Chapter 4 - The Whispering Craft
The revelation haunted Emma. She knew she couldn't simply go to Gabriel with suspicions about his closest advisor without concrete proof. Gabriel was a man of evidence and brutal justice; accusing Julian Vance without facts could put her own life—and her access to the twins—in extreme danger.
She decided to search for answers quietly.
The following afternoon, while the twins slept under the watchful eye of a senior nanny, Emma walked down to her private workshop in the greenhouse. She needed the grounding feel of wood and tools to calm her anxious mind.
She pulled out a small, broken antique music box that she had brought from her old shop in Astoria. It was a delicate 19th-century Swiss piece made of dark rosewood, its internal brass gears jammed. Repairing intricate mechanisms required intense focus, something that usually cleared her thoughts.
As she carefully unscrewed the brass casing, her mind pieced together the details.
Dr. Benjamin Adler had delivered Grace, then rushed across the hall to assist with Isabella’s emergency delivery.
If Isabella’s IV line had been tampered with, could Adler have been forced or bribed to administer something? And why had Adler looked so deeply shaken—almost terrified—when he came to tell Emma that her daughter had died?
Her workshop door creaked open.
Emma started, quickly covering the music box with a cloth.
Gabriel stepped inside, carrying two cups of steaming coffee. He had shed his formal jacket and wore a dark grey sweater, looking remarkably relaxed.
"I hope I'm not intruding," Gabriel said, offering her a cup.
"Not at all," Emma said, taking the coffee. "Thank you."
Gabriel walked around her workbench, looking at the carved wooden ornaments, the small hand-made rocking horses, and the delicate tools laid out in neat rows.
"You have extraordinary skill," Gabriel noted, picking up a beautifully carved wooden robin. "It takes a very patient mind to create something like this from a rough block of wood."
"Patience is just giving something the time it needs to reveal itself," Emma said softy, watching him. "Wood has memory, Gabriel. It remembers where the rain fell, where the branch broke, where the fire touched it. If you force it, it shatters. If you listen to it, it turns into something beautiful."
Gabriel looked at her, his hazel eyes dark with emotion. "I wish I had your perspective. My world is built on forcing things into compliance."
"Is that why you trust Julian Vance?" Emma asked, unable to stop the question from slipping out.
Gabriel paused, setting the wooden robin down. His expression grew guarded. "Julian was my father's right hand. He managed our legal transitions for twenty years. Why do you ask?"
Emma hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "Yesterday, I saw him looking at the nursery records. He looked... uncomfortable that I was here. I just get the feeling he doesn't like anything he cannot control."
Gabriel’s jaw tightened. "Julian is pragmatic. He worries about security risks. But he knows his boundaries." He took a step closer to her, his tone shifting into something deeper, more personal. "You don't need to worry about Julian, Emma. No one in this house will ever harm you. You have my word."
He reached out, his warm, rough fingers gently touching her jaw, brushing a lock of chestnut hair behind her ear.
Emma’s breath hitched. The touch was electricity against her skin. She looked up into his eyes, seeing the fierce, protective instinct of a man who was slowly opening his guarded heart to her.
"Gabriel..." she whispered.
Before he could answer, Gabriel’s encrypted phone buzzed loudly in his pocket. The moment shattered.
Gabriel pulled out the phone, glancing at the caller ID. His face immediately hardened into stone.
"Speak," Gabriel commanded into the receiver.
He listened for ten seconds, his body going rigid as steel.
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"Where?" Gabriel growled. "Secure the perimeter. I'm coming downtown now."
He hung up and looked at Emma, his eyes dark with lethal intent. "My security team just found Dr. Benjamin Adler. He was hiding in an abandoned warehouse near the Brooklyn docks. He's alive."
