Chapter 14 - THE TRUTH ISABELLA HID
Gabriel confronted his mother at dawn.
Isabella did not deny signing.
Norah sat beside him.
“You authorized three killings under my name.”
Isabella looked exhausted.
“No.”
“The signatures are yours.”
“Yes.”
“Then explain.”
“They weren’t killings.”
Gabriel stared.
Isabella opened a locked case.
Inside were three passports.
Three photographs.
Three new identities.
The supposedly murdered men were alive.
One in Canada.
One in Spain.
One in Argentina.
“Your father discovered they were witnesses against Samuel Pierce,” Isabella said. “Pierce wanted them dead.”
“So you staged their deaths.”
“Yes.”
“Using my authorization.”
“You were unconscious. Samuel controlled the company. I needed him to believe the orders came from you.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“My family really loves protecting me by making me look guilty.”
Norah almost smiled.
Isabella continued.
“The men can testify.”
Within hours, federal investigators confirmed everything.
Pierce’s leverage collapsed.
Charges against Gabriel were withdrawn.
Samuel Pierce accepted a long federal sentence.
David Pierce was arrested in Connecticut.
Matteo agreed to testify and surrendered his interests in the company.
For the first time in years, Costa Enterprises had no hidden war inside it.
But Gabriel still had one problem.
Norah.
She arrived in his office Monday morning carrying a cardboard box.
His stomach dropped.
“What is that?”
“My things.”
“No.”
She blinked.
“I haven’t said anything.”
“You’re quitting.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“You can’t reject my resignation before I give it.”
“I just did.”
“Gabriel.”
“You need employment.”
“I need independence.”
He stopped.
That word mattered.
Norah placed an envelope on his desk.
“I can’t keep working for a man who knows every humiliating detail of my life.”
His voice softened.
“I don’t think any of it is humiliating.”
“I do.”
She swallowed.
“I slept in your garage.”
“To keep your brother alive.”
“I lied to you.”
“Because you were ashamed.”
“I’m tired of being someone you have to rescue.”
Gabriel walked around the desk.
“I don’t want to rescue you.”
“Then what do you want?”
He looked at her for a long moment.
“The chance to know you when you’re not standing behind that desk.”
Silence.
Norah’s eyes filled.
“That sounds dangerously like a date.”
“It is.”
“You are terrible at asking.”
“I’ve never had to.”
She smiled.
Then her phone rang.
Leo.
Norah answered.
His synthetic tablet voice came through:
TELL GABRIEL YES.
Gabriel laughed.
Norah covered her face.
“I’m going to kill him.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
“Bad phrasing around this family.”
She laughed harder.
Then turned serious.
“One date.”
“One.”
“No bodyguards at the table.”
“Negotiable.”
“No.”
“Fine.”
“No private restaurant.”
“Norah.”
“Normal restaurant.”
He sighed.
“Fine.”
She picked up her box.
“I’m still quitting.”
“I know.”
At the door she turned.
“Seven-thirty.”
Gabriel nodded.
Then she smiled.
“Oh, and Gabriel?”
“Yes?”
“Leo’s doctors called.”
His expression sharpened.
“What happened?”
“They think the damage isn’t as permanent as we were told.”
Gabriel stared.
May you like
Norah’s eyes filled with tears.
“With intensive rehabilitation, Leo might walk again.”
