked.
Hazel looked at Samuel.
Then back at Gabriel.
“Because Anthony discovered who I was.”
Gabriel's expression hardened.
“How?”
“I don't know.”
“What did he do?”
“He came into the laundry room three nights ago.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
Hazel instinctively stepped back.
He stopped again.
“What did he say?”
“He called me Sofia.”
Gabriel felt ice move through his veins.
Hazel continued.
“He said I had my mother's eyes. Then he told me that if I cared about you, I would disappear before I destroyed everything you had built.”
Gabriel’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Did he threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“What exactly did he say?”
Hazel repeated the words.
“Families survive because some people know when to stay buried.”
Gabriel turned toward Tommy.
Tommy was already reaching for his phone.
“No,” Gabriel said.
Tommy stopped.
Gabriel thought carefully.
Anthony had survived four decades because he was patient.
If Anthony knew Hazel’s identity, then he might know where Sofia was.
And if he realized Gabriel had discovered the truth, he might disappear.
“We go back as though nothing happened.”
Hazel stared at him.
“You expect me to return?”
“No.”
The answer surprised her.
Gabriel looked at her.
“For eleven months, I gave orders and assumed you would obey because everyone around me does.”
His voice was quiet.
“I won't do that now.”
Hazel said nothing.
Gabriel continued.
“If you want to stay here, stay. If you want to go to Vermont, I'll arrange protection. If you never want to see me again…”
The final words seemed difficult for him.
“…I'll respect it.”
Hazel studied him.
“You're different from what my mother expected.”
Gabriel gave a humorless smile.
“I'm probably worse in some ways.”
“No.”
Hazel's answer came immediately.
Gabriel looked at her.
“You're lonely.”
He said nothing.
Hazel stepped toward him.
“You live in a house full of people and trust none of them.”
Gabriel's eyes lowered.
Hazel continued softly.
“That night I stitched your arm, you weren't frightening.”
“You should've been frightened.”
“I wasn't.”
“Why?”
“Because you looked tired.”
Gabriel laughed once.
It almost became something else.
He turned away before she could see his eyes.
Hazel reached into her handbag.
“There’s something my mother told me to give you if I ever decided you could be trusted.”
She removed a sealed envelope.
Gabriel recognized the handwriting instantly.
His hands began trembling before he even touched it.
His mother’s handwriting.
Elena Rossi had been dead twenty-two years.
Gabriel opened the envelope.
My beautiful boy,
If you are reading this, then Sofia found a way back to you.
Gabriel stopped.
He could not continue.
Hazel stood quietly.
Eventually, he forced himself to read.
His mother explained everything.
Vittorio had discovered Sofia was alive.
Elena had arranged to flee with Gabriel.
Samuel was supposed to take them across the Canadian border.
But Anthony Caruso learned of the plan.
Anthony told Vittorio.
The night Elena died, she had not been driving randomly.
She had been driving to collect Gabriel from school.
The brake line had been cut.
Not by Samuel.
By a mechanic paid through Anthony.
Gabriel lowered the letter.
His vision blurred.
Anthony had attended Elena's funeral.
Anthony had held sixteen-year-old Gabriel while he cried.
Anthony had promised to avenge her.
Anthony had helped raise him.
Gabriel's knees weakened.
He sat on the edge of the motel bed.
Hazel moved closer.
Gabriel covered his face.
For twenty-two years, he had trusted the man responsible for his mother’s death.
Hazel gently touched his shoulder.
Gabriel did something none of his men had ever witnessed.
He cried.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
His shoulders shook while he tried unsuccessfully to remain silent.
Hazel sat beside him.
Gabriel stared at the letter.
“Why?” he whispered.
Samuel answered.
“Because Anthony wanted Vittorio's empire. Your mother discovered he was stealing from the family. She was going to expose him.”
Gabriel looked up.
“Then why keep me alive?”
Samuel's face darkened.
“Because he needed you.”
“For what?”
“To inherit what he couldn't.”
Gabriel understood.
Anthony had spent decades beside Gabriel, guiding him, advising him, helping expand the organization.
Not because he loved Gabriel.
Because Gabriel had been the legitimate face Anthony needed.
Gabriel wiped his eyes.
Then his phone rang.
Tommy looked at the screen.
His face changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“It's the estate.”
Gabriel answered.
A frightened voice came through.
“Mr. Rossi, Anthony Caruso is here.”
Gabriel stood.
The caller continued.
“He says he needs to speak with you urgently.”
“Tell him I'm unavailable.”
Silence.
Then the man said something that made Gabriel's hand tighten around the phone.
“He knows you're in Albany.”
Gabriel looked at Hazel.
The caller continued.
“And, boss…”
“What?”
“Anthony isn't alone.”
Gabriel's heartbeat slowed.
“Who is with him?”
“He brought a woman.”
Gabriel waited.
May you like
“She says her name is Sofia Rossi.”
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