Chapter 11 - The Brother Nobody KnewClare stared at Mrs. Gable.
“My brother?”
“Tommy?”
“No.”
Mrs. Gable shook her head.
“The boy on the phone is Leo's half-brother.”
Leo stepped forward.
“My father had another son?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Hidden.”
“Why?”
“Because your father believed blood was power.”
Leo's jaw tightened.
“And the boy?”
“He saw something he wasn't supposed to see.”
Clare understood.
“What?”
Mrs. Gable looked at the files.
“The first murder.”
Leo went silent.
His father had supposedly built everything through extortion.
But the records showed something worse.
One file contained a photograph from fifteen years earlier.
A dead man.
A young Leo in the background.
And Rosalia kneeling beside him.
On the back:
THE NIGHT SHE DISCOVERED THE CHILDREN.
Leo felt sick.
“My mother saw this?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She tried to expose your father.”
“And he stopped her.”
“No.”
Mrs. Gable shook her head.
“Someone else did.”
“Who?”
Mrs. Gable looked at Clare.
“Marianne Bell.”
Clare's heart stopped.
“My mother?”
“She stole one of the children.”
“Who?”
“Tommy.”
Clare froze.
“Tommy?”
Mrs. Gable nodded.
“Your brother was supposed to be raised as a Rossi asset.”
Clare couldn't breathe.
Tommy wasn't simply her brother.
He was part of the same conspiracy.
But then another realization hit her.
“Why did Tommy have gambling debts?”
Mrs. Gable answered quietly:
“Because someone wanted him desperate.”
“So he could be controlled.”
“Yes.”
Leo looked toward the tunnel.
“Where is he now?”
Mrs. Gable's expression changed.
“He isn't missing.”
Leo's face hardened.
“What?”
“He never left the warehouse.”
Leo stared.
“We found him.”
“You found what they wanted you to find.”
A terrible silence.
Then the lights in the underground room went out.
A man's voice came from the darkness.
“That's enough.”
Gunfire erupted.
Mrs. Gable fell.
Clare screamed.
Leo dragged her behind a desk.
When the emergency lights returned, Mrs. Gable was gone.
Only blood remained.
And on the wall was written:
YOUR FATHER IS WAITING.
Leo stared at the words.
Because underneath them was a second message.
May you like
Written in a child's handwriting.
HELP ME, LEO.
