Chapter 6 - The Brother in the ShadowsGunfire exploded through the chapel.
Ramirez tackled Sofia to the floor.
Leonardo crawled behind the altar.
The emergency lights flickered.
Then a man appeared.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Older than Leonardo by perhaps five years.
Leonardo stared.
“Gabriel?”
The man stopped.
For several seconds, the brothers simply looked at each other.
Then Gabriel lowered his weapon.
“I knew you'd come.”
Leonardo stood slowly.
“You're alive.”
“I never died.”
“Why did everyone say you were dead?”
Gabriel looked toward the journal.
“Because Mother needed me dead.”
Sofia stepped forward.
“What do you know about my father?”
Gabriel's expression softened.
“He tried to save us.”
“From Helena?”
“From all of them.”
Gabriel revealed that Helena had created a network of shell companies years earlier. The Valenti Group had been used to launder money for powerful clients.
Leonardo shook his head.
“My father would never allow that.”
“He didn't at first.”
“And then?”
“Then he discovered your mother had leverage.”
“What leverage?”
Gabriel looked at Sofia.
“Her father.”
Sofia's heart stopped.
“My father?”
“Your father was forced to cooperate because Helena threatened to expose his daughter.”
“But I was a child.”
“Exactly.”
Gabriel reached into his coat.
He removed a recording device.
“Your father recorded everything.”
He pressed play.
A man's voice filled the chapel.
Sofia recognized it immediately.
Her father's voice.
If they find this recording, Helena will come after Sofia.
Sofia covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
I wasn't killed because I stole money. I was killed because I discovered where the money was going.
Then another voice entered.
Helena.
Calm.
Cold.
You should have taken the deal.
The recording ended.
Leonardo looked at Gabriel.
“Where did you get this?”
“From the person who helped me disappear.”
“Who?”
Gabriel's eyes moved toward the chapel entrance.
A woman stood there.
Sofia recognized her.
The little girl's mother.
The maid Helena had treated like disposable property.
May you like
The woman stepped inside.
“I was there the night your father died.”
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