Page 112 of Dark Billionaire Stalker
"He didn't know." My voice sounds distant, disconnected from my body. "Gabriel didn't know who I was. He couldn't have—"
"Maybe not at first. But he knows now. He's known for days." Zach leans forward. "I have sources inside his organization. He went to see Bryan Vanderwal earlier this week—one of the old Brotherhood members who was there when Dwayne died. Bryan told him everything. Gabriel knows he killed your father, Poppy. And he hasn't told you. He's been sharing your bed every night, knowing what he took from you, and he hasn't said a single word."
Last night. His hands on my throat. His voice in my ear:Whatever happens, remember that I never meant to hurt you.
He knew. Even then, he knew.
"Why are you telling me this?" My voice breaks on the words. "What do you want?"
"I want you to have the truth. The truth no one else will give you." Zach slides another card across the table—different from the first one, this one with an address printed in small, neat letters. "And I want to offer you a choice."
"A choice?"
"Gabriel Ambrose has destroyed your life once. He stalked you, manipulated you, trapped you in his world. He'll never let you go willingly—men like him don't release their possessions." Zach's voice softens. "But you don't have to be his possession. When you're ready to leave, come to this address. I can help you disappear. Give you a new life, far from the Brotherhood and everyone connected to it."
I stare at the card. A new life. Freedom. Escape.
Everything I thought I wanted, back when this nightmare began.
"Think about it," Zach says, rising from his seat. "But don't think too long. If Gabriel realizes you know the truth, he'll do whatever it takes to keep you. You need to decide before that happens."
He leaves money on the table for the tea neither of us touched, then walks out of the café without looking back.
I sit alone in the silence, the envelope of horrors spread before me, tears streaming down my face.
My father was a monster. Gabriel killed him. Gabriel knew, and didn't tell me.
And I'm carrying his child. The grandchild of the man he murdered.
My hand drifts to my stomach, pressing against the flatness that hides such an enormous secret. My mother ran from Dwayne Thomas while pregnant with me. Now I'm pregnant too, and facing the same impossible choice.
Run, or stay.
Escape, or surrender.
Freedom, or the serpent's coils.
I don't know how long I sit there—minutes, hours, an eternity. The café empties and fills again around me. The tea grows cold. The light through the windows shifts from afternoon gold to evening gray.
Finally, I gather the envelope and the card and tuck them into my purse. I wipe my face with a napkin, trying to erase the evidence of my tears. I text James that I'm ready to be picked up, then take a taxi back to the floral supply warehouse to maintain my lie.
The drive back to the estate is silent. James doesn't comment on my red eyes, my pale face, the way my hands won't stop shaking. Either he doesn't notice, or he knows better than to ask.
Gabriel is waiting when I arrive. He pulls me into his arms, kisses my forehead, asks about my day. I give him answers that sound normal, that sound like a woman who didn't just learn her lover killed her father.
But that night, I don't sleep.
I lie awake in the darkness, staring at the ceiling, Zach's card hidden in the lining of my purse, and try to figure out what the hell I'm going to do.
Chapter 28 - Gabriel
I've rehearsed this conversation a thousand times.
In the shower this morning, the water running cold while I stood frozen under the spray. In the car on the way to the office, words forming and dissolving before they could take shape. In the elevator, in the hallway, in every quiet moment between the demands of running an empire.
Your father was a man named Dwayne Thomas. He was a monster. I killed him when I was sixteen years old.
I didn't know about you. I didn't know you existed.
