Chapter 3 - THE CONFESSION IN THE DARK
We abandoned the Pilsen apartment within three minutes. Gabriel’s secure SUV was parked in the alley, the driver dead over the steering wheel—Daniel’s doing. Gabriel shoved the body out without a word, strapped me into the passenger seat, and drove like a demon through the rain-slicked streets. We didn't go to his mansion. We went to an underground, fortified bunker beneath a defunct steel mill, a place only known to three men in his inner circle. And one of them had just tried to kill us.
In the sterile, fluorescent light of the bunker’s medical room, Gabriel sat on a metal stool, his elbows resting on his knees, staring at my scarred stomach. I sat on the cot, my breathing finally steadying.
"Tell me," he demanded, his voice thick with a grief that felt entirely foreign to the ruthless Gabriel Russo. "Every detail. From the night you disappeared."
I pulled my sweater down, the memory of cold steel making my skin crawl. "I didn't run, Gabriel. I was taken. Men in ski masks grabbed me from the hospital parking garage. They dragged me to a meatpacking plant on the south side. They told me I had betrayed you, that they had planted evidence so flawless you would order my execution yourself. But the man in charge—a butcher with a silver tooth—noticed I was sick. He realized I was pregnant."
Gabriel’s jaw tightened so hard I thought it might shatter. "And they tried to take it from you."
"They knew a child would complicate things. They knew if you found out I carried your blood, you might question the betrayal." I closed my eyes, the phantom pain searing my ribs. "They strapped me down. They didn't have anesthesia. They were just going to cut the baby out and dump my body in the lake."
"How did you survive?" he whispered, his eyes shining with unshed, furious tears.
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"I'm a trauma nurse," I said coldly. "I know anatomy. When the butcher leaned in, I slipped a scalpel from the tray. I severed his carotid artery. The shock gave me three seconds. I took the hit to the stomach, shoved him into his men, and ran into the alley. I threw myself into the freezing river. They thought I drowned. I’ve been in hiding ever since, terrified that the man hunting me was you."
Gabriel stood, crossing the room to press his forehead against the cold concrete wall. "I gave the order to find you," he choked out. "Daniel manipulated everything. The stolen routes, the surveillance photos with Connor Bell. He orchestrated it to clear his path to the throne. And I nearly handed him my crown by letting him hunt you." He turned back to me, his eyes dead and resolved. "Rest, Clara. By morning, the streets will run red."
