Chapter 7 - THE BROTHER WHO DIED TWICE
Gabriel remembered burying an empty coffin.
That detail returned slowly.
The family claimed Luca’s body was too damaged after an overdose and subsequent apartment fire.
Closed casket.
Gabriel was nineteen.
He believed his father.
Now microfilm showed bank transfers to L.C. for years afterward.
Luca Costa survived.
Why fake his death?
Salvatore wanted him out.
Luca had discovered the family was moving narcotics through legitimate trucking routes.
He threatened to expose it.
Salvatore faced a choice.
Kill his son.
Or make him disappear.
Lucia demanded the second.
So Luca was sent abroad under another identity.
Vittorio supervised.
Then gradually controlled him.
“What happened later?” Norah asked.
Gabriel traced the payments.
They stopped eight years ago.
The exact month Daniel Mercer died.
Coincidence?
No.
Daniel had found Luca.
That was why he became dangerous.
He wasn't only tracing money.
He had discovered Salvatore Costa’s supposedly dead son living under the name Luke Carver.
Daniel intended to use him as witness against Vittorio.
Then Daniel died.
What happened to Luca?
Another file answered.
Hospital record.
Ontario.
Unknown male admitted after assault.
Died three days later.
Fingerprint match:
Luca Costa.
Vittorio had killed Gabriel’s brother too.
Gabriel stood in absolute silence.
Norah reached for him.
Then stopped herself.
Marriage broken.
Comfort complicated.
He noticed.
Did not ask.
Good.
Then something else in Daniel’s archive emerged.
Luca had recorded testimony before his death.
He named Vittorio.
But also Salvatore.
Gabriel’s father had ordered crimes for decades.
The myth of the honorable patriarch shattered.
Lucia had spent her final years secretly trying to dismantle what her husband built.
That explained her alliance with Eleanor.
Then Daniel said in the recording:
“If Gabriel ever hears this, tell him Luca never hated him.”
Gabriel sat down.
His younger brother had lived six extra years believing Gabriel thought him dead.
Another theft.
Then:
“Vittorio thinks control belongs to whoever knows which family secrets to bury. He is preparing the same system around Gabriel.”
The recording ended.
Norah looked at her children.
“He was.”
Mateo.
The twins.
Birth records.
Bianca.
Every life around Gabriel managed by Vittorio.
Then federal agents traced Vittorio’s burner phone.
One location ping.
The private club?
No.
A storage complex outside Joliet.
Unit owned by a shell company.
Inside:
Baby supplies.
Medical equipment.
Forged birth certificates.
Passports.
Three sets.
For Mateo.
Luca.
Lucia.
Vittorio wasn’t planning merely to make children disappear.
He planned to move all three under new identities.
And one adult passport.
Norah Costa.
Gabriel stared.
Why would Vittorio take Norah alive?
Then investigators found the accompanying document.
Not ransom.
A guardianship petition.
It declared Gabriel mentally unfit to parent due to criminal conduct and sought temporary control of his children through a family trustee.
Trustee:
May you like
Vittorio Costa.
To seize the children legally, he needed Norah to testify against her husband.
