Chapter 9 - The Truth Lucia Was Afraid to Tell
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Lucia Rossy didn't remember every moment of the past three years.
The doctors warned Gabriel about that before their second video call.
She had suffered a serious head injury.
There were gaps in her memory.
Some events returned clearly.
Others remained fragmented.
But one thing she remembered with certainty.
Richard Hale had arranged for her to disappear after she uncovered financial records connected to his companies.
Gabriel sat in the study with Paige and Evelyn.
On the screen, Lucia rested in a hospital chair beside a window overlooking a garden.
She looked tired.
But determined.
“Gabe,” she said, “I need you to listen.”
He nodded.
“I'm listening.”
“Don't do something stupid.”
A small, broken laugh escaped him.
“That's a terrible opening.”
Lucia smiled faintly.
“It's the opening you need.”
Then she told them what she remembered.
Three years earlier, she'd discovered that Richard Hale's investment companies were moving money through several overseas accounts.
Some transactions appeared to involve fraud.
Others were connected to businesses she recognized from investigations into organized crime.
She prepared a report.
Then scheduled a meeting with her supervisor.
Before the meeting occurred, someone entered her apartment.
She remembered being frightened.
A struggle.
A blow to the head.
Then waking in a medical facility.
She had been told she'd suffered an accident while traveling.
That her name was Elena.
That she had no immediate family available to care for her.
For months, her memory was unreliable.
Whenever she asked about Gabriel, staff members told her she was confusing dreams with reality.
Eventually, she began to remember.
A brother.
A kitchen.
Burned toast.
Music.
And a little note she'd once written.
Try being a decent human today.
Gabriel covered his mouth.
Lucia continued.
“I kept telling them I had a brother named Gabriel Rossy.”
“What happened?” Paige asked softly.
Lucia looked at her.
“They said my medical history didn't support it.”
Her voice trembled.
“I thought I was losing my mind.”
Paige felt tears fill her eyes.
She knew what it was like to have someone insist your memories were wrong.
Colin had done it constantly.
After every argument.
Every injury.
Every threat.
That never happened.
You're remembering it wrong.
You're too emotional.
She looked at Lucia.
Then whispered, “I believe you.”
Lucia smiled sadly.
“Thank you.”
Evelyn explained that investigators were now reviewing the admission records, medical decisions, and financial arrangements that kept Lucia under a false identity.
The clinic where Lucia was currently staying had apparently relied on documents supplied by the transferring institution.
The doctors caring for her now were cooperating.
And Lucia had independent legal representation.
Gabriel looked toward his sister.
“I'm coming to Switzerland.”
Lucia nodded.
“I want to see you.”
He swallowed.
“Are you sure?”
She smiled through her tears.
“Yes, idiot.”
Gabriel laughed.
It was the first completely unguarded laugh Paige had heard from him.
Then Lucia looked directly at Paige.
“You're the woman from the wedding?”
Paige froze.
Gabriel frowned.
“How do you know about that?”
Lucia gave a faint smile.
“Evelyn told me.”
Paige felt her cheeks warm.
“Yes.”
Lucia studied her.
Then said gently, “Thank you for helping my brother.”
Paige shook her head.
“I think we've been helping each other.”
Lucia smiled.
“Good. He needs someone who tells him when he's being impossible.”
Gabriel groaned.
“Lucia.”
“What?”
“I'm right here.”
“I know.”
For a moment, everyone laughed.
Then Lucia grew serious.
“Gabe, there's something else.”
He straightened.
“What?”
“Richard wasn't working alone.”
The room went silent.
Lucia continued.
“There was a woman who visited me during the first year.”
“A doctor?” Evelyn asked.
“No.”
Lucia shook her head.
“She wore expensive clothes. Always carried a red handbag.”
Paige's stomach tightened.
A red handbag.
She remembered someone.
Colin's mother, Victoria Hale.
A beautiful, perfectly composed woman who rarely raised her voice.
She carried a red designer handbag almost everywhere.
Paige looked toward Gabriel.
“Victoria.”
He turned.
“What?”
“Colin's mother.”
Lucia's expression changed.
“Yes.”
Paige felt cold all over.
Lucia nodded slowly.
“Victoria Hale.”
For three years, everyone had assumed Richard and Colin controlled the family's darkest secrets.
But Victoria had visited Lucia.
She knew she was alive.
She knew where she was being kept.
And she'd apparently done nothing to return her to her family.
Gabriel looked toward the window.
His face hardened.
Then Lucia spoke sharply.
“Gabe.”
He turned.
“Promise me something.”
“What?”
“Don't kill anyone.”
He went still.
She continued.
“I didn't survive three years of this so you could spend the rest of your life in prison.”
Gabriel lowered his eyes.
Then whispered, “I promise I'll let the investigators do their work.”
Paige watched him.
She knew how much that promise cost.
But she also knew something else.
May you like
For the first time, Gabriel had something more important than revenge.
His sister was coming home.
