Chapter 3 - The Man I Was Supposed to Hate
I didn't speak to Gabriel for the rest of the morning.
He let me stay angry.
That somehow made it worse.
By noon, I couldn't take it anymore.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“You never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your father made me promise.”
“Promises don't mean anything when someone dies.”
He looked at me.
“They did to him.”
I hated how much that hurt.
“What happened that night?”
Gabriel leaned against the workbench.
“Your father called me.”
“When?”
“Two hours before he died.”
“What did he say?”
“That he had found the man behind the network.”
“Who?”
“Nolan.”
My uncle.
I stared.
“You're saying my uncle ordered my father's death?”
“I said he was involved.”
“That's not the same.”
“No.”
“Then tell me everything.”
Gabriel was silent for several seconds.
“He wanted to leave the organization.”
“What organization?”
“The Costa network wasn't mine then.”
I frowned.
“My father was connected to my family?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your father helped build part of it.”
I felt the room tilt.
“My father?”
“He wasn't a criminal.”
“Then what was he?”
“A mechanic who fixed cars for people who couldn't go to hospitals or police stations.”
He paused.
“He kept secrets.”
I sat down.
“What kind of secrets?”
“Men came to him injured. Cars arrived with blood in the trunks. He never asked questions.”
“And my mother?”
“She wanted out.”
I looked up.
“My mother knew?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to her?”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“She was killed three months before your father.”
I stared.
My mother had died when I was ten.
Doctors had called it a sudden illness.
I had never questioned it.
Now nothing made sense.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew my mother was murdered.”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you were ten.”
“You could have told me when I was twenty.”
“You were still being watched.”
“By who?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Bellini.
Nolan.
The people listed in the ledger.
All of them.
That afternoon, Bianca returned.
This time she came alone.
“I can take you to my father.”
Gabriel stepped between us.
“No.”
Bianca looked at him.
“You can't protect her forever.”
“Watch me.”
She smiled.
“You still think this is about territory.”
“It isn't.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“It’s about your father’s final message.”
My heartbeat rose.
“What message?”
Bianca pulled out a folded piece of paper.
She handed it to me.
One sentence.
THE BLUE CAR.
I stared.
Gabriel went pale.
“What does it mean?”
He looked at me.
“Your father's old Pontiac.”
I remembered it.
A blue Pontiac GTO.
Dad had sold it after Mom died.
Or so I thought.
“Where is it?”
“Impounded warehouse.”
We found the car two hours later.
It was covered in dust.
I opened the trunk.
Nothing.
Gabriel checked the seats.
Nothing.
I looked under the dashboard.
A loose panel.
I pulled it away.
A cassette tape fell out.
My father's voice filled the garage when Gabriel played it.
“If you're hearing this, then the car is in your hands.”
I closed my eyes.
“Gabriel will tell you what he can.”
The recording crackled.
“But there is one thing he cannot tell you.”
My pulse quickened.
“The person who betrayed me sits closer to you than you think.”
The recording ended.
I looked at Gabriel.
“Who?”
He stared at the tape.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
We returned to the garage.
Leo was gone.
His phone was on the floor.
A message appeared.
STOP DIGGING.
Then another.
YOUR BROTHER WILL PAY THE PRICE.
I felt ice in my veins.
Gabriel picked up the phone.
“Get everyone.”
His men moved.
I grabbed his sleeve.
“Find him.”
“I will.”
“Promise.”
His eyes locked onto mine.
“I don't make promises I can't keep.”
I swallowed.
“Then keep this one.”
He nodded.
That night, we found Leo at an abandoned warehouse.
He was tied to a chair.
His face was bruised again.
But alive.
Gabriel walked toward him.
“Who did this?”
Leo looked at me.
“I didn't tell them anything.”
“I know.”
“Francesca…”
“I'm here.”
He began crying.
“I saw someone.”
“Who?”
“A man.”
“What man?”
“He was with Dad the night before the accident.”
My heart pounded.
“Did you see his face?”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
“Then how do you know he was with Dad?”
“He had Dad's ring.”
My stomach dropped.
Dad's ring had disappeared after his death.
I had searched for it for years.
“What did he say?”
Leo swallowed.
“He said Gabriel would know where the second key was.”
I turned toward Gabriel.
He went still.
“Second key?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Your father hid two keys.”
“Where's the other?”
Gabriel looked toward the garage.
“Inside the Blue Pontiac.”
“We found nothing else.”
“Then your father wanted you to find it.”
We returned.
I searched every inch.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
Dad always kept the car manual inside the glove compartment.
The manual was gone.
I opened the compartment.
A hidden metal plate was installed beneath the lining.
Gabriel removed it.
Inside was another key.
And a photograph.
My father.
My mother.
Gabriel.
And another woman.
I stared at her.
“Who is she?”
Gabriel answered quietly.
“Your aunt.”
I looked closer.
I recognized her.
She had visited us when I was a child.
Then vanished.
My aunt wasn't dead.
She was standing beside the man who had supposedly inherited everything after my father's death.
Salvatore Moretti.
My grandfather's youngest brother.
The man I had not seen since childhood.
I stared at Gabriel.
“Who is Salvatore?”
May you like
He looked at me.
“The man who has been trying to buy your garage for fifteen years.”
