Chapter 3 - The Long-Awaited Signal
"Protect his skin?" Amelia echoed, her throat tightening. "He told me he was protecting me."
Gabriel laughed—a dry, humorless sound that felt entirely out of character for the usually stoic security chief. "Luca protects his control. He keeps you in the dark because as long as you're searching for your sister, you're dependent on his resources. If you knew the truth about Claire, you wouldn't stay in that penthouse another hour."
The car turned away from the gold-paved streets of the Gold Coast, heading west toward the industrial warehouses near the river.
"Where are we going?" Amelia asked, her hand instinctively moving toward the door handle. "This isn't the way to the house."
"Luca went back to the penthouse," Gabriel said calmly, his gaze shifting to the side mirror. "He expects me to bring you home, give you a glass of wine, and let you cool off until he decides to grant you an audience tomorrow morning. That was his plan."
"And what is your plan, Gabriel?"
Gabriel pulled the Audi into a quiet, unlit alley between two brick buildings, switching off the headlights. The rain hammered against the roof like tiny, metallic fists. He turned in his seat to face her, his expression free of the professional distance he had worn for eight long years.
"Eight years ago, Amelia," Gabriel said, his voice dropping into a register that made her pulse spike, "I was hired to protect Luca Moretti from his enemies. But within three months of watching how he treated you—how he reduced your life to an ornament in his grand display—I realized he was the only real threat you had."
He pulled a thick Manila folder from beneath his seat and set it on the dashboard between them.
"This isn't just Hannah Reed's payment history," Gabriel continued. "This is Claire's original file. The one the police 'lost' ten years ago. Luca didn't just find Hannah Reed, Amelia. He hired her to keep Claire hidden."
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Amelia felt the air leave her lungs in one agonizing gasp. "Claire is... alive?"
"She was alive when Luca found her six years ago," Gabriel whispered. "And she’s waiting in a safehouse in Wisconsin right now. But if you go back to that penthouse tonight, Luca will move her before sunrise, and you will never see her again."
