Chapter 13 - the missing key
Dawn broke over the Chicago skyline, casting pale gray light through the tall library windows.
Gabriel dismissed his captains, leaving only Hannah and Dante in the room.
"Dante," Gabriel said, his voice steady. "Prepare the private jet. We leave for New York at noon."
"Understood, boss," Dante nodded, turning to leave. "What about the girl?"
"Lucia comes with me," Gabriel answered firmly. "She doesn't leave my sight again."
As Dante exited, closing the heavy double doors behind him, Hannah set her empty teacup on the side table and stepped in front of the desk.
"Gabriel," Hannah said, her tone firm and resolute. "You need to understand something."
Gabriel looked up from his paperwork, his hazel eyes locking onto hers. "What do I need to understand, Hannah?"
"You're walking into a trap," she said. "Elena didn't flee to Sicily because she was scared of you. She fled because she got what she actually came for."
Gabriel’s brow furrowed. "What are you talking about? Lucia is safe. Elena failed."
"Did she?" Hannah challenged, crossing her arms over her chest. "Think about it. Colin Harper was sent to kill Lucia with pine nut oil at the restaurant. If that succeeded, Elena inherits the Chicago trust. But why did Colin have to break into the house afterward?"
Gabriel went still.
"He said he came to silence Mrs. Gable," Gabriel murmured.
"No," Hannah countered, stepping closer to the desk. "Colin was already inside the house when Mrs. Gable was shot. But when I fought him in the bathroom, he wasn't looking for Mrs. Gable. He was rummaging through Lucia’s vanity drawers."
Gabriel’s eyes widened.
Without another word, Gabriel turned and took the grand staircase two steps at a time, heading straight for Lucia’s bedroom. Hannah followed closely behind him.
Inside the bedroom, Nicholas was asleep on the armchair, while Lucia sat propped up against the pillows, clutching a stuffed bear.
Gabriel walked directly to the vanity table. The small hidden drawer beneath the jewelry box—the one Nicholas had opened earlier—was pulled completely out of its wooden tracks.
It was empty.
"Nicholas," Gabriel woke his son with a gentle shake of the shoulder. "The paper you showed Hannah earlier. Was there anything else inside this drawer?"
Nicholas rubbed his eyes, yawning. "Just the paper... and Mom’s old silver locket. The one with the broken hinge."
Gabriel stopped breathing.
He looked at the empty velvet lining of the drawer. The locket was gone.
"What was in that locket, Gabriel?" Hannah asked softly from the doorway.
Gabriel stood up slowly, his tall frame silhouetted against the morning light.
"It wasn't a locket," Gabriel whispered. "It was an encrypted digital storage drive disguised as antique jewelry. Sophia carried it out of Palermo the night her family was butchered."
Hannah felt the weight of the realization crash down upon them. "What was stored on it?"
"The names of every high-ranking politician, federal judge, and corporate executive in the United States who took bribes from the Sicilian cartels over the last thirty years," Gabriel said, his voice chillingly calm.
May you like
He turned toward Hannah, his expression carved from stone.
"Elena didn't just escape," Gabriel said. "She just delivered the most dangerous blackmail file on the American continent into the hands of the Hawthorne family."
