Chapter 2 - She Thought Her Mafia Husband Had Chosen a Beautiful Younger Woman—Until the Mistress Admitted the Divorce Had Been Staged to Save Claire and the Babies Nobody Knew Had SurvivedSerena Vale survived.
The bullet had gone through the soft tissue of her shoulder.
Gabriel’s private physician treated her in a secured penthouse above the Beaumont while his security team searched the building.
My sons slept in an adjoining room.
Or pretended to.
I stood at the window looking over Manhattan.
Gabriel entered.
“We caught two men.”
“Who sent them?”
“They won’t talk.”
“Victor Vale?”
“Probably.”
I turned.
“You’re going to explain everything.”
“Yes.”
“No lies.”
“Yes.”
“No deciding what I can handle.”
Gabriel’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Start with Serena.”
He sat.
Five years earlier, Victor Vale controlled several ports Gabriel needed for Cross Freight.
But legitimate shipping was only the surface.
Victor had built an international smuggling network using cargo manifests from Gabriel’s company.
Gabriel discovered it.
He intended to expose Victor and remove the Vale organization from his territory.
Victor discovered Gabriel’s plan first.
“He sent me photographs of you.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“To prove he could reach you.”
Gabriel stared at his hands.
“He knew what you meant to me.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You had an unusual way of showing it.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
There was no defense in his voice.
That made anger harder.
Gabriel continued.
“Victor told me I had two options. Join his network or lose you.”
“So you kissed his daughter?”
“No.”
“Then explain that.”
“Serena came to me.”
Gabriel looked toward the bedroom where she was recovering.
“She knew what her father was doing.”
“And?”
“She offered a third option.”
A fake affair.
Public enough to convince Victor that Gabriel was emotionally detaching from Claire.
Then divorce.
Serena would become Gabriel’s apparent partner.
Claire would disappear from his world.
Victor would lose his leverage.
“You expected me to believe you stopped loving me.”
“Yes.”
“You succeeded.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“You let me think I was worthless.”
“No.”
“That is exactly what you did.”
“I thought hatred would keep you away.”
“You thought you were entitled to choose my feelings.”
He went silent.
“That wasn’t protection, Gabriel.”
“I know that now.”
“You could have told me.”
“I believed Victor had people inside my house.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“Then we could have left together.”
“He would have followed.”
“So instead you broke me.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No justification.
Just the ugly answer.
“Yes.”
I looked away.
“Did you sleep with Serena?”
“No.”
I turned.
“Never?”
“Never.”
“Five years?”
“She has her life. I have mine.”
“You’re engaged.”
“Publicly.”
“Why continue?”
“Victor never stopped watching.”
I felt sick.
“You’ve spent five years pretending?”
“Yes.”
“And Serena?”
“Paying for her father’s crimes.”
That complicated things.
I hated complications.
It had been easier when Serena was simply the beautiful woman who stole my husband.
The bedroom door opened.
Serena stood there with her arm in a sling.
“I didn’t steal him.”
I stared.
She smiled weakly.
“You said that out loud.”
I hadn’t realized.
Serena walked carefully toward us.
“I owe you an apology.”
“A large one.”
“Yes.”
She sat.
“I knew about the threat.”
“You participated.”
“I did.”
“You kissed my husband.”
“Yes.”
“While he was still my husband.”
“Yes.”
She did not hide.
“I thought we could stage something convincing enough to get you out before my father acted.”
“And nobody thought perhaps Claire deserved to know?”
Serena looked ashamed.
“Gabriel wanted to tell you.”
I glanced at him.
“He did?”
“He argued with me for two weeks.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Serena continued.
“I told him if your reaction wasn’t genuine, my father would know.”
I stared at her.
“So you helped destroy my marriage because you believed my heartbreak needed to look authentic?”
“Yes.”
“That may be the most insane sentence anyone has ever said to me.”
“I grew up in an insane family.”
“Not an excuse.”
“No.”
I appreciated that neither of them tried to escape responsibility.
It didn’t make forgiveness automatic.
But it mattered.
“What about my pregnancy?”
