Chapter 3 - The Mafia Boss Finally Met the Brother Everyone Thought Was Dead—But Sebastian Didn’t Want Gabriel’s Empire Nearly as Much as He Wanted the Three Little Boys Who Could Inherit ItGabriel moved us before sunrise.
Not to Westchester.
Not to any Cross property.
I chose the location.
That mattered.
Five years earlier Gabriel would have decided.
Now he asked.
My mother owned a small house near Cold Spring overlooking the Hudson.
Nobody in Gabriel’s organization knew about it.
My mother was in Florida.
Within two hours, three black SUVs rolled into her driveway.
I stared.
“I said discreet.”
Gabriel stepped out.
“This is discreet.”
“There are twelve armed men.”
“Ten.”
“That is not better.”
Oliver appeared beside me.
“Can they play soccer?”
Gabriel looked at his security team.
“They can now.”
By afternoon, my sons had converted hardened security professionals into goalkeepers.
Gabriel stood near the porch watching.
He looked lost.
“Go.”
He glanced at me.
“What?”
“They’re waiting for you.”
“I don’t play soccer.”
“Neither does Oliver.”
Oliver kicked the ball directly into a hedge.
“See?”
Gabriel removed his jacket.
The boys attacked him.
For forty minutes I watched a version of Gabriel Cross I had never known existed.
He fell in the grass.
He laughed.
He let Ethan climb on his back.
When Noah scored, Gabriel celebrated as though Cross Freight had acquired Europe.
It hurt.
Because I loved seeing it.
Because I hated that we had lost five years.
Because part of that loss was his fault.
Part was mine.
And part belonged to people who had treated our marriage like a chessboard.
That evening Serena arrived.
She carried Victor’s ledger.
“How?”
Gabriel asked.
“My father still thinks I’m his daughter.”
Pain flashed behind her smile.
The ledger documented bribes, murders, smuggling routes and payments.
One name appeared repeatedly.
S. Cross.
Sebastian.
Then I found something else.
A payment made five years earlier.
To Dr. Helen Markham.
My obstetrician.
I stared.
Gabriel noticed.
“What?”
I turned the ledger.
Serena whispered, “Oh God.”
Dr. Markham had been the person who told me I was carrying triplets.
She also helped me transfer care to Connecticut.
“Why was Victor paying her?”
Gabriel called his people.
Dr. Markham was located within an hour.
She agreed to speak only to me.
Her voice shook over the phone.
“I’ve waited five years for this call.”
“Why did Victor Vale pay you?”
Silence.
“To tell him your pregnancy ended.”
My knees weakened.
“You falsified the record.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your husband asked me to protect you.”
I looked at Gabriel.
His face showed genuine confusion.
“He didn’t.”
“Not Gabriel.”
My blood chilled.
“Who?”
“His father.”
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Vincent Cross had died six years earlier.
One year before our divorce.
“That’s impossible.”
Dr. Markham continued.
“Vincent came to me before his death. He said if you ever became pregnant, there were people who would consider a Cross heir a threat.”
“Why me?”
“Because he knew Gabriel loved you.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
His father had prepared for grandchildren before dying.
Dr. Markham had received money from Victor, then falsified the record.
She made Victor believe the pregnancy ended.
“Why take his money?”
“So he would trust the record.”
Clever.
Dangerous.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Vincent made me promise.”
I almost laughed.
Another person protecting me through secrecy.
“I’m tired of dead men making decisions for me.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Fair.”
Dr. Markham apologized.
I ended the call.
Then Noah screamed outside.
Gabriel moved before I did.
We ran.
Noah stood beside the road.
A black sedan waited twenty yards away.
A man leaned against it.
Tall.
Dark hair threaded with silver.
Gray-green eyes.
Gabriel stopped.
The resemblance was unmistakable.
Sebastian Cross smiled.
“Little brother.”
Gabriel drew his gun.
Sebastian laughed.
“Still dramatic.”
“Step away from my son.”
Noah ran to me.
I pulled him behind me.
Sebastian studied all three boys.
“Remarkable.”
Gabriel stepped between them.
“You don’t look at them.”
“They’re my nephews.”
“They’re nothing to you.”
“Blood disagrees.”
Sebastian’s gaze shifted to me.
“Claire.”
I hated hearing my name from him.
“You’re prettier than the photographs.”
Gabriel’s gun rose.
I touched his arm.
“No.”
Sebastian smiled.
“She still controls you.”
“I never controlled him.”
“No?”
Sebastian tilted his head.
“Then perhaps that was Gabriel’s problem.”
Gabriel’s voice became lethal.
“Why are you here?”
“To negotiate.”
“For what?”
“The Cross empire.”
“You disappeared.”
“I was removed.”
Gabriel frowned.
Sebastian’s smile vanished.
“Our father chose you.”
“You were killing people without authorization.”
“I was building power.”
“You murdered two union leaders.”
“They were obstacles.”
Gabriel looked disgusted.
Sebastian laughed.
“There. That expression. Father loved that about you.”
“What?”
“You wanted to be respectable.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“He thought you could turn our family into something legitimate.”
