Chapter 5 - The Brother Nobody Knew Existed
Gabriel stared at Sofia.
“My brother?”
Sofia slowly descended the steps.
Hazel stood to help her.
Sofia waved her away.
“I can still walk.”
Gabriel looked again at the photograph.
The boy had dark hair.
Elena's eyes.
“His name is Daniel.”
“Where is he?”
Sofia sat beside Gabriel.
“I don't know.”
Gabriel frowned.
“How can you not know?”
“Because Mother sent him away too.”
Sofia explained.
Daniel was Vittorio’s son from an affair.
His mother died when he was young.
Elena discovered the boy and brought him into the household secretly.
Vittorio refused to acknowledge him.
When Anthony began maneuvering against the family, Elena feared Daniel would become another target.
She arranged for him to disappear.
Gabriel stared at the photograph.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“You were sixteen.”
“So?”
“You worshiped Dad.”
Gabriel looked away.
It was true.
Before Elena died, Gabriel had believed Vittorio Rossi was indestructible.
“Daniel would be forty-nine now.”
Sofia nodded.
“Last I heard, he lived in Pennsylvania.”
“When?”
“Fifteen years ago.”
Gabriel stood.
“We find him.”
Sofia grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
Gabriel looked down.
“Why?”
“Because Daniel doesn't want to be found.”
“You don't know that.”
“I do.”
She handed him a folded note.
It was dated eight years earlier.
Sofia,
I know Gabriel is alive. I know what he became. Leave him alone. Leave me alone. The Rossi name has taken enough from us.
Daniel.
Gabriel read it twice.
“He hates me.”
“He doesn't know you.”
“He knows enough.”
Sofia touched Gabriel's hand.
“Then show him something different.”
That sentence remained with Gabriel.
Over the following weeks, the Rossi estate transformed.
Sofia moved into the east wing.
Doctors came and went.
Hazel returned to her old room, but not to her old job.
Gabriel refused to allow it.
“You're family.”
Hazel crossed her arms.
“I still need employment.”
“I'll pay you.”
“For existing?”
Gabriel frowned.
“Yes.”
Hazel laughed.
“No.”
Eventually they compromised.
Hazel began managing the estate household.
Within two weeks, she had reorganized half the staff, replaced three suppliers, and informed Gabriel that his wine cellar inventory system was “ridiculous.”
Gabriel had never been happier to be insulted.
Sofia began treatment.
Some days were good.
Others were terrible.
Gabriel attended appointments whenever she allowed him.
Slowly, he learned how much of his family had been stolen.
Sofia remembered their mother singing while cooking.
Gabriel remembered Elena reading to him.
Together, their incomplete memories created a whole woman again.
Meanwhile, Gabriel began changing the organization.
He closed operations that had crossed lines he no longer wanted attached to the Rossi name.
Legitimate businesses became the priority.
Men who objected were paid and dismissed.
Some called him weak.
Gabriel discovered he no longer cared.
One evening, Hazel found him sitting alone in his study.
“You haven't yelled at anyone in four days,” she said.
“I'm losing my touch.”
She smiled.
Then she placed an envelope on his desk.
“What is this?”
“Daniel.”
Gabriel stared.
“You found him?”
“Samuel did.”
Inside was an address.
A small town outside Pittsburgh.
Gabriel drove there alone.
No convoy.
No armed men.
Just Gabriel.
Daniel Rossi owned a repair shop.
Gabriel recognized him immediately.
Older.
Gray at the temples.
But unmistakably family.
Daniel looked up from beneath the hood of a truck.
His face went still.
“You've got nerve.”
Gabriel stopped several feet away.
“Probably.”
“I told Sofia not to contact me.”
“She didn't.”
“Then who?”
“Her daughter.”
Daniel frowned.
“Hazel?”
“You know about her?”
“I've kept track.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“So you aren't as disconnected as you pretend.”
Daniel wiped his hands.
“What do you want?”
“To meet my brother.”
“You don't have one.”
Gabriel accepted the words.
“I understand.”
Daniel looked surprised.
Gabriel continued.
“I won't force anything. Sofia is sick. She wanted me to know you existed. Now I do.”
Daniel's expression changed.
“How sick?”
“Cancer.”
Silence.
Daniel looked away.
“Is she dying?”
“We're trying to prevent that.”
Daniel swallowed.
Gabriel placed a card on the workbench.
“If you ever want to see her.”
He turned to leave.
“Gabriel.”
He stopped.
Daniel looked at him.
“You really handed Anthony to the authorities?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because killing him would have proved he was right about me.”
Daniel studied him.
Then he looked at the card.
Gabriel left.
Three days later, Daniel arrived at the estate.
Sofia cried when she saw him.
So did Daniel.
Gabriel watched from the doorway.
Hazel stood beside him.
“You did something good,” she said.
“I gave him an address.”
“You gave him a choice.”
Gabriel looked at her.
Hazel smiled.
“You're learning.”
For the first time in decades, the Rossi estate felt like a home.
But happiness made Gabriel nervous.
His life had taught him that good things rarely arrived without a price.
The price came on a rainy Thursday evening.
Sofia collapsed.
Hazel screamed for Gabriel.
He reached the hallway as Daniel lifted Sofia from the floor.
The ambulance arrived minutes later.
At the hospital, doctors worked for hours.
Gabriel sat beside Hazel.
Daniel paced.
Samuel prayed quietly.
Finally, a doctor emerged.
“The cancer has progressed.”
Gabriel stood.
“What does that mean?”
The doctor hesitated.
Sofia needed aggressive treatment.
There were no guarantees.
Hazel began crying.
Gabriel wrapped an arm around her.
Then the doctor added something else.
“Sofia asked to speak to Gabriel alone.”
Gabriel entered the room.
His sister looked impossibly small beneath the blankets.
He sat beside her.
“You're going to fight.”
Sofia smiled.
“You sound like Mom.”
“Good.”
She reached for his hand.
“Gabriel, there is something I need you to promise.”
“Anything.”
“If I don't make it—”
“You will.”
“If I don't.”
Gabriel looked down.
Sofia squeezed his fingers.
“Take care of Hazel.”
“She doesn't need me to.”
“She needs family.”
Gabriel nodded.
“I promise.”
Sofia closed her eyes.
Then she whispered, “There's something else.”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“This family has too many secrets.”
Sofia smiled weakly.
“This one isn't mine.”
“What?”
“Hazel came to your estate for me.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Sofia opened her eyes.
“That isn't why she stayed.”
Gabriel frowned.
Sofia continued.
“She called me after her first month there. She said she wanted to leave.”
“Why didn't she?”
Sofia smiled.
“Because of you.”
Gabriel stared.
“What do you mean?”
“She said you looked like a man drowning in a room where everyone was too frightened to throw him a rope.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Sofia's eyes filled with tears.
May you like
“She stayed because she wanted to save you.”
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