Serena’s expression changed.
“My father found out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“The threat?”
“Probably him.”
Gabriel stood.
“He never told me.”
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
Serena looked at him.
“Neither did I.”
I studied both faces.
“What did Victor think happened to the babies?”
Serena swallowed.
“That you terminated the pregnancy.”
I went cold.
“What?”
“My father received a medical record.”
“I never—”
“I know.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“Who sent it?”
“I don’t know.”
The pieces rearranged.
Someone had falsified evidence convincing Victor that my pregnancy ended.
That false record might have saved my sons.
But who created it?
Gabriel asked the same question.
Serena shook her head.
“My father said the problem resolved itself.”
I sat.
Five years.
Someone had known I was pregnant.
Someone had protected the secret.
Then eight months ago the surveillance began again.
“Why now?”
Gabriel looked toward the photographs.
“Because somebody discovered the boys survived.”
A small voice came from behind us.
“Survived what?”
Noah.
I stood immediately.
He wore dinosaur pajamas and held Oliver’s stuffed wolf.
“Sweetheart.”
“What babies?”
I crouched.
“Adults are discussing something complicated.”
“About us?”
“Yes.”
“Then I should know.”
Gabriel looked at me.
I saw recognition.
That stubbornness was his.
I hated that I found it endearing.
I explained only what a five-year-old needed.
“Someone bad knew I was going to have you, and I was scared. So I moved away and kept you safe.”
Noah looked at Gabriel.
“Did he know?”
“No.”
Gabriel crouched.
“Noah.”
My son looked at him.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“Would you have wanted us?”
Gabriel’s face broke.
I had never seen that expression.
Not during our divorce.
Not during funerals.
Not when men threatened him.
“Yes.”
Noah frowned.
“All three?”
Gabriel almost laughed.
“All three.”
“Even Oliver?”
From the bedroom came an offended voice.
“I heard that!”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Gabriel did too.
Then Ethan appeared.
Oliver behind him.
Sleep was officially over.
Gabriel found himself sitting on the carpet answering questions.
Did he like pizza?
Yes.
Did he have a dog?
No.
Why?
Too much travel.
Could he fight?
Claire said, “Next question.”
Did he know Spider-Man?
Not personally.
Was he actually in the mafia?
Silence.
I closed my eyes.
Gabriel looked at me.
I shrugged.
“Brooklyn kindergarten is surprisingly well informed.”
Gabriel considered.
“My family has done things I’m not proud of.”
Noah frowned.
“Bad things?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still do bad things?”
Gabriel looked at me.
Then at them.
“I’m trying to do fewer.”
It was not the sanitized answer I expected.
I respected it.
Ethan handed him the paper airplane.
“Keep it.”
Gabriel stared at the folded paper.
“For me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Dads get presents.”
Gabriel looked down.
His eyes filled.
He blinked quickly.
Oliver noticed.
“Are you crying?”
“No.”
“You are.”
“I have something in my eye.”
“There’s nothing near your eye.”
Gabriel looked at me desperately.
I smiled.
“Good luck.”
For the first time, I saw the most feared man I had ever known lose an argument to three preschoolers.
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
His expression changed.
He stood.
“What?”
He listened.
“Where?”
Another pause.
“We’re coming.”
He ended the call.
I knew that face.
“What happened?”
“The man we detained talked.”
“And?”
“He gave us a name.”
“Victor?”
“No.”
Gabriel looked at Serena.
“Sebastian Cross.”
I stared.
Gabriel’s older brother.
The brother supposedly killed twelve years earlier.
Serena went white.
“That’s impossible.”
Gabriel’s voice became quiet.
“So was tonight.”
An hour later, Gabriel’s security team brought us evidence.
A bank transfer.
Surveillance.
A voice recording.
Sebastian Cross was alive.
Worse, he had been working with Victor Vale for years.
Gabriel explained.
Sebastian had been heir to their father’s organization.
Brutal.
Ambitious.
Unstable.
Twelve years earlier his car went into the Hudson River.
A body was recovered.
DNA confirmed identity.
Gabriel inherited everything.