His eyes moved toward the triplets.
“And now you have heirs.”
I understood.
“This is about succession.”
Sebastian looked at me approvingly.
“Exactly.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“There is no throne.”
“There is always a throne.”
“No.”
Gabriel lowered the gun slightly.
“There’s a company.”
Sebastian laughed.
“You own ports, warehouses, security firms, judges—”
“Not anymore.”
Sebastian stopped.
Gabriel continued.
“I’ve spent five years dismantling half of what Father built.”
That surprised me.
“You have?”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His expression softened.
“Because after you left, I realized winning everything wasn’t worth much if I had nobody to come home to.”
Sebastian’s face twisted.
“Pathetic.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Maybe.”
Then Ethan stepped around me.
“My dad isn't pathetic.”
Everyone froze.
Gabriel looked at him.
Ethan looked terrified.
But he stayed.
Sebastian stared.
“Your dad?”
Ethan grabbed Gabriel’s free hand.
“He’s learning.”
I nearly cried.
Gabriel definitely did.
Sebastian’s smile disappeared.
“You think this is touching?”
“No,” I said.
He looked at me.
“I think it tells you why you're going to lose.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You think motherhood made you brave?”
“No.”
I stepped beside Gabriel.
“Motherhood taught me exactly what I'm willing to fight for.”
Sebastian laughed.
Then gunfire erupted from the woods.
Gabriel shoved Ethan down.
Security returned fire.
Sebastian jumped behind his car.
But something was wrong.
His men weren’t firing at us.
They were firing at him.
Victor Vale had arrived.
The alliance was over.
Serena shouted from the porch.
“Father!”
Victor stepped from another vehicle.
“You should have stayed dead, Sebastian.”
Sebastian fired.
Chaos exploded.
Gabriel grabbed the boys.
“House!”
We ran.
A bullet shattered the porch railing.
Serena stood frozen.
Victor aimed toward Sebastian.
Then saw his daughter.
“Serena! Come here!”
She stared at him.
“No.”
His face changed.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand everything.”
She held up the ledger.
Victor went white.
“You stole that.”
“You used me.”
“I protected you.”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“Apparently every terrible man in our lives calls control protection.”
Gabriel glanced at me.
Not the time.
Victor shouted.
“Bring it to me!”
“No.”
“Serena!”
She stepped backward.
“You threatened Claire when she was pregnant.”
“I protected our family.”
“You were willing to kill babies.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“They were Cross heirs.”
Noah heard.
I covered his ears.
Too late.
Gabriel’s entire body went still.
Victor had confessed.
Serena wore a recording device.
Police and federal agents were listening from two miles away.
That had been the plan.
Sebastian’s arrival had not.
Sirens sounded.
Victor realized.
“You betrayed me.”
Serena cried.
“No, Dad.”
She looked at him.
“I finally stopped betraying myself.”
Victor raised his weapon.
Gabriel fired first.
The bullet struck Victor’s shoulder.
Agents flooded the property.
Victor fell.
Sebastian escaped into the woods.
Gabriel wanted to follow.
I grabbed him.
“No.”
“He’ll get away.”
“Your sons are here.”
That stopped him.
He looked at them.
Three frightened little faces.
Gabriel holstered the gun.
He stayed.
That decision mattered more than he knew.
Victor was arrested.
Serena rode with him to the hospital.
Before leaving, she hugged me.
I stiffened.
Then hugged her back.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But perhaps the beginning of something less painful than hatred.
That night the boys slept in one room.
Gabriel sat outside their door.
I found him there at two in the morning.
“You can sleep.”
“No.”
“Gabriel.”
“What if they wake?”
“They know how doors work.”
He looked embarrassed.
“I missed five years.”
I sat beside him.
“You can’t recover them by refusing to sleep.”
“I know.”
Silence.
Then he whispered:
“Thank you.”
“For?”
“Stopping me.”
“From chasing Sebastian?”
“Yes.”
He looked toward the bedroom.
“My first instinct was still revenge.”
“But you stayed.”
“Because you told me.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You stayed because you chose to.”
He looked at me.
That mattered.
I leaned against the wall.
“Ethan called you Dad.”
“I heard.”
“You cried.”
“I did not.”
“You absolutely did.”
“Hallway dust.”
I smiled.
He smiled.
For a moment we were Gabriel and Claire again.
Not mafia boss.
Not abandoned wife.
Not parents caught in a war.
Just us.
He leaned slightly closer.
Then stopped.
“Can I kiss you?”
Five years ago he would not have asked.
My heart betrayed me by racing.
“No.”
Pain flashed across his face.
But he nodded.
“Okay.”
I touched his hand.
“Not yet.”
His eyes lifted.
Not never.
Not yet.
He understood.
Then a phone vibrated.
Gabriel checked it.
His expression hardened.
A photograph.
Sebastian standing outside my Brooklyn apartment.
He held a match.
Beneath the image:
May you like
IF I CAN’T INHERIT THE CROSS FAMILY, I’LL BURY IT.
Three minutes later, my apartment exploded.
Related Stories
