Chapter 4 - GABRIEL’S FIRST NAME
Marcus led Clara and Emma through an underground passage connecting Room 27 to the north greenhouse.
Rain had begun to strike the glass roof.
Emma sat on an old wooden bench, wrapped in Marcus’s coat. She held the rabbit against her face and watched the adults with frightened eyes.
Clara stood near the door.
“You knew Gabriel.”
Marcus did not answer immediately.
“You called him Gabriel Bennett,” he finally said. “That was not the name I knew.”
“What was his name?”
“Adrian Valmont.”
Clara laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“That’s impossible.”
“He was Alessandro’s eldest son.”
“No. Alessandro Valmont’s son died years ago.”
“That is what the family told the world.”
Clara shook her head.
“Gabriel was an architect. He grew up in foster care.”
“Those were identities created to protect him.”
“From whom?”
Marcus looked toward the palace.
“From his own family.”
The greenhouse lights flickered as thunder rolled over the hills.
Marcus explained that twenty-seven years earlier, Alessandro had established a private intelligence network called the Black Crown. It had begun as a defensive organization designed to protect Valmont businesses from kidnapping, espionage, and political coercion.
Over time, it gathered secrets powerful enough to collapse governments.
Every operation, every confidential payment, every hidden agreement had been preserved in an encrypted archive known as the Crown Ledger.
The ledger could not be accessed with a password alone.
It required three physical components.
One had belonged to Alessandro.
One to his wife, Isabella.
The final piece had been entrusted to their son, Adrian.
“Gabriel,” Clara whispered.
Marcus nodded.
“When Isabella died, Adrian accused Vivian of arranging her death. No one believed him. He disappeared before he could prove it.”
“Why would Vivian kill Isabella?”
“Control. Isabella planned to dismantle the Black Crown. Vivian believed the network should become a weapon.”
Clara looked at Emma.
“And the rabbit?”
“Adrian hid his key inside something no one would consider valuable.”
Clara remembered the torn ear.
“Why give it to a child?”
“Because no one could open the archive without Alessandro’s authorization. Adrian believed the key would be useless until he was ready to return.”
“But he died.”
Marcus’s face grew grave.
“Perhaps.”
Clara stared at him.
“The police identified his body.”
“The dental records used for identification disappeared two days later.”
Clara felt as if the floor had shifted beneath her.
“Are you saying he could be alive?”
“I am saying someone wanted you to believe he was dead.”
A movement appeared beyond the rain-covered glass.
Marcus reached for his weapon.
A figure stood outside the greenhouse.
A man in a dark coat.
Clara saw only his outline before lightning illuminated the garden.
May you like
He wore Gabriel’s wedding ring on his right hand.
Then the lights went out.
