Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO KEPT HER ALIVE
Gabriel did not move.
Victor aimed directly at his chest.
“You knew.”
Gabriel’s face remained calm.
“Yes.”
That one word nearly destroyed everything.
Victor crossed the room.
“You let me bury her.”
“Yes.”
“You watched Leo cry for his mother.”
Gabriel’s voice cracked.
“Yes.”
I had never heard emotion in him before.
Victor pressed the weapon closer.
“Give me one reason.”
Gabriel looked at Leo’s photograph on the desk.
“She begged me.”
Victor froze.
Gabriel explained.
Elena contacted him from the hospital after Anthony’s men moved her.
She had proof against Anthony.
But Anthony controlled enough guards that exposing him immediately could get Leo killed.
She asked Gabriel to help her disappear long enough to collect evidence.
Gabriel agreed.
He believed it would take weeks.
Then Anthony became more dangerous.
Months became years.
“Why not tell Victor?” I asked.
Gabriel looked at me.
“Because Victor would have gone to war with his brother before we knew which men Anthony owned.”
Victor said:
“You made that choice for me.”
“Yes.”
“Wrong choice.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel did not defend himself.
That saved him more than excuses would have.
Then he handed Victor a flash drive.
“Elena sent this yesterday.”
Accounts.
Messages.
Security records.
Proof Anthony ordered the original bomb.
Proof he later organized the attack on the sunroom.
My shooting.
Leo.
Everything.
Anthony had tried to kill Leo too?
No.
The evidence revealed something stranger.
The shooters were told to avoid Leo if possible.
Their actual target was Victor.
But Victor had left the sunroom moments before the attack.
Anthony did not know.
The gunmen continued anyway.
Leo became acceptable collateral.
I felt sick.
Victor looked murderous.
Then the final file.
Anthony had another partner.
The nanny.
She had been feeding him Leo’s schedule.
Not because she hated Victor.
Because Anthony paid for her husband’s gambling debts.
Weakness again.
Everyone had one.
The question was who found it first.
Authorities were not an easy option for Victor.
His world complicated everything.
But legitimate crimes existed.
Attempted murder.
Financial fraud.
Kidnapping Elena.
Victor finally did something no one expected.
He contacted federal prosecutors through his attorney.
He offered evidence.
Not immunity for everything.
Cooperation on Anthony.
The price?
Elena’s protection.
Leo’s safety.
My protection.
The prosecutor agreed to talk.
I asked Victor:
“Why now?”
He looked exhausted.
“Because every time I solve something my way, Leo inherits another enemy.”
That was the first time I saw him imagine a future beyond the syndicate.
Anthony was found in Mexico.
Elena was with him.
Not willingly.
He had located her before Gabriel’s people reached Montreal.
The photograph had been staged.
Anthony wanted Victor to come personally.
He wanted his brother angry.
Unthinking.
Predictable.
Victor almost gave him exactly that.
Instead, a joint operation worked with Canadian and Mexican authorities.
No dramatic shootout.
No private army.
Victor hated every minute of waiting.
I sat beside him.
At 3:18 a.m., the call came.
Elena alive.
Anthony arrested.
Victor closed his eyes.
Then Leo entered in pajamas.
“Daddy?”
Victor picked him up.
“Mommy is coming home.”
Leo stared.
Then started crying.
So did Victor.
I left the room.
Some reunions did not need witnesses.
But the next question belonged to me.
If Elena was alive—
where did that leave Victor’s bizarre proposal?
More importantly—
where did that leave my heart?
May you like
Because somewhere between bullets, rehab, butterscotch candies, and late-night arguments, I had fallen in love with a man whose wife had just come back from the dead.
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