Chapter 7 - BEATRICE'S SECRETChloe couldn't move.
The word repeated inside her head.
Murdered.
“My mother?”
Lena nodded.
“Your father wasn't responsible.”
Chloe's lips trembled.
“Then who?”
Lena glanced at Gabriel.
“His father.”
Gabriel clenched his jaw.
“Tell me everything.”
Lena hesitated.
“He was building a new network. Legal businesses, politicians, police contacts. Your mother discovered money transfers connected to illegal shipments.”
“And Leo?”
“He discovered the same thing years later.”
Chloe looked at Beatrice.
“You knew.”
Beatrice lowered her head.
Chloe's anger returned.
“You knew my mother was murdered.”
Beatrice signed:
I tried to protect you.
“You didn't.”
Beatrice's hands shook.
I failed.
Chloe stepped back.
Gabriel looked at his mother.
“You knew for eighteen years?”
Beatrice nodded.
Gabriel's expression broke.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Beatrice signed:
Because I thought your father would kill you too.
Gabriel turned away.
Lena continued.
“Your father had a list.”
“What list?”
“Everyone who knew the truth.”
Leo's name was on it.
Your mother's.
Lena's.
Beatrice's.
And Chloe's.
Chloe looked down.
“My name?”
Lena nodded.
“Your father tried to remove you from the city.”
Gabriel stared.
“But Chloe stayed.”
“Because someone changed the order.”
“Who?”
Lena looked at Gabriel.
“You.”
Gabriel frowned.
“I never knew her.”
“You did.”
Lena took a photograph from her coat.
It showed Gabriel at twenty.
Standing beside a hospital bed.
Chloe stared at the image.
“That was Leo's hospital room.”
Gabriel's eyes widened.
Lena said:
“Your brother was still alive when you came.”
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“You told me Leo died instantly.”
Gabriel's face had gone blank.
“I was told he was dead.”
Lena shook her head.
“He was alive.”
For the first time, Gabriel looked genuinely terrified.
“How long?”
“Twenty-three minutes.”
Chloe covered her mouth.
“Did he say anything?”
Lena nodded.
“He said one thing.”
“What?”
Lena looked directly at Chloe.
“He said…”
A pause.
“Tell Chloe not to trust the man who saves her.”
Gabriel stared at Chloe.
And Chloe realized the terrifying truth.
May you like
Leo had not been warning her about the men who wanted her dead.
He had been warning her about Gabriel.
Related Stories
