Chapter 7 - Gabriel
Penelope could not move.
The hand remained extended.
A childhood memory struck her with such force she almost staggered.
Her father teaching her to ride a bicycle.
His scarred knuckles gripping the back of the seat.
Run, Penny. I’ve got you.
Then one day he had let go.
She had pedaled six blocks before realizing.
Now those same fingers waited in the dark.
“Dad?”
A man stepped into the dim light.
Gabriel Santoro had aged.
Of course he had.
But twenty years collapsed instantly.
Same dark eyes.
Same crooked nose.
Same line between his brows.
Gray covered most of his hair.
His face was thinner.
Harder.
A scar traced from his left temple toward his ear.
But it was him.
Penelope knew before he spoke.
“My girl.”
Her chest broke open.
She crossed the distance and struck him.
Not hard.
Not like Vincent.
A fist against his chest.
Then another.
“Twenty years.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
She hit him again.
“You were alive.”
“Yes.”
Her next blow never landed.
Her hands collapsed against his coat.
She began crying.
Ugly, furious tears.
Gabriel wrapped his arms around her.
For several seconds she fought him.
Then she clung.
She hated herself for needing that embrace.
She hated him for making it feel familiar.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“No.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Behind them, footsteps approached.
Dominic appeared.
Gun raised.
Gabriel instantly pulled Penelope behind him.
Dominic stopped.
The two men stared at each other.
Twenty years of history passed silently between them.
Gabriel spoke first.
“You got old.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“You stayed ugly.”
Penelope stared at them through tears.
“Seriously?”
Catherine appeared behind Dominic.
When Gabriel saw her, everything changed.
His face closed.
Catherine stopped.
“Gabriel.”
He looked away.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know.”
“I forgave you on the tape. That doesn’t mean I wanted to see you.”
Catherine swallowed.
“I understand.”
Penelope looked at her father.
“You have explaining to do.”
“Yes.”
“All of it.”
“Yes.”
“No disappearing halfway through.”
Gabriel almost smiled.
“Still bossy.”
“You lost the right to complain around 2006.”
“Fair.”
Dominic lowered his weapon.
“Vale Tower?”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
“Trap.”
“We know.”
“Then why are you going?”
Penelope answered.
“Because I’m tired of being chased by ghosts.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“You sound like your mother.”
“So everyone tells me.”
Pain crossed his face.
“She died?”
Penelope stared.
“You didn’t know?”
His silence said everything.
Her anger returned instantly.
“Nine months ago.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“What happened?”
“Cancer.”
He leaned against the wall.
For the first time he looked fragile.
“She was sick for eight months.”
He rubbed his face.
“I should have known.”
“You should have called.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You had twenty years.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You keep saying that like it explains something.”
Gabriel looked at Dominic.
“We need somewhere private.”
Penelope laughed bitterly.
“Fantastic. Another secret room.”
Dominic said, “The Cadillac.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Tracked.”
“Mine?”
“Gone.”
“I noticed.”
Gabriel looked at Catherine.
“Your car?”
“Two blocks away.”
“Use it.”
They moved quickly.
Catherine drove.
Gabriel sat beside Penelope in back.
Dominic took the passenger seat.
For several minutes nobody spoke.
Then Penelope asked:
“Why did you disappear?”
Gabriel stared at his hands.
“Because Samuel Vale made sure staying dead was the only way to keep you alive.”
“Explain.”
“The ledger contained proof linking Samuel, Anthony Costa, judges, customs officials, union bosses, and half a dozen city contractors to smuggling through the ports.”
“Drugs?”
“Some.”
“Weapons?”
“Yes.”
“People?”
Gabriel hesitated.
Penelope felt sick.
“Yes.”
Her voice dropped.
“My grandfather was involved in trafficking people?”
“Through companies he controlled.”
Penelope looked out the window.
She suddenly understood why her mother had erased Samuel Vale from their family story.
“Did Mom know?”
“Not at first.”
“When she learned?”
“She helped me collect evidence.”
Penelope turned sharply.
“My mother?”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“She was better at it than I was.”
Dominic spoke from the front.
“Eleanor copied accounting records from Samuel’s private office.”
Gabriel nodded.
“She recorded meetings. Stole contracts.”
Penelope almost laughed.
Her mother, who clipped grocery coupons and complained about neighbors leaving laundry in washing machines.
A spy.
“Why didn’t you go to the FBI?”
“We did.”
Dominic answered this time.
“The agent we contacted worked for Samuel.”
Penelope closed her eyes.
“Of course.”
Gabriel continued.
“The night at Room 317, I learned Samuel had ordered Anthony Costa to retrieve the ledger and kill me.”
“So you ran.”
“Yes.”
“Why not take us?”
“I tried.”
“How?”
“I went to our apartment.”
