Chapter 8 - The Sister Gabriel Thought He'd Buried
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Gabriel didn't speak when Evelyn told him the patient was alive.
For several seconds, he simply stared at her.
Then he sat down.
Slowly.
As though his legs had forgotten how to hold him.
Paige watched his face.
The cold expression she'd seen at the cathedral was gone.
So was the confidence.
The anger.
The carefully controlled menace.
What remained was a brother who had spent three years imagining his sister dead.
“Are you sure?” he whispered.
Evelyn nodded carefully.
“The patient is alive. Authorities are still confirming her identity.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Paige reached toward him.
Then stopped.
She remembered what it felt like when people touched her without asking.
“Can I?” she whispered.
Gabriel opened his eyes.
Looked at her hand.
Then nodded.
She placed her palm over his.
He gripped it tightly.
Not painfully.
Just enough to hold on.
The next forty-eight hours were unbearable.
Swiss investigators reviewed medical records.
Requested identity documents.
Interviewed facility administrators.
And arranged an independent assessment of the woman registered as Elena Marin.
The patient had arrived eighteen months earlier with limited medical history and documentation identifying her as a foreign national without close family.
She had neurological injuries.
Periods of memory difficulty.
And had apparently been receiving long-term rehabilitation.
But one detail troubled the investigators.
The facility had never been given the contact information for her actual relatives.
Instead, a corporate representative handled administrative decisions.
That representative was connected to the same financial network that included Aster Holdings.
Paige felt sick.
“They kept her away from her family.”
Evelyn nodded.
“That is one of the concerns being investigated.”
Gabriel stood near the window.
“Can I speak to her?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“The doctors need to assess whether she's comfortable and able to consent to contact. And authorities are still confirming her identity.”
He looked ready to argue.
Then Paige spoke.
“Gabriel.”
He turned.
“If it's Lucia, she gets to decide.”
His expression changed.
Paige continued.
“She spent three years without control over her life. Don't make her first moment of freedom another decision someone else makes for her.”
Gabriel looked down.
Then nodded.
“You're right.”
That evening, Helen brought Paige dinner.
She noticed the untouched tray.
“Not hungry?”
Paige shook her head.
“I'm worried.”
Helen sat beside her.
“About Miss Lucia?”
“Yes.”
Helen's eyes filled with tears.
“I knew her when she was little.”
Paige looked up.
“Really?”
Helen smiled sadly.
“She used to sneak into the kitchen and steal strawberries.”
Paige laughed softly.
“Gabriel said she burned toast.”
“Oh, she did. Nearly set off the smoke alarm once.”
Helen smiled.
Then her expression grew serious.
“Miss Lucia always believed people could change.”
Paige looked toward the door.
“Even Gabriel?”
“Especially Gabriel.”
A long silence followed.
Then Helen said something unexpected.
“He wasn't always like this.”
Paige looked up.
“Like what?”
“So cold.”
Helen sighed.
“When their parents died, Gabriel became responsible for everything. The businesses. The debts. The people who depended on them.”
“And the syndicate?”
Helen looked sad.
“That too.”
Paige said nothing.
Helen continued.
“Lucia wanted him to leave that world. She was the only person who could tell him he was wrong without making him angry.”
Paige thought about the way Gabriel had listened when she challenged him.
Maybe Lucia's influence hadn't disappeared entirely.
Maybe it was still there.
Buried beneath grief.
At eleven that night, Evelyn called.
The patient had been identified.
Fingerprints from earlier immigration records matched those of Lucia Rossy.
The medical team had also obtained her consent to speak with Gabriel.
Paige stared at Evelyn.
Then at Gabriel.
He looked as though someone had struck him.
“Lucia?” he whispered.
Evelyn nodded.
“Yes.”
He covered his face.
And began to cry.
Not quietly.
Not elegantly.
He bent forward, shoulders shaking, and cried like a man who had spent three years holding back every sound of grief.
Paige stood beside him.
She didn't try to stop it.
Didn't tell him to be strong.
She simply remained there.
Eventually, Gabriel raised his head.
His face was wet.
“Can I see her?”
Evelyn nodded.
“A video call can be arranged tomorrow.”
He swallowed.
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked toward the ceiling.
Then whispered, “Thank God.”
The next morning, they gathered in Gabriel's study.
Evelyn connected the secure video call.
A woman appeared on the screen.
She was thinner than in the photograph.
Her hair was shorter.
A faint scar crossed her temple.
But the eyes were the same.
Gabriel went completely still.
“Lucia?”
The woman stared at him.
Her lips trembled.
Then she whispered, “Gabe?”
He covered his mouth.
She began crying.
“Oh my God.”
Gabriel leaned toward the screen.
“It's me.”
Lucia pressed a hand against her chest.
“I thought you stopped looking.”
His face crumpled.
“Never.”
She shook her head.
“They told me you were dead.”
Paige felt her blood turn cold.
Gabriel stared.
“Who?”
Lucia's eyes filled with fear.
She looked toward someone outside the camera.
Then back at her brother.
“The man who brought me here.”
Gabriel's voice shook.
“Who was he?”
Lucia swallowed.
Then whispered a name.
“Richard Hale.”
May you like
And suddenly, the man who had smiled proudly at Colin's wedding was no longer merely a financial criminal.
He was the man who had stolen three years of Lucia's life.
