Chapter 5 - WHAT MIA REMEMBEREDSerafina reached Carlo’s guesthouse twelve minutes later.
Mia ran into her arms before the car fully stopped.
“Mom!”
Serafina dropped to her knees.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Leo?”
“Inside.”
Leo appeared in the doorway holding his stuffed lion.
When Serafina saw him standing unharmed, something in her chest loosened.
She pulled both children against her.
“I’m sorry.”
Mia shook her head.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Serafina looked at her daughter.
Eight years old.
Too observant.
Too accustomed to adults carrying secrets.
“Still.”
The attempted abduction had lasted less than forty seconds.
Two men drove a plumbing van through the service entrance using forged work orders.
A third disabled one camera.
That detail mattered.
Only someone familiar with the estate knew which camera overlooked the rear path.
The men reached the guesthouse and claimed Carlo had sent them.
Security challenged them.
One ran.
One fought.
One was caught.
The third escaped in the van.
The captured man’s name was Eddie Voss.
And he claimed Victor hired him.
Serafina didn’t believe him.
Victor was reckless, arrogant, greedy, and possibly responsible for the chain of events that led to Gabriel’s death.
But Victor had loved Mia and Leo.
Or at least Serafina believed he had.
During Gabriel’s funeral, Victor carried a sleeping Leo upstairs rather than wake him.
When Mia broke her wrist at five, Victor spent six hours in the hospital.
People could be contradictions.
A man could love a child and still destroy that child’s father.
But kidnapping them?
Something didn’t fit.
Salvatore entered the room.
“We have Voss downstairs.”
“Did he have a phone?”
“Burner.”
“Contacts?”
“Only one.”
“Victor?”
“No name. Number disconnected.”
Serafina looked at Mia.
Her daughter was staring at Gabriel’s stuffed lion in Leo’s hands.
“What?”
Mia didn’t answer.
“Mia?”
“Dad gave Leo that lion.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Mia shook her head.
“He gave it to him twice.”
Serafina frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“After Boston, Leo lost it.”
Leo protested.
“I didn’t lose him.”
“You did.”
“I left him at Grandpa’s.”
“That means you lost him.”
“Children.”
They stopped.
Mia continued.
“Dad bought another one.”
Serafina remembered.
Two identical lions.
One disappeared.
Gabriel replaced it.
“So?”
Mia pointed at the toy.
“That’s the old one.”
Serafina looked at Leo.
“No, sweetheart. The old one was lost.”
Mia shook her head.
“I found it after Dad died.”
“Where?”
“In Dad’s office.”
Serafina’s heartbeat accelerated.
“What were you doing in his office?”
“I wanted something that smelled like him.”
The sentence nearly broke Serafina.
Mia’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Serafina pulled her close.
“You never have to apologize for missing Dad.”
Mia wiped her cheek.
“The lion was behind his books. So I gave it back to Leo.”
Serafina looked at the stuffed animal.
“What happened to the newer one?”
Leo shrugged.
“At home.”
Two lions.
One hidden by Gabriel.
She reached for the toy.
“Can I see him?”
Leo handed it reluctantly.
Serafina examined the seams.
Nothing.
She pressed the belly.
Stuffing.
Then her fingers reached the left rear paw.
Something hard.
She looked at Salvatore.
“Knife.”
He handed her a small pocketknife.
Leo gasped.
“You’re cutting Captain Leo!”
“I’ll fix him.”
“You better.”
Serafina opened three stitches.
Inside the paw was a small plastic key.
Not a house key.
A safe-deposit key.
Numbers engraved on one side.
Mia whispered, “Dad hid that?”
“Yes.”
Leo stared.
“Captain Leo is a spy?”
Despite everything, Salvatore almost smiled.
“Apparently.”
Serafina photographed the key.
The number corresponded to a private vault company in Manhattan.
Not a bank.
She called Nathan Cole.
He answered immediately.
“Serafina?”
