Chapter 4 - Serena’s Version of the Truth.
Gabriel did not call Serena immediately.
That surprised me more than the discovery itself.
The man I remembered would have demanded answers within seconds.
Instead, he stood in the hotel sitting room and stared through the dark window at Manhattan.
“Say something,” I told him.
He kept his back to me.
“Anything I say right now will be premature.”
“That has never stopped you before.”
“No.”
He turned.
“It hasn’t.”
There was no defense in his voice.
Only tired recognition.
Marcus placed a folder on the table.
“Vale Strategic Holdings took administrative control of North Lake twenty months ago.”
“Why?” Gabriel asked.
“We are still tracing the transfer.”
“Who approved it?”
“A trust officer named Peter Sloan.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“I know him.”
“From where?” I asked.
“He worked for my father.”
Another ghost.
It seemed the dead man had more employees in our present than most living people did.
Marcus continued.
“There is no direct evidence Serena created the fake account in Claire’s name.”
“But her family manages the company connected to it,” I said.
“Yes.”
“And she was standing twenty feet away when I revealed the boys.”
“Yes.”
“And an hour later the press had forged records making me look like I took money to hide them.”
Marcus said nothing.
Gabriel finally moved.
He took his phone from his pocket.
“Call her,” I said.
He looked at me.
“You want to hear?”
“I have spent five years hearing her version of our marriage through magazine covers.”
“I would like to hear what she says when she is not holding a champagne glass.”
Gabriel put the call on speaker.
Serena answered on the second ring.
“I was wondering how long it would take.”
Her voice was calm.
That bothered me.
Gabriel’s expression did not change.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“Is your mother with you?”
A pause.
“No.”
“Where is she?”
“Palm Beach, I think.”
“You think?”
“Gabriel, my mother and I do not share calendars.”
He looked at Marcus.
Marcus was already typing.
Gabriel continued.
“Do you know what North Lake Advisory is?”
This time the pause was longer.
“Yes.”
My skin went cold.
“How?”
“My mother mentioned it last year.”
“Why?”
“She said she was taking over administrative work for several old family entities.”
“Whose family?”
“Yours.”
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
“Why was your mother managing my father’s entity?”
“I assumed you knew.”
“I did not.”
“That is not my fault.”
“No.”
“But whether you lied to me might become your fault.”
Serena’s voice sharpened.
“Do not speak to me like one of your employees.”
“Then answer like someone who has nothing to hide.”
Silence.
Gabriel looked at me.
I could tell he was choosing his next question carefully.
“Did you know Claire was pregnant when we divorced?”
My breath caught.
Serena laughed softly.
“That is absurd.”
“Answer.”
“No.”
“Did your mother?”
“I have no idea.”
“Did you ever see a medical record with Claire’s name on it?”
“No.”
“Did you create or authorize a bank account in her name?”
“No.”
“Did your mother?”
“How would I know?”
“Ask her.”
“I am not calling my mother at midnight because your ex-wife appeared with three children and suddenly everyone has decided I am a criminal mastermind.”
The contempt in the words pulled something hot through me.
I stepped closer to the phone.
“Those three children are asleep ten feet away.”
Serena went quiet.
“Claire.”
“Do not say my name like we are old friends.”
“I wasn’t speaking to you.”
“You were speaking about my sons.”
“I said nothing about them.”
“You called them children who appeared.”
I kept my voice low.
“They did not appear.”
“They were born.”
“They learned to walk.”
“They learned to talk.”
“They had birthdays and scraped knees and nightmares.”
“They existed every day you were posing beside their father.”
Serena inhaled.
“And whose decision was that?”
The question struck exactly where she wanted it to.
I looked at Gabriel.
He did not defend me.
For a second, anger surged.
Then he spoke.
“Mine.”
Serena sounded confused.
“What?”
“My decisions created the conditions that made Claire believe hiding them was safer than calling me.”
I stared at him.
Serena’s voice became colder.
“So this is what happens now?”
“You see three boys with your face and rewrite history?”
“No.”
“I finally read it without protecting myself.”
She laughed once.
“You kissed me because you wanted me.”
“I did.”
“You filed for divorce because you wanted out.”
“I did.”
“You moved me into your life because you were finished with her.”
Gabriel looked directly at me.
“That is where the story becomes less simple.”
My chest tightened.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
Serena answered first.
“It means he is trying to make himself noble now.”
Gabriel’s eyes stayed on me.
“No.”
“It means I believed something about you that I never gave you the chance to deny.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“What did you believe?”