“I don’t remember.”
“You were asleep.”
“And Mom?”
Gabriel looked devastated.
“She told me to go.”
Penelope stared.
“She chose to stay?”
“She chose you.”
“Why?”
“If all three of us disappeared, Samuel would know she helped me. If Eleanor stayed, she could claim I abandoned her. It made the lie believable.”
Penelope remembered her mother crying.
Not because Gabriel abandoned them.
Because she sent him away.
“Where did you go?”
“Canada first. Then Europe. Then South America.”
“For twenty years?”
“I kept moving.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel never stopped looking.”
“He died fourteen years ago.”
Gabriel looked toward Dominic.
“Samuel Vale’s funeral was closed casket.”
Penelope groaned.
“Do not tell me another dead man is alive.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“Dad.”
“He may be.”
Penelope covered her face.
“This family needs a better hobby.”
Catherine drove into an underground parking garage beneath an office building Dominic owned through one of his legitimate companies.
They entered a secure conference room.
Gabriel placed a small drive on the table.
“The ledger isn’t paper anymore.”
Dominic stared.
“You digitized it.”
“Years ago.”
“Where’s the original?”
“Gone.”
“Who has the data?”
Gabriel touched the drive.
“Partial copy.”
Penelope looked at him.
“What’s missing?”
“The names added after I disappeared.”
Dominic frowned.
“You kept updating it?”
“Through contacts.”
“Who?”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Not yet.”
Penelope slammed her hand on the table.
“No.”
Gabriel blinked.
“No more ‘not yet.’ No more ‘for your protection.’ You came back because something changed. Tell me what.”
Gabriel stared at his daughter.
Then nodded.
“Someone accessed the Santoro Trust six weeks ago.”
“The marriage contract.”
“Yes.”
“You know about it?”
“I intercepted a copy.”
“Who made it?”
“I thought Dominic.”
Dominic’s eyes flashed.
Gabriel continued.
“Until tonight.”
“What changed?”
“I saw Vincent.”
Penelope waited.
“He had the key.”
“We know.”
“No. You don’t understand. Vincent didn’t steal it.”
“Who gave it to him?”
Gabriel looked toward the conference room door.
“Michael Arden.”
Dominic’s missing attorney.
Penelope leaned forward.
“And who told Michael to do it?”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“Samuel Vale.”
Silence.
Catherine whispered, “He’s alive.”
Gabriel nodded.
Penelope felt strangely calm.
Perhaps she had exceeded her daily allowance of shock.
“How old is he?”
“Eighty-six.”
“Where has he been?”
“Private medical facilities. Switzerland. Monaco. Recently Connecticut.”
“And now?”
Gabriel looked at the clock.
“Vale Tower.”
Penelope stood.
“Then we go.”
Gabriel grabbed her wrist.
“No.”
She pulled free.
“You had twenty years to tell me what to do. You missed them.”
His face tightened.
Penelope regretted the cruelty immediately.
Not enough to take it back.
Dominic stood too.
“She’s right.”
Gabriel glared.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Pretend this is about protecting her.”
Dominic’s expression sharpened.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“You think I didn’t read the trust?”
Penelope looked between them.
“What now?”
Gabriel turned toward her.
“If you marry Dominic, you inherit the Santoro assets.”
“We established that.”
“No.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“You inherit everything.”
“What does everything mean?”
“Not two hundred forty million.”
He looked at Dominic.
“Closer to nine hundred.”
Penelope sat again.
“Excuse me?”
Dominic looked equally surprised.
Gabriel continued.
“Properties. Port shares. Offshore accounts. Mineral rights. Companies.”
Penelope whispered, “Why?”
“Because I spent twenty years buying back what Samuel stole from us.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“Us?”
Gabriel gave him a strange look.
“Yes.”
Penelope caught it.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Nobody answered.
She laughed once.
“Of course.”
A security monitor on the wall flickered.
Someone had accessed the building system.
Dominic moved toward it.
A live camera feed appeared.
Vale Tower.
Top floor.
An elderly man sat at the head of a long table.
Samuel Vale.
Alive.
Beside him stood Michael Arden.
And Vincent Costa.
Penelope approached the screen.
Samuel looked directly into the camera.
As if he could see her.
Then speakers crackled.
“Penelope.”
Her grandfather smiled.
“Come meet your family.”
A second camera feed appeared.
This one showed a woman tied to a chair.
Penelope gasped.
Catherine whispered, “No.”
The captive lifted her head.
She looked exactly like Eleanor Hayes.
Not similar.
Exactly.
Penelope stepped toward the screen.
Her voice vanished.
Gabriel grabbed the table.
Dominic went pale.
The woman whispered into the camera:
May you like
“Penny?”
And Penelope realized her mother might not have died nine months ago after all.