“Did Gabriel have a private vault?”
Silence.
“Nathan.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Gabriel instructed me not to.”
“Under what conditions were you allowed?”
“If you found the key.”
Serafina closed her eyes.
Gabriel.
Even dead, he was making her work for answers.
“What’s inside?”
“I don’t know.”
“Can I access it?”
“Yes.”
“Tonight?”
“The facility is twenty-four hours.”
Serafina handed the children to Carlo.
“Do not let them leave this house.”
Carlo nodded.
She knelt in front of Mia and Leo.
“I need to go somewhere.”
Leo pointed at his damaged lion.
“Fix Captain Leo first.”
Serafina stared at him.
Then laughed.
A genuine laugh.
The first since yesterday.
“Yes, sir.”
Five minutes later, one of Carlo’s housekeepers had sewn the paw closed.
Serafina kissed both children.
Then she, Salvatore, and Nathan drove to Manhattan.
The vault facility occupied the basement beneath an ordinary office tower.
Private elevator.
Biometric access.
No signage.
The manager confirmed Gabriel had rented Box 4819 six years earlier.
Serafina signed three documents.
The box was delivered into a private room.
It was large.
Inside sat three items.
A leather folder.
A hard drive.
And an old silver phone.
Serafina opened the folder.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Photographs.
Victor appeared repeatedly.
Michael too.
Several politicians.
Two police officers.
A union official.
Then a name Serafina did not recognize.
Adrian Cross.
Salvatore did.
His face changed.
“No.”
“Who?”
“Gabriel’s godfather.”
Serafina looked up.
“What?”
“Not religious godfather. Business mentor.”
“I’ve never heard Gabriel mention him.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Adrian Cross was exiled from the family twenty years ago.”
Nathan looked uncomfortable.
Serafina turned.
“You knew?”
“A little.”
Salvatore pulled out a chair.
“When Gabriel was nineteen, Adrian trained him. Your husband loved him like an uncle.”
“What happened?”
“Cross wanted the family involved in narcotics. Carlo refused.”
“So Carlo exiled him.”
“No.”
Salvatore looked at the documents.
“Gabriel did.”
Serafina stared.
“At nineteen?”
“Gabriel discovered Cross had arranged drug shipments without authorization. One shipment caused the deaths of two teenagers after contaminated heroin hit a neighborhood.”
Serafina’s stomach tightened.
“Gabriel exposed him.”
“Cross disappeared.”
“Until now.”
Salvatore pointed to a photograph.
Adrian Cross stood beside Paul Dugan.
Timestamp: six days before Gabriel’s death.
Serafina picked up the silver phone.
Battery dead.
Nathan found a charger in the room.
They waited.
The screen lit.
No passcode.
Only one saved voicemail.
Date: the night Gabriel died.
Serafina pressed play.
At first, static.
Then Gabriel’s voice.
Breathing hard.
“Fina…”
She froze.
“This is Gabriel. If this sends…”
A car horn blared in the background.
“Someone messed with the brakes. Victor’s behind me.”
Serafina gripped the table.
Then Gabriel said something unexpected.
“But he’s not the one I’m afraid of.”
A crash of metal.
Gabriel breathing faster.
“Cross is back.”
Salvatore whispered a curse.
Gabriel continued.
“He wants the freight routes. Victor thinks they’re working together. Victor doesn’t understand Cross is using him.”
The voicemail distorted.
Then Gabriel’s final clear words:
“If anything happens, protect the children. Cross knows I kept the ledger.”
The message ended.
Serafina stared at the phone.
Salvatore spoke quietly.
“The kidnapping.”
“Wasn’t Victor.”
“No.”
Serafina looked down at Adrian Cross’s photograph.
A man she had never met had manipulated Victor, used Michael, murdered Gabriel, and now reached for her children.
For eleven months, Serafina believed Victor sat at the center of the web.
She had been wrong.
May you like
Victor was not the spider.
He was bait.
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