Chapter 6 - Unmasking the Ghost
The attack on the upstate compound left eight mercenaries dead and revealed a terrifying reality: the traitor was someone with master security access.
Gabriel returned to Manhattan with Emma and the boys under a full military-grade escort. The estate was locked down like a fortress.
In the basement holding facility beneath Moretti Atlantic headquarters, Marco dragged a battered, handcuffed prisoner into an interrogation room.
It was Derek Shaw.
Gabriel sat across from him in the dim room, his sleeves rolled up, his knuckles bruised. Emma stood behind the one-way glass in the observation room alongside Marco.
"I know you didn't plan the tactical assault, Derek," Gabriel said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "You don't have the stomach for blood. Who bought the security override codes from you?"
Derek was trembling, his lip split, tears washing streaks through the dirt on his cheeks. "I didn't know they were going to kill the kids! I swear to God, Gabriel, I didn't know!"
"Who?" Gabriel repeated, leaning forward.
"Victor Rossi!" Derek cried out, breaking completely. "It was Rossi! He paid off my gambling debts in Atlantic City six months ago! He made me hire Emma through the agency so we could use her as a scapegoat when he breached your archive!"
In the observation room, Emma gasped, her hand covering her mouth. Victor Rossi—the respected senior financier who sat at Gabriel's right hand.
Inside the room, Gabriel’s eyes narrowed into slits of ice. "Why did Rossi want Elena's files?"
"Because Rossi was the one who tampered with Elena’s brakes three years ago!" Derek sobbed. "Elena found out Rossi was laundering money for the Falcone syndicate through Moretti shipping routes! She was going to tell you, so he killed her! When he realized you were re-opening the investigation, he tried to frame Emma to force you into a distraction!"
Gabriel slowly stood up from his chair. The dark revelation settled over him like a suffocating shroud.
The man he had trusted to manage his family's wealth for fifteen years was the monster who had taken the mother of his children.
Gabriel walked out of the interrogation room, stepping into the observation booth where Emma waited.
Emma walked to him, taking his cold, shaking hands into hers. "Gabriel..."
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"He killed her," Gabriel whispered, his voice cracking with a pain six years in the making. "He sat at my dinner table, he held my sons when they were babies, and he killed my wife."
"We will bring him down, Gabriel," Emma said fiercely, looking directly into his tortured eyes. "Not with mindless rage. Together. We will finish this."
