Chapter 8 - THE THIRD KANE BROTHER
The name Gabriel seemed to remain in the room long after Edward stopped speaking.
Damon knew nothing about him.
That frightened him.
He had grown up hearing stories about Vincent and Thomas.
No one had ever mentioned Gabriel.
Not once.
Thomas looked older than he had ten minutes earlier.
“Gabriel was the youngest.”
Damon stared.
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because your father erased him.”
“Why?”
Thomas looked at Edward.
Edward answered.
“Because Gabriel chose Blackthorn.”
Sofia stepped closer.
“My father knew?”
“Yes.”
“And you?”
Edward nodded.
“I knew.”
Damon looked at Victor.
“And your father?”
Victor's expression was hollow.
“He served Gabriel.”
Everything suddenly made sense.
The secret room.
The shell companies.
The surveillance.
The hidden records.
Someone had rebuilt the network Gabriel once controlled.
Someone had been using Damon’s own house.
But one question remained.
“Is Gabriel alive?”
Thomas shook his head.
“We don't know.”
Damon stared at the photograph.
“What happened to him?”
Thomas explained that Gabriel had disappeared after the warehouse fire.
Vincent believed he had escaped.
Thomas believed he had been killed.
But the secret room suggested otherwise.
The network was still active.
Damon looked at the ledger pages.
Morrow.
Blackfin.
Alder.
North Mercy.
“These companies are being used now.”
Edward nodded.
“Someone is rebuilding Gabriel's network.”
“Why?”
“Because your father left something unfinished.”
Damon's eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“The ledger.”
Damon looked toward Nadia.
She shook her head.
“I never had it.”
Edward said quietly,
“You did.”
Nadia stared at him.
“What?”
“The night Elias died, you took it.”
Nadia looked horrified.
“I took my son's blanket.”
Edward shook his head.
“The ledger was inside it.”
Nadia froze.
She remembered.
After the fire, she had carried a small blanket home.
She had kept it for years.
Then she had thrown it away after Lily was born.
Or so she thought.
Damon asked, “Where is it?”
Nadia whispered,
“I don't know.”
Edward looked at Lily's rabbit.
“The same person searching for the ledger believes it was passed to Lily.”
Damon understood.
The child wasn't valuable.
The secret attached to her was.
Someone had mistaken Lily's innocence for possession of something she had never known existed.
Damon knelt beside Lily.
“You're safe.”
She nodded.
“Uncle Damon?”
“Yes?”
“Can we play tomorrow?”
Damon looked at her.
Despite everything, he smiled.
“Yes.”
She smiled back.
“Good.”
Nadia watched them.
Something softened in her expression.
For the first time since the investigation began, Damon understood what the little girl had changed.
She had entered the hidden corridor by accident.
But she had also exposed a world of secrets that adults had spent twenty years protecting.
Damon stood.
“We end this tonight.”
Thomas shook his head.
“You don't know where Gabriel is.”
“No.”
“You don't know who is running the network.”
“No.”
“You don't know where the ledger is.”
Damon looked at him.
“But I know what they want.”
Thomas frowned.
“And that is enough.”
Damon ordered the estate sealed.
Not with fear.
With transparency.
Every guard was informed.
Every staff member was moved to the main house.
No one was accused.
No one was threatened.
Damon knew suspicion could destroy innocent people as quickly as bullets.
He called Sofia's father into the library.
Edward sat across from him.
“You knew Gabriel survived.”
“I suspected.”
“You knew someone was using the old companies.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought your father had already paid the price.”
Damon's voice softened.
“He didn't.”
Edward looked down.
“No.”
Damon placed the black rose bracelet on the table.
“Where did this come from?”
“Your mother.”
Damon froze.
Edward explained.
After the warehouse fire, Damon’s mother had secretly kept records proving Vincent had tried to expose Blackthorn.
She gave the bracelet to Edward for safekeeping.
But Edward later passed it to Nadia.
He had hoped the evidence would disappear.
Instead, it had survived.
Damon stared at the bracelet.
“My mother knew everything.”
“She knew enough.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because your father threatened to send you away.”
Damon looked up.
“What?”
“He believed Gabriel would use you to reach Vincent.”
Damon remembered being sent to boarding school.
He had always believed it was punishment.
Maybe it had been protection.
The realization hurt more than anger.
He sat down.
For the first time in years, he felt something other than grief when he thought of his father.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But understanding.
Then Victor entered.
He held a folder.
“We found the final account.”
Damon looked up.
“Whose?”
Victor placed it on the table.
“Gabriel's.”
Damon opened it.
There was one active account.
No company name.
No address.
Only regular payments.
Every Thursday.
One recipient.
Damon stared at the name.
Elena Kane Foundation.
His wife's foundation.
His breath caught.
“Elena?”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
Damon looked at the transaction history.
The foundation had been receiving money for two years.
Since Elena's death.
Millions.
Damon felt sick.
Someone had been using his dead wife's name.
He opened the final page.
There was a handwritten note.
SHE KNEW THE TRUTH.
Damon stared.
“Who?”
Victor turned the page.
Another line.
ASK THE MAN WHO NEVER LEFT THE HOUSE.
Everyone looked at one another.
Then Damon slowly turned toward the hallway.
The old portrait of his father hung above the fireplace.
But beneath it was another portrait.
One Damon had never noticed before.
A younger man.
Dark-haired.
Cold-eyed.
Wearing a black rose ring.
Gabriel.
And in the bottom corner of the painting was a date.
It had been painted last year.
Damon stared.
His supposedly missing uncle had commissioned a portrait of himself.
Recently.
Which meant he had not merely survived.
He had been close.
Very close.
Damon walked toward the portrait.
Behind the frame was a small metal compartment.
Inside was a key.
And a note.
Damon unfolded it.
Only seven words.
I never left this family, Damon.
May you like
Then the lights in the mansion went out.
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