Chapter 3 - THE CODE FROM A DEAD WOMAN
The old service-gate code belonged to Lucia Costa for a reason.
Gabriel’s mother had used that entrance when she wanted to avoid family security.
Mostly during the final years of her life.
Cancer appointments.
Church.
Private meetings.
One of those meetings had been with Eleanor Mercer.
Norah’s mother.
Eleanor.
The name from the burner phone.
Gabriel found the connection through old visitor logs.
His mother and Norah’s mother had met eleven times over two years.
Without telling either family.
Why?
Luca tracked Eleanor to a farmhouse outside Galena, Illinois.
Public records said she sold it six years earlier.
The buyer?
A trust created by Lucia Costa.
Gabriel stared at the address.
His mother had purchased a safe house for Norah’s mother.
Before Gabriel ever met Norah.
“Get the vehicles.”
Then he stopped.
Norah’s letter.
Do not come looking until you ask Vittorio.
He had not asked.
He had hunted.
Threatened.
Locked down half the city.
Exactly the man she expected.
Gabriel called off the convoy.
Luca looked shocked.
“Boss?”
“We don’t arrive with guns.”
“Then what?”
“One car.”
“Security?”
“You.”
That was all.
They reached Galena at dusk.
The farmhouse looked ordinary.
Smoke from chimney.
Old swing.
A pickup truck.
Gabriel approached without a weapon visible.
Eleanor Mercer opened the door before he knocked.
Sixty-three.
Gray hair.
Norah’s eyes.
“You smell like another woman.”
Gabriel almost laughed from the cruelty of accuracy.
“Where is she?”
“Safe.”
“The babies?”
“Safe.”
“Can I see them?”
“No.”
The answer hit harder than any gunshot.
Eleanor stepped outside and closed the door behind her.
“You do not get to storm into this house because you finally decided they matter.”
“They always mattered.”
“Then where were you while she was bleeding?”
He had no answer.
Good.
Then Eleanor handed him a cassette recorder.
Old.
Daniel’s.
The audio contained Daniel arguing with Vittorio.
Payments.
Dock manifests.
Election bribes.
Then Gabriel’s younger voice entered.
Handle it legally.
Exactly as he remembered.
He left.
Afterward, Vittorio said:
“He knows too much.”
Another man asked:
“What do you want done?”
Vittorio answered:
“Make it look ordinary.”
Gabriel’s stomach turned.
His uncle had killed Daniel after Gabriel explicitly ordered the opposite.
Then another voice.
Female.
Lucia Costa.
Gabriel’s mother.
“Touch that boy and I will bury you.”
So Lucia knew.
Why didn’t she stop it?
The tape cut.
Eleanor explained:
Lucia arrived too late.
Daniel was already dead.
From then on, Lucia secretly helped Eleanor preserve evidence against Vittorio.
She also watched Norah.
Not as target.
As protection.
Then, months before dying, Lucia left instructions:
If Norah ever becomes pregnant with Gabriel’s child, remove her from Costa property before the birth certificates are filed.
Gabriel stared.
“Why?”
Eleanor looked toward the farmhouse.
“Because Vittorio falsified one birth certificate before.”
“What child?”
Eleanor’s voice lowered.
“Yours.”
Gabriel thought she meant him.
She didn’t.
“You had a son nine years ago.”
His world stopped.
“His mother was told the baby died.”
Gabriel stared at her.
May you like
“You have another child, Gabriel.”
And Vittorio had hidden him for almost a decade.
