Chapter 4 - THE CELLAR OF SECRETS
The air in the subterranean corridor beneath the estate was cold and smelled of damp mortar. Heavy iron sconces cast flickering orange light against the stone walls.
I followed Gabriel down the narrow staircase, my heart hammering against my ribs. What he had told me in the foyer was still echoing in my mind. I divorced you to protect your life. Five years of anger, grief, and resentment felt suddenly weightless, replaced by a terrifying, chaotic confusion.
Viktor stood outside a reinforced oak door at the end of the hall. He bowed his head as Gabriel approached.
"Is she quiet?" Gabriel asked coldly.
"She wept for an hour, boss," Viktor replied. "Then she stopped. She knows what's coming."
Gabriel unlocked the heavy iron bolt and pushed the door open.
The room inside was small, furnished only with a single wooden table, two chairs, and a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Serena Vale sat in one of the chairs. Her emerald silk dress was wrinkled, her makeup smeared across her pale face.
When the door opened, she leaped to her feet. "Gabriel! Please! You can't keep me down here! This is kidnapping!"
Gabriel stepped into the room, leaving the door wide open. I stood in the doorway, staying in the shadows.
"Kidnapping is a legal term, Serena," Gabriel said smoothly, taking a seat across the table from her. He leaned back, crossing his long legs, looking as relaxed as a king on his throne. "In my house, it is simply detention pending an investigation."
Serena’s eyes flicked to me standing near the door, and a flash of pure hatred crossed her features. "You brought her here? The little suburban editor?"
Gabriel’s arm moved faster than the eye could follow. He slammed his flat palm onto the wooden table with a sound like a gunshot. Serena gasped, dropping back into her chair.
"Speak about my wife with respect," Gabriel said, his voice dropping into an icy register that made the hair on my arms stand up. "Or I will let Viktor handle this conversation."
Serena swallowed hard, trembling. "Gabriel... I loved you. I did everything for you—"
"You worked for Dante Moretti," Gabriel cut her off sharply. "Your father’s gambling debts in Chicago were paid off the week you joined my firm as a legal consultant. Do you think I didn't know?"
Serena went dead silent.
"I tolerated you because you were useful," Gabriel continued, leaning forward over the table. "You were the channel through which I fed false intelligence to Chicago. But today, I discovered something new. Five years ago, Claire was pregnant when she left this estate. And you knew."
I stepped out of the shadows, coming to stand behind Gabriel’s chair. "How did you know, Serena? I went to a private clinic in upstate New York under my maiden name."
Serena looked at me, her lower lip quivering. She realized she had no cards left to play.
"The medical records," Serena whispered, her voice barely audible. "Dante Moretti had a contact in the New York State Health Bureau. Three months after you left, a flag popped up for prenatal records matching your social security number. It reported a high-risk triplet pregnancy."
My blood turned to ice. "Dante Moretti knew about my boys?"
"No!" Serena shouted frantically, looking at Gabriel. "No! I intercepted the report! I paid off the contact five hundred thousand dollars to delete the file before it reached Dante!"
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed into slits. "Why? Why would you protect Claire’s children?"
Serena let out a bitter, wet laugh, tears spilling over her mascara. "Protect them? I didn't give a damn about her children, Gabriel! I deleted the file because I knew if you found out she was carrying your babies—three sons—you would have burnt Chicago to the ground to bring her back!"
She leaned across the table, her eyes wild with obsession.
"You would have stopped playing your cold, calculated chess game with Moretti," Serena wept. "You would have brought her back here, made her your queen again, and I would have been thrown out like trash! I spent months getting into your bed, pretending to be your lover, waiting for you to forget her! If those boys existed in your world, I would never have had a chance with you!"
I stared at her, sickened by the profound selfishness of her actions. She hadn't kept my secret out of mercy. She had kept it to preserve her own desperate ploy for Gabriel’s power and heart.
"You kept my sons in hiding for five years," Gabriel said softly. His voice was terrifyingly calm, devoid of all human warmth. "You robbed me of five years of their lives. Five years of holding them, watching them grow, protecting them."
"Gabriel... please..."
Gabriel stood up slowly. He didn't raise his hand. He didn't shout. He simply turned his back on her and walked toward the door.
"Viktor," Gabriel called out softly.
Viktor stepped into the room.
"Transfer Ms. Vale to our holding property in upstate," Gabriel ordered without looking back. "She will remain there under twenty-four-hour guard until my business with Dante Moretti is concluded. If she speaks, strip her of everything her family owns."
"No! Gabriel! Please!" Serena screamed as Viktor grabbed her arm, her cries echoing down the cold stone corridor.
Gabriel stepped into the hallway, pulling me along with him. He led me back toward the stairs, his grip on my hand tight and burning.
"She kept them from me, Claire," Gabriel whispered, stopping at the foot of the stairs, his dark eyes searching mine in the dim torchlight. "Five years. I missed five years."
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"Gabriel..." I touched his cheek, my fingers feeling the rough stubble along his jaw. "You're their father. You have the rest of their lives."
He pulled me against his chest, burying his face in the crook of my neck, holding me so tightly I could barely breathe. And for the second time that night, the most feared man in Manhattan wept silently in the dark.
