Chapter 8
David stared at Paolo.
“My father gave you one?”
Paolo nodded.
“Before his last meeting with Vittorio.”
Margaret’s voice cut in.
“He gave recordings to half the city by then.”
Paolo looked at her.
“No.”
His face hardened.
“Only men he thought might still be alive after you were finished.”
Silence.
David turned toward his mother.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret smiled faintly.
“Paolo has hated me for thirty years.”
“Why?”
She said nothing.
Paolo answered.
“Because Gabriel came to me the night he realized someone had opened East Gate for the Calders.”
Vittorio looked toward him.
Even he had not heard that part.
Paolo continued.
The old Mercer compound once had an eastern service entrance.
Only three people could open it without raising alarm.
Gabriel.
His brother.
Margaret.
The night Calder men entered, Gabriel was across town meeting Vittorio.
His brother had already been injured.
Margaret was home.
David’s eyes narrowed.
“No.”
Margaret laughed.
“Convenient.”
Paolo’s voice stayed calm.
“Gabriel thought the same.”
“He was wrong.”
“He followed the gate chain.”
Margaret’s expression changed.
“Enough.”
David turned sharply.
“You said he never suspected you.”
Margaret’s nostrils flared.
Paolo kept going.
Gabriel discovered Margaret had been meeting Calder intermediaries secretly.
Not because she wanted him dead.
At first.
She wanted leverage.
Gabriel was respected but never ambitious enough for her.
Margaret believed the Mercers were becoming subordinate to DeLuca influence.
She wanted her husband to take a harder position.
So she fed the Calders limited information.
Enough to pressure Gabriel.
Enough to make him fight.
Enough, she believed, to make him powerful.
Sarah stared at Margaret.
“You created danger to make your husband more aggressive.”
Margaret’s eyes turned toward her.
“You wouldn't understand.”
Sarah almost laughed.
“No.”
She looked toward David.
“I understand perfectly.”
Margaret heard the accusation.
Her mouth hardened.
David’s breathing grew heavier.
“Did you do it?”
Margaret stared at him.
Then smiled.
Not kindly.
“You're asking the wrong question.”
“What question should I ask?”
“Why your father was too weak to use the opportunity.”
David flinched.
She saw it.
Still she continued.
“Gabriel could have taken half Boston if he had a spine.”
Paolo's face tightened.
David whispered:
“You told me he was the strongest man you knew.”
Margaret’s gaze remained cold.
“I told a boy what a boy needed to hear.”
There it was.
David looked as though she had struck him.
But Margaret did not stop.
“You built yourself because I gave you something worth hating.”
Her voice became harder.
“Don't suddenly become sentimental about a dead man you barely remember.”
Sarah stared at her.
This was the woman who had taught David how love and control became interchangeable.
It did not excuse him.
It explained the shape.
David finally looked toward Vittorio.
“You knew she opened the gate?”
“No.”
His answer was immediate.
Paolo nodded.
“Gabriel never told him the name.”
Margaret scoffed.
“Of course not.”
Paolo looked at her.
“Because he was protecting David.”
David froze.
Paolo continued.
Gabriel believed if the Mercers learned Margaret had betrayed the house, they would punish her.
And if she fell, five-year-old David would be left without either parent.
So Gabriel took responsibility for the gate failure.
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
David stared.
“My father took blame for you.”
She said nothing.
His voice roughened.
“And you told me Vittorio betrayed him.”
Margaret’s chin lifted.
“Vittorio benefited.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Silence.
For the first time, David sounded like Sarah had sounded all night.
Demanding a straight answer from someone who had built power by avoiding them.
Margaret finally said:
“Yes.”
David closed his eyes.
But Paolo was not finished.
“Gabriel survived the Calder attack.”
David opened them.
“What?”
Margaret went completely still.
Vittorio turned toward Paolo.
He had believed Gabriel died in that ambush too.
Paolo’s voice lowered.
“He lived another eleven days.”
David looked toward his mother.
She had told him his father died instantly.
Another lie.
Paolo reached toward the second recorder.
“And during those eleven days…”
May you like
His eyes stayed on Margaret.
“…Gabriel learned who had told the Calders where he was recovering.”