He looked away.
Serena spoke quickly.
“Gabriel, do not do this over the phone.”
That was enough to tell me she knew exactly what he meant.
“What did you believe?” I repeated.
Gabriel’s voice was low.
“That you were having an affair.”
For several seconds, I heard nothing except the hotel ventilation.
Then I laughed because the alternative was throwing the phone through the window.
“With whom?”
“Daniel Reeves.”
“My attorney?”
“At the time, he was also advising your design firm.”
“He was sixty-one.”
“I know that now.”
“He had a wife.”
“I know that now.”
“He had grandchildren.”
“I know that now.”
I stepped closer.
“What exactly did you think happened?”
Gabriel’s face hardened with shame.
“I received photographs.”
“Of what?”
“You leaving a hotel with him.”
I stared.
“The Harbor House conference?”
His expression confirmed it.
I remembered the day.
Daniel and I had met a client at a hotel restaurant in Brooklyn after a design dispute.
Three people had been at the table.
The client left first.
Daniel and I walked out together.
That was all.
“You divorced me over a photograph of me leaving a business lunch?”
“There was more.”
“What?”
“Messages.”
My anger went cold.
“What messages?”
“Texts supposedly between you and Daniel.”
“I never sent him anything personal.”
“I know.”
“You know now?”
“Yes.”
“When did you learn that?”
Gabriel did not answer.
Serena did.
“Tell her.”
Her voice had changed.
Not angry anymore.
Almost eager.
Gabriel looked at the phone.
“Serena.”
“Tell her when you discovered the messages were fake.”
I felt dread before he spoke.
“Three months after the divorce.”
The room tilted.
I put my hand on the back of a chair.
“Three months?”
Gabriel moved toward me.
I stepped back.
“Do not.”
He stopped.
“You knew three months after our divorce that the evidence was fake?”
“Yes.”
“And you never called me?”
His face was pale now.
“I tried.”
“No.”
“I called the number you had.”
“I changed it.”
“I went to your old apartment.”
“I had moved.”
“I contacted Leah.”
My heart stopped.
“My sister?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Gabriel hesitated.
“She said you never wanted to hear my name again.”
I stared at him.
“That part is true.”
“She said you were leaving New York.”
“I was.”
“She said if I had any decency left, I would let you go.”
I remembered Leah saying she had received a call from Gabriel’s office.
She had never told me Gabriel himself called.
I had been seven weeks pregnant, sick every morning, and barely sleeping.
Maybe she had believed she was protecting me.
Maybe she had.
“Why did you believe the fake messages in the first place?”
Gabriel looked toward the phone.
Serena said nothing.
The silence answered before he did.
I turned toward the speaker.
“Serena.”
She exhaled.
“I did not create them.”
“But you showed them to him.”
“I received them.”
“From whom?”
“I never knew.”
Gabriel’s voice became sharp.
“You told me they came from someone at Claire’s firm.”
“I believed they did.”
“You said you verified the number.”
“I was told it was hers.”
“By whom?”
Serena paused.
“My mother.”
Marcus stopped typing.
I looked at Gabriel.
He looked at Marcus.
Everything in the room changed at once.
Gabriel leaned toward the phone.
“Where is your mother tonight?”
“I told you, Palm Beach.”
Marcus shook his head.
He had already found something.
Gabriel saw it.
“Serena.”
“Yes?”
“Your mother’s plane landed at Teterboro six hours ago.”
Silence.
Then Serena whispered something I almost did not hear.
“Oh, God.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
Serena’s voice shook for the first time.
“She called me this afternoon.”
“And?”
“She asked whether you were attending the gala.”
My stomach turned.
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
“That we were going.”
Gabriel’s voice dropped.
“Did she ask about Claire?”
“No.”
“Did she ask about children?”
Another pause.
“Serena.”
“She asked whether the foundation gala had a family guest list.”
I gripped the chair harder.
Gabriel’s expression turned to stone.
“Why did you not tell me this?”
“Because it meant nothing at the time.”
“It means something now.”
“I know.”
Marcus held up his phone.
“We have traffic footage.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“The SUV?”
Marcus nodded.
“The driver’s face is visible for two seconds.”
“Who?”
Marcus looked at me before answering.
“Peter Sloan.”
The trust officer who worked for Gabriel’s father.
The man who had approved North Lake’s transfer to Serena’s family.
And apparently the man who had followed my sons home.
May you like
Page
THE THREE BOYS GABRIEL CROSS NEVER KNEW
