Chapter 10 - The Woman Beside the KingThree weeks later, Chicago looked normal again.
That was the strange thing about cities.
People disappeared.
Warehouses burned.
Criminal empires collapsed.
And by Monday morning, commuters still complained about traffic.
Chloe stood at the window of Gabriel’s restored lake house, watching Brutus chase a tennis ball across the lawn.
He was healing beautifully.
His stitches had been removed.
His appetite had returned with terrifying enthusiasm.
And he had apparently decided that every couch in Gabriel Costa’s estate belonged to him.
“Don’t encourage him.”
Gabriel’s voice came from behind her.
Chloe turned.
He was still recovering.
The stab wound forced him to move carefully, although he hated anyone noticing.
He wore black trousers and a gray sweater instead of his usual suit.
No weapon visible.
That did not mean there wasn’t one.
“I’m not encouraging anything.”
“You gave him steak.”
“He needed protein.”
“He ate twenty ounces.”
“He’s large.”
“He also ate mine.”
Chloe smiled.
“You hesitated.”
“He looked at me.”
“He has emotional needs.”
“He is extorting me.”
Brutus barked outside.
Gabriel looked through the window.
“Traitor.”
Chloe laughed.
The sound still surprised her.
Three weeks earlier, laughter had been something belonging to a different woman.
A woman whose life consisted of overnight shifts, overdue bills, vending-machine dinners, and pretending she was not exhausted.
That woman still existed.
But she was no longer alone.
Gabriel approached.
“How is Madison?”
“She likes your mother.”
“That is unfortunate.”
“They’re shopping.”
“Even worse.”
“Elena says Madison needs new clothes.”
“Why?”
“Apparently being kidnapped is bad for wardrobe planning.”
Gabriel sighed.
“My mother has wanted a daughter for thirty years.”
“Congratulations. She has two.”
His eyes settled on Chloe.
Something warm entered them.
Neither of them mentioned the question hanging beneath that sentence.
What exactly was Chloe now?
Not a hostage.
Not an employee.
Not a guest.
Gabriel had given her complete freedom after the stockyard.
A car.
Access codes.
A phone without tracking software.
At least, Chloe believed it had no tracking software.
She planned to test that later.
He had also paid none of her debts.
That surprised her.
After everything she had said about control, Gabriel had apparently listened.
Instead, he offered her something else.
A position.
The Costa Foundation funded community clinics, food programs, housing assistance, and several organizations the legitimate public believed were simply charitable projects.
Gabriel had offered Chloe funding to complete veterinary school.
No conditions.
No ownership.
She had not answered yet.
“You’re thinking.”
Gabriel touched her waist.
“Dangerous habit.”
“I need to go back to the clinic.”
His hand tightened.
“No.”
She looked at him.
He sighed.
“Sorry.”
“Try again.”
“I would prefer you not return to a building that was shot approximately four hundred times.”
“Better.”
“Thank you.”
“Dr. Reynolds is gone.”
“Yes.”
“Charges?”
Gabriel’s expression darkened.
Reynolds had eventually cooperated with federal investigators.
The records from the three drives had created a disaster across Chicago.
Judges resigned.
Police officers disappeared into interrogation rooms.
Shipping executives were arrested.
Moretti-controlled companies were frozen.
Even several Costa associates had been exposed.
Gabriel had made a decision nobody expected.
He let the investigations continue.
No retaliation.
No interference.
Chloe had asked him why.
His answer remained with her.
Because if I ask you to choose me, I need to become a man worth choosing.
“Reynolds entered protective custody,” Gabriel said.
“He testified about Moretti’s payments.”
“So he lives.”
“Yes.”
Chloe studied him.
“That bothers you.”
“Yes.”
“But you allowed it.”
“Yes.”
She smiled slightly.
“Progress.”
“Do not become unbearable.”
“Too late.”
A security vehicle appeared at the gate.
Gabriel’s phone rang.
He checked it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“Vince.”
“That usually means something exploded.”
“Not today.”
“Reassuring.”
Gabriel answered.
He listened.
Then went completely still.
“When?”
A pause.
“You’re certain?”
Another pause.
“Bring everything.”
He ended the call.
Chloe knew that face.
“What happened?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“The federal team finished decrypting the ledger.”
“And?”
“There was another file.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What kind of file?”
“Personal.”
“About my father?”
“Yes.”
