Chapter 8 - THE MAN WHO CALLED HIM SON
Only one living man regularly called Gabriel “son.”
Father Michael Brennan.
The priest who had known Gabriel since childhood.
The man who buried Charles Hayes.
The man who had supposedly buried Rosa.
Gabriel didn’t want to believe it.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
“Father Brennan baptized me.”
Leo replied quietly, “That doesn’t make him innocent.”
“He taught me to drive.”
“And Charles raised you.”
Gabriel looked ready to hit him.
I stepped between the argument.
“We don’t accuse anyone until we know what Rosa meant.”
Gabriel stared at me.
“You keep doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Talking to me like I’m reasonable.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
“At least you’re self-aware.”
Leo actually laughed.
Gabriel glared at him.
An hour later, we entered Saint Matthew’s Church before morning Mass.
Father Brennan was seventy-two, thin, silver-haired, and visibly shocked to see Gabriel.
Then he noticed the birth certificate.
His face collapsed.
“You found Rosa’s records.”
Gabriel shut the office door.
“Did you tell me she died?”
The priest sat down.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To save you.”
Gabriel slammed both hands on the desk.
“Everybody keeps ruining my life to save me!”
Brennan flinched.
Then he told the truth.
Charles Hayes had not been Gabriel’s biological father.
He had been Rosa’s husband.
Violent.
Controlling.
Powerful.
Rosa secretly tried to escape with her sons when Gabriel was twelve and Elias was ten.
The house fire was part of that escape.
But Charles found them.
He took Gabriel.
Rosa escaped with Elias.
Charles convinced Gabriel that both had died.
“Why didn’t she come back?”
“Because Charles threatened to kill you.”
Gabriel’s voice cracked.
“And after Charles died?”
Brennan looked away.
“By then, Rosa believed you had become him.”
That hurt.
I saw it.
Gabriel had spent his adult life becoming powerful enough that nobody could control him.
And somewhere his mother had mistaken that power for the cruelty of the man who raised him.
Gabriel asked one final question.
“Who was my biological father?”
Brennan closed his eyes.
“Rosa never told me.”
A gunshot exploded through the window.
Father Brennan jerked backward.
Glass shattered.
I screamed.
Gabriel pulled him to the floor.
Leo ran outside with two guards.
The bullet had missed the priest by inches.
It was a warning.
Taped beneath the shattered window was an envelope.
Inside was a photograph taken that morning.
It showed us entering the church.
Someone had been watching.
On the back:
STOP DIGGING OR THE WAITRESS DIES FIRST.
Gabriel read it once.
Then tore it in half.
I expected him to order me hidden somewhere.
Instead he looked at me and said:
“You’re leaving the city.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“That wasn’t a discussion.”
“It is now.”
“Norah.”
“Rosa fed me when my mother couldn’t be home. Somebody took her. Paulie died. Somebody threatened Benny. They just shot at a priest. I’m already involved.”
“You could die.”
“So could you.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
He had no answer.
Then Father Brennan, still on the floor, whispered:
“Because he’s already lost you once.”
Gabriel slowly turned.
“What did you say?”
The priest looked at me.
May you like
And said something neither of us understood.
“Norah has been in your family before.”
