Chapter 5 - Whispers of Apartment 4B
The gunshot echoed violently against the marble walls, ringing in my ears like a screeching drill.
Julian’s body snapped backward, his chair toppling with a violent crash. A dark crimson splatter bloomed across the pristine white wall behind him. His gun clattered across the polished floor, stopping inches from the toe of Gabriel’s leather shoe.
Leo stood with his smoking barrel raised, his face completely expressionless.
Sal scrambled out of his chair, dropping to his knees, pressing his forehead against the floorboards. "Gabriel! I swear to God! I knew nothing! I had no part in this! I swear on my mother’s soul!"
Victor sat frozen, his mouth half-open, pieces of unchewed frittata still inside, his hands raised high in surrender.
I stumbled back against the kitchen counter, my hands shaking uncontrollably, nausea rising in my throat. Blood. Real, fresh blood. Not on a sterilized gurney in an ER, but spilled over cold marble in an act of brutal execution.
Gabriel didn't even look at Julian’s twitching body. He looked at Sal, then at Victor.
"Clear his accounts," Gabriel said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Seize his assets. Julian's crew answers directly to Victor now. If a single dollar goes missing, Victor, you will join him."
"Understood, boss," Victor choked out, sweating through his expensive silk shirt.
"Get him out of my sight," Gabriel commanded. "Both of you. Now."
Leo hauled Sal up by the collar, dragging him toward the private elevator while Victor hurriedly helped haul Julian’s limp corpse into a heavy vinyl transport bag. The elevator doors closed, sealing the violence away, leaving only the copper stench of fresh blood hanging heavily in the penthouse air.
I sank onto the floor, my knees giving out, my back pressed hard against the cabinets. My chest heaved as panic finally overwhelmed my clinical detachment. "You killed him... right in front of me..."
Gabriel walked over slowly. He stepped past the crimson stains on the floor, crouched down on his haunches, and looked directly into my wide, terrified eyes.
"Julian was the butcher who put the toxin in Paulie’s food," Gabriel said, his voice surprisingly gentle, stripped of the venom he had unleashed moments ago. "He was the one who sent those men to Benny’s diner last night. If he had drawn that gun, you would be dead right now, Norah."
"That doesn't make it okay!" I yelled, tears streaming down my cheeks. "This isn't my world! I save people! I pump chests, I sew up lacerations, I stop bleeding! I don't sit in high towers watching men get their brains blown out over breakfast!"
Gabriel was silent for a long moment. He reached out, his gloved thumb gently wiping away a tear from my cheek. I flinched, but I didn't pull away.
"You remind me of her," he murmured. "Rosa."
"Stop talking about Rosa like she was part of this madness," I snapped. "She was an angel. She gave me shelter when my mother was passed out drunk on cheap vodka. She taught me how to cook so I wouldn't starve."
"Do you know why Rosa lived in Apartment 4B?" Gabriel asked, his dark eyes softening with a pain that ran decades deep. "Do you know why she had no family, no children, no husband?"
I stared at him, my breath hitching. "She... she said her family passed away back in Sicily."
"Another lie to protect you," Gabriel said with a sad, bitter smile. "Rosa's maiden name was Rosa DeLuca-Hayes. She was my father's older sister. My aunt."
The world seemed to spin on its axis.
"When the Morettis ambushed our compound thirty years ago, they killed my father, my mother, and my two brothers," Gabriel continued, his voice tight with suppressed agony. "Rosa managed to smuggle me out through the laundry chutes. She gave up her wealth, her name, her entire identity, and disappeared into the poorest, most forgotten neighborhood in the city. She lived like a ghost in Apartment 4B just to keep me hidden until I was old enough to survive on my own."
He looked at his own scarred hands.
"She taught you that recipe because it was the last piece of our family she had left. When she died... I thought that piece was gone forever. I thought I was entirely alone in the dark."
He looked back up at me, his gaze fierce, raw, and desperate.
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"You aren't just a stranger who walked into my diner, Norah. You were the girl my aunt chose to pass her soul to. And as long as I have breath in my lungs, no one will ever touch you."
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