They went downstairs.
Vince arrived twenty minutes later carrying a sealed envelope.
Madison and Elena returned at almost the same time.
Soon all five of them sat around Gabriel’s study.
Brutus lay beneath the table.
Vince opened the envelope.
“The encrypted ledger contained financial records, evidence, payment trails. Everything David promised.”
“What was hidden separately?” Chloe asked.
“A document dated six months after his supposed death.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
The same period Elena believed David had been murdered.
Vince slid a page across the table.
It was a medical record.
Patient name:
DANIEL HARRIS.
Chloe frowned.
“That isn’t him.”
Vince placed a photograph beside it.
Her father.
Older.
Scarred.
But alive.
Chloe’s chair moved backward.
“No.”
Madison covered her mouth.
Gabriel looked toward Vince.
“You said he died.”
“We thought he did.”
Elena stared at the photograph.
“Oh my God.”
Chloe grabbed it.
Her father had survived.
Again.
“Where was this taken?”
“Wisconsin.”
“When?”
“Twelve years ago.”
Chloe’s heart pounded.
“That means he lived at least two years after we thought he died.”
Vince nodded.
“There’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
The bitterness in Chloe’s voice hurt even her.
Vince placed another paper down.
David Harper had entered a private medical facility under an alias.
Severe burns.
Gunshot injuries.
Memory impairment.
“He lost his memory?” Madison whispered.
“Partially.”
“What happened after discharge?”
Vince hesitated.
“We don’t know.”
Gabriel frowned.
“No death record?”
“None.”
Chloe looked at him.
“You think he could still be alive.”
“I think we cannot prove he is dead.”
Hope was cruel.
Chloe had already buried her father twice.
She refused to do it again without certainty.
“Find him.”
Gabriel did not hesitate.
“We will.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I will.”
Gabriel’s expression tightened.
“Chloe—”
“I’m not asking you to control the search.”
He caught himself.
Then nodded.
“What do you want?”
“Help.”
One word.
Gabriel understood the difference.
“I can do that.”
Madison reached across the table and took Chloe’s hand.
“We’ll find out.”
The next month changed everything.
Chloe returned to school.
Gabriel arranged security, but only after Chloe approved every person assigned to her.
She moved into the lake house.
Not because Gabriel demanded it.
Because she wanted to.
She returned to working part-time with animals through the Costa Foundation, helping build an emergency veterinary fund for families who could not afford trauma care.
Brutus attended almost every planning meeting.
Usually asleep.
Gabriel gradually rebuilt his organization.
But it was not the same organization.
Several Moretti operations collapsed after the ledger became evidence.
Corrupt Costa crews were removed.
Legitimate businesses became more important.
Gabriel would never become an ordinary businessman.
Chloe was not naïve enough to believe that.
There were still meetings held behind locked doors.
Still men who lowered their voices when he entered.
Still parts of his world Chloe did not want to know.
But there were boundaries now.
Choices.
And somewhere between arguments, security briefings, veterinary school applications, and late-night walks beside Lake Michigan, Chloe realized Gabriel had stopped saying:
You’re mine.
Instead, he asked:
Are you staying?
And every night, Chloe answered yes.
One evening in early October, she came home to find the estate unusually quiet.
No Vince.
No security staff visible.
No Brutus.
That was suspicious.
“Gabriel?”
No answer.
She walked toward the rear terrace.
Candles lined the stone steps leading toward the lake.
Chloe stopped.
“Oh no.”
Brutus appeared.
He wore a black bow tie.
Gabriel followed.
“You involved the dog?”
“He insisted.”
“He is drooling on formalwear.”
“He lacks discipline.”
Brutus sat beside Chloe.
Gabriel approached.
He looked nervous.
Gabriel Costa.
The man who had faced gunmen without blinking.
Nervous.
Chloe crossed her arms.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing yet.”
“That sounds threatening.”
“Chloe.”
His voice softened.
She lowered her arms.
Gabriel looked toward the lake.
“When we met, I believed protecting something meant possessing it.”
She listened.
“I thought if I controlled every variable, nobody could take anything from me.”
He smiled without humor.
“Then you appeared.”
“Covered in dog blood.”
“Yes.”
“Romantic.”
“Please let me finish.”
She smiled.
“Go ahead.”
Gabriel took her hands.
“You taught me that loyalty demanded freely is worthless.”