“What if the DNA was falsified?” I asked.
Gabriel looked at Serena.
“Victor had people in the medical examiner’s office.”
She nodded slowly.
“He could have done it.”
“Why?”
Gabriel answered.
“Because Sebastian wanted to disappear.”
My skin prickled.
“And now?”
“He wants to come back.”
Serena looked at the triplets.
“No.”
Gabriel turned.
“What?”
“Your sons.”
She stood.
“Sebastian was obsessed with inheritance. Bloodline. Your father choosing you instead of him.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“He doesn’t want Claire.”
Serena nodded.
“He wants the boys.”
My entire body went cold.
Gabriel walked toward the window.
For a moment, I saw the old Gabriel.
The one men feared.
“Then he made a mistake.”
I grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You are not starting a war around my children.”
“He threatened them.”
“And that means we protect them intelligently.”
His jaw tightened.
“Not with bodies in the street.”
“Claire—”
“I spent five years keeping them away from this world.”
I stepped closer.
“You want to be their father?”
He stared.
“Yes.”
“Then start acting like one.”
Silence.
“Being their father doesn’t mean killing everyone who frightens you.”
I lowered my voice.
“It means making decisions that let them grow up without becoming you.”
That hit him.
I knew it.
Gabriel looked toward the bedroom.
Then back at me.
“What do you suggest?”
It was the first time in our entire relationship he had asked that question before acting.
“We find out why Sebastian came back.”
“And Victor?”
“We expose him.”
“You think police can handle Victor Vale?”
“No.”
I looked at Serena.
“But his daughter might.”
Serena stared at me.
I continued.
“You’ve spent five years beside him.”
“Pretending.”
“Exactly.”
“You want me to betray my father?”
“No.”
I held her gaze.
“I want you to decide whether protecting him is worth letting him come after three five-year-old boys.”
Serena looked toward the children.
Something changed in her face.
“No.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Serena repeated:
“No.”
She walked to the table.
“My father keeps a private ledger.”
Gabriel froze.
“Where?”
“I can get it.”
“That could destroy his organization.”
“Yes.”
“And probably send him to prison for life.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel studied her.
Serena’s eyes filled.
“He used me too.”
She looked at me.
“For five years, he let me pretend to be engaged to a man who loved someone else because it made his alliances easier.”
Then she laughed bitterly.
“I think I’m finally tired of being useful.”
I understood that sentence.
So did Gabriel.
By sunrise, we had a plan.
At seven fifteen, while the boys finally slept, I stood alone on the balcony.
Gabriel joined me.
“You should rest.”
“So should you.”
Silence.
Then:
“Why triplets?”
I looked at him.
He almost smiled.
“I realize that sounds accusatory.”
“It does.”
“I was expecting one theoretical child.”
“So was I.”
He looked through the glass at the boys.
“Which one was first?”
“Noah.”
“Then?”
“Ethan.”
“Oliver?”
“Four minutes later.”
Gabriel nodded solemnly.
“That explains him.”
I laughed.
He looked at me.
For one dangerous second, five years disappeared.
Then he said:
“I loved you.”
Past tense.
It hurt more than it should.
Gabriel corrected himself.
“I love you.”
I stopped breathing.
“I never stopped.”
“Gabriel.”
“You don’t have to answer.”
“Good.”
“You don’t have to forgive me.”
“I’m not ready.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get us back because the reason for the divorce was complicated.”
“I know.”
“You still betrayed my trust.”
“I know.”
“You still chose for me.”
“Yes.”
I studied him.
“Then what do you want?”
He looked through the window at our sleeping sons.
“A chance to know them.”
“And me?”
His gray-green eyes met mine.
“A chance to deserve being known by you again.”
Before I could answer, the hotel fire alarm screamed.
Security shouted from the corridor.
Gabriel drew his gun.
Then every phone in the room received the same photograph.
Three boys sleeping.
Taken less than sixty seconds earlier.
Beneath it was a message.
May you like
WELCOME BACK TO THE CROSS FAMILY, NEPHEWS.
UNCLE SEBASTIAN IS COMING HOME.
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