Chapter 4 - The Woman Gabriel Thought He Was Protecting Was the One Person Victor Had Been Terrified OfGabriel moved before the gun fired.
He grabbed Helena and pulled her behind the table.
The bullet struck the wall.
Ethan shot the attacker.
The man fell.
Sophie clutched Noah.
Gabriel looked at Helena.
“You know him.”
She was shaking.
“No.”
“Then why did you call him the smiling man?”
“I remember his voice.”
“What voice?”
“Victor.”
Gabriel looked at the dead attacker.
That wasn't Victor.
But he was working for him.
They left immediately.
Back in the safe house, Helena told them the truth.
Fifteen years earlier, Michael and Elena discovered that Gabriel's father was involved in an illegal adoption network.
Not ordinary adoption.
Children were being moved between wealthy families to conceal inheritance arrangements, financial crimes and identities.
Michael wanted out.
He found the evidence.
He told Elena.
They planned to expose everything.
Then Elena became pregnant.
The family wanted the baby.
Not because they loved him.
Because the child was a legal link to Michael's assets.
Michael refused.
So they staged a plan.
They would fake the baby's death.
Then secretly move him.
But someone betrayed them.
Victor discovered the plan.
He arranged the attack.
Michael died.
Elena survived briefly.
And before she died, she gave the baby to Rebecca Bennett.
Sophie stared.
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
“Why did she take him?”
“Because Victor didn't know she had him.”
“And the birth certificate?”
Helena sighed.
“Victor searched official records.”
“So they changed the name.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked at Noah.
“Then he really is my nephew.”
Helena nodded.
“Yes.”
Sophie released a breath.
She had always wondered.
Now she knew.
Then Helena said:
“There's something else.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“What?”
“The ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The one Michael stole from your father.”
Gabriel stared.
“Where is it?”
Helena looked at Sophie.
“With her.”
Sophie froze.
“I don't have anything.”
“You do.”
“What?”
Helena pointed toward Noah.
“The rabbit.”
Sophie looked down.
Mr. Rabbit.
She had brought it with Noah when she found him.
Gabriel opened the seam.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
Numbers.
Names.
Accounts.
But at the bottom was a sentence:
Only Rebecca Bennett can identify the final name.
Sophie whispered:
“My mother.”
“She knew.”
“Then why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she was afraid.”
Sophie began to cry.
Gabriel sat beside her.
“You don't have to apologize for surviving.”
She looked at him.
“You don't understand.”
“What?”
“If my mother knew all this, then she knew people were coming.”
“Yes.”
“She should have taken me somewhere safer.”
“She did.”
Sophie frowned.
“What?”
“You.”
She shook her head.
Gabriel explained.
Your mother hid you from Victor.
She raised you to be invisible.
She never told you anything.
Because the fewer people who knew, the safer you were.
Then, when Rebecca died, Sophie inherited the secret without understanding it.
Until Noah arrived.
She wasn't chosen randomly.
Rebecca knew that one day the child would find his way back to the Mercers.
She trusted Sophie to protect him.
Gabriel stared at the ledger.
“What is the final name?”
Sophie shook her head.
“We need to find someone who can translate this.”
Helena looked at Gabriel.
“Your father's accountant.”
“Marcus?”
“He's dead.”
“No.”
Helena stared.
“Then who?”
Gabriel answered:
“Daniel Mercer.”
His uncle.
The brother everyone believed had died seven years earlier.
Suddenly, Gabriel understood.
There were too many dead people who weren't dead.
Too many identities changed.
Too many records altered.
Too many secrets.
The Mercer family had built an empire on disappearance.
And someone had been controlling those disappearances for decades.
Gabriel called Thomas.
No answer.
Then his phone rang.
Thomas.
“Gabriel.”
“Where are you?”
“Safe.”
“From whom?”
“From Victor.”
Gabriel went still.
“You're alive.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Noah survived?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Yes.”
“You betrayed Michael.”
“No.”
“You lied to him.”
“To save him.”
“He died.”
“I know.”
Gabriel's voice broke.
“You promised to protect us.”
“I did.”
“Then why did you disappear?”
“Because Victor thought he killed everyone who knew the truth.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“Who is Victor?”
Thomas was silent.
Then:
“Your father.”
Gabriel froze.
“My father is dead.”
Thomas whispered:
“No.”
Sophie stared.
“What is he saying?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
Thomas continued.
“Your father never died.”
The call ended.
The safe house fell silent.
Gabriel looked at Helena.
She whispered:
“He survived.”
“And Victor?”
Helena lowered her eyes.
“Victor Vale was his alias.”
Gabriel's entire world collapsed.
The man hunting Noah.
The man who had murdered Michael.
The man everyone thought was a separate criminal.
Was Gabriel's own father.
The patriarch who had supposedly died fifteen years earlier.
The man Gabriel had buried.
The man whose funeral he had attended.
The monster he had spent his adult life trying to replace.
May you like
Alive.
And coming for Noah.
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