His thumb moved over her fingers.
“And love without choice is just another prison.”
Chloe’s throat tightened.
“I don’t want to own you.”
He reached into his pocket.
Her heart stopped.
“I want to build something with you.”
Gabriel lowered himself onto one knee.
Chloe stared.
Brutus barked once.
“Not helping,” Gabriel muttered.
The dog wagged his tail.
Gabriel opened the box.
Inside was a simple diamond ring surrounded by tiny dark stones.
Elegant.
Not enormous.
He had listened.
Again.
“Chloe Harper.”
His voice was steady now.
“I cannot promise you a normal life.”
“Clearly.”
“I cannot promise I will stop worrying whenever you leave the house.”
“You won’t.”
“I probably won’t.”
She smiled through tears.
“But I promise I will never mistake protecting you for controlling you again.”
Gabriel looked into her eyes.
“Marry me.”
Chloe said nothing.
Five seconds passed.
Gabriel’s confidence began cracking.
“Chloe?”
She tilted her head.
“You didn’t ask correctly.”
His face went blank.
“What?”
“You said ‘Marry me.’”
“Yes.”
“That sounds like an order.”
He closed his eyes.
“You are enjoying this.”
“A little.”
Gabriel tried again.
“Will you marry me?”
Chloe smiled.
“Yes.”
Relief transformed him.
He stood and pulled her into his arms.
Brutus immediately jumped against both of them.
“Brutus!”
Chloe laughed as the enormous dog nearly knocked Gabriel backward.
“Easy!”
Gabriel looked offended.
“He ruined the moment.”
“He created the moment.”
Gabriel kissed her.
Softly this time.
No danger.
No gunfire.
No blood.
Just the sound of waves against the shore.
For several minutes, Chloe let herself believe that perhaps the worst was finally behind them.
Then headlights appeared near the security gate.
Vince’s vehicle.
Gabriel pulled back.
“I told him not to interrupt.”
“Maybe it’s important.”
“It had better involve national security.”
Vince approached quickly.
His expression killed the humor.
Chloe knew immediately.
“What?”
Vince looked at her.
“We found Daniel Harris.”
Her heart stopped.
“My father?”
Vince nodded.
“Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“There’s a man living under that name in northern Michigan.”
Chloe could barely breathe.
“Age?”
“Sixty-one.”
“Photograph?”
Vince handed her a tablet.
Chloe looked.
An older man stood outside a small house surrounded by woods.
Gray hair.
Beard.
Scars along one side of his face.
But the eyes—
Her eyes.
Madison’s eyes.
David Harper’s eyes.
Chloe covered her mouth.
Gabriel stood beside her.
“Is it him?”
“I don’t know.”
Her hands shook.
“When was this photograph taken?”
“Yesterday.”
Alive.
The word exploded inside her.
Her father might be alive.
After fourteen years.
After the ledger.
After Moretti.
After everything.
Chloe looked toward Gabriel.
“We’re going.”
He nodded.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“No.”
He gave her a look.
“Chloe.”
She raised one eyebrow.
Gabriel corrected himself.
“When would you like to leave?”
“Now.”
He sighed.
“Of course.”
Vince smiled.
“I’ll prepare the cars.”
Chloe looked down at the engagement ring now shining on her finger.
Twenty-four hours ago, she had thought her life had finally settled.
She should have known better.
Brutus pressed his head against her leg.
Chloe knelt and wrapped her arms around him.
“You started all of this.”
The pit bull licked her face.
Gabriel looked toward the dog.
“He absolutely did.”
Chloe stood.
Beyond them, Lake Michigan stretched beneath the darkening sky.
Somewhere hundreds of miles north, a man who might be her father was waiting.
Maybe he remembered her.
Maybe he did not.
Maybe the photograph was another lie.
Maybe it was the beginning of something none of them understood yet.
Gabriel took Chloe’s hand.
This time, he did not pull.
He simply held it.
“Ready?”
Chloe looked at the man she had once feared.
The man she had chosen.
Then at Brutus.
Then toward the road ahead.
“No.”
Gabriel smiled.
“Neither am I.”
Together, they walked toward the waiting cars.
Behind them stood the fortress where Chloe had nearly died.
Ahead of them waited another secret.
Another truth.
May you like
Another chapter.
And for the first time in her life, Chloe Harper was not afraid of what came next.
