Chapter 2 - THE CLOSET SHE LEFT BEHIND
Her dresses remained.
Silk.
Cashmere.
Expensive coats she had barely worn.
Gabriel stood in the middle of Norah's closet, surrounded by evidence of a woman who had apparently vanished without taking the life he thought she loved.
Luca stood behind him.
“She took almost nothing.”
Gabriel ran his fingers across an empty section of shelves.
“What did she take?”
“Two overnight bags. A diaper bag. A medical kit from Dr. Harris. That's all we've found.”
Gabriel stared at the clothing.
“Not jewelry?”
“No.”
“Money?”
“About six hundred dollars from the household safe.”
Gabriel's jaw tightened.
“She didn't take anything valuable.”
Luca hesitated.
“No.”
That bothered him more than if she had emptied the room.
Norah had not run away for money.
She had run away from him.
Gabriel opened the drawers one by one.
Then he stopped.
Inside the bottom drawer was a small velvet box.
He knew it immediately.
Three years earlier, he had given Norah the necklace inside it.
A thin gold chain with a small antique silver pendant.
She had worn it on their wedding day.
He opened the box.
Empty.
Gabriel stared at it.
“She took the necklace.”
Luca nodded.
“Apparently.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
For the first time since entering the house, the rage inside him weakened.
The necklace had belonged to Norah's mother.
Norah had once told him it was the only thing her mother had left her.
She had never taken it off during the first year of their marriage.
Then, gradually, she had stopped wearing it.
Gabriel had never asked why.
He suddenly wished he had.
“Keep searching,” he said.
Luca moved toward the wardrobe.
Gabriel opened another drawer.
There was an old photograph beneath a stack of folded scarves.
He pulled it out.
Norah was perhaps eight years old.
She stood beside an older woman on a beach, smiling at the camera.
Her mother.
Gabriel had seen the picture before.
What he had never noticed was the man standing several yards behind them.
A tall man in a dark coat.
His face was turned partly away.
But Gabriel recognized the watch on his wrist.
Black leather.
Silver face.
A thin scar crossing the glass.
Gabriel's stomach tightened.
He knew that watch.
He had seen it twenty years ago.
On his father's oldest lieutenant.
Victor Vale.
Victor had disappeared from Chicago when Gabriel was nineteen.
Everyone said he had fled after a failed deal.
Gabriel had never thought about him since.
“Luca.”
The security chief came closer.
Gabriel handed him the photograph.
“Do you know this man?”
Luca studied it.
His expression changed.
“That's Victor Vale.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
“Victor worked for my father.”
“He did.”
“Then why is he standing behind my wife when she was a child?”
Luca didn't answer.
Gabriel turned the photograph over.
There was handwriting on the back.
Not Norah's.
He recognized the sharp, narrow letters immediately.
His father's handwriting.
Ask why they were watching her.
Gabriel stared at the sentence.
Then he looked toward the empty nursery.
The answer he thought he was searching for had changed.
This was no longer simply about an unfaithful husband losing his wife.
Someone had known Norah long before Gabriel had.
Someone connected to his father.
Someone who had been watching her.
“Luca,” Gabriel said quietly, “find everything you can about Victor Vale.”
“I thought he was dead.”
“So did I.”
Luca looked down at the photograph.
“Then why would he be in this?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
Because another thought had just struck him.
Victor wasn't the only person who knew Norah's family.
Gabriel's father had once warned him never to trust anyone who knew the history of the Costa family.
Gabriel had assumed the warning concerned enemies.
Now he wondered if it had concerned Norah.
He returned to the bedroom.
The sheets had been removed.
The bloodstained towels were gone.
But beneath the bed, something glinted.
Gabriel crouched.
He reached underneath and pulled out a small silver object.
A pocket watch.
Old.
Scratched.
The initials R.C. were engraved on the back.
His father's initials.
Gabriel opened it.
The hands had stopped at 2:17.
He remembered Dr. Harris saying the first baby had been born around two.
The second ten minutes later.
Gabriel stared at the frozen hands.
Then he noticed something else.
A tiny piece of paper had been folded inside the watch.
He unfolded it.
Three words were written there.
DON'T TRUST LUCA.
Gabriel's eyes lifted slowly.
Luca was standing in the doorway.
Neither man moved.
Then Luca looked at the watch.
And went pale.
“You found it.”
Gabriel stood.
“You know what this is?”
Luca swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Then tell me why my wife left it for me.”
Luca's face tightened.
“Because she knew you would find it eventually.”
“Eventually?”
Luca stepped into the room.
“Gabriel, there are things about Norah's past you were never supposed to know.”
“Who decided that?”
Luca looked at the photograph.
“Your father.”
Gabriel felt the room tilt beneath him.
“My father died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then explain.”
Luca took a slow breath.
“Your father wasn't protecting you from Norah.”
Gabriel waited.
“He was protecting Norah from you.”
Silence.
Gabriel's fingers closed around the watch.
“Where are my wife and children?”
Luca looked toward the nursery.
“I don't know.”
Gabriel's voice dropped.
“That's not what I asked.”
Luca met his eyes.
“Then I think you should see what Norah left in the baby's room.”
He turned and walked away.
Gabriel followed.
Inside the nursery, Luca went to the changing table.
He removed the bottom drawer.
Behind it was a narrow wooden panel.
He pressed one corner.
The panel released.
Inside was a small envelope.
Gabriel took it.
His name was written across the front.
GABRIEL.
He opened it.
There was only one sentence.
If you are reading this, the babies were born safely. Do not look for us until you learn what your father did to my family.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Then he saw the second line.
And Gabriel—Bianca was never the reason I left.
His hands began to shake.
Because Norah knew.
She had known about Bianca.
And she had still stayed long enough to give him children.
Then, beneath Norah's handwriting, there was another sentence.
Written by someone else.
She left because she finally remembered who you are.
Gabriel looked at Luca.
“Who wrote that?”
Luca didn't answer.
His eyes had fixed on the nursery window.
Outside, beyond the frost-covered glass, a black sedan was disappearing down the road.
Luca whispered one sentence.
May you like
“Someone knows she escaped.”
And Gabriel realized the search for Norah had just become a race against someone who wanted her found first.
