Chapter 4 - SERENA’S FIRST LIE
Gabriel looked at Serena’s photograph for a long time.
I watched his face carefully.
Five years earlier, I had seen that same expression when one of his senior executives had stolen twenty million dollars through a shell company.
There had been no shouting.
No broken furniture.
No threats.
Gabriel had simply become quieter.
People should fear Gabriel Cross most when he became quiet.
“Where is she?”
he asked.
Marco checked his phone.
“Her apartment.”
“Bring her here.”
“No.”
I spoke before Marco could move.
Gabriel turned.
“She talked to the man who broke into your home.”
“And I want to know why.”
“So do I.”
“Then bring her here.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“We are not interrogating Serena twenty feet from my children.”
Gabriel looked toward the boys.
He immediately reconsidered.
“Office downstairs.”
“Fine.”
I folded my arms.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
I laughed.
His jaw tightened.
“Claire.”
“The photographs were of my sons.”
“I know.”
“The break-in was at my apartment.”
“I know.”
“And Serena helped destroy my marriage.”
His gaze held mine.
“I know.”
“Then stop telling me no.”
He exhaled.
“Fine.”
Serena arrived forty minutes later.
She walked into the private conference suite as though she owned the building.
Her face showed no fear.
That bothered me more than anything.
Gabriel placed the photograph on the table.
Serena glanced down.
She did not even pretend to be surprised.
“Anthony Bell.”
Gabriel said.
“Yes.”
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“You told me he was dead.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Your father told you he was dead.”
Gabriel leaned forward.
“Careful.”
Serena gave a tiny smile.
“I’m not afraid of your voice anymore.”
“Good.”
His tone remained calm.
“Then we can have an honest conversation.”
Serena looked at me.
“You brought her?”
“I came myself.”
“I wasn’t asking you.”
I smiled coldly.
“That’s probably why nobody answers you honestly.”
Her smile vanished.
Gabriel slid the photograph closer.
“Why were you with Bell?”
“He contacted me.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Why?”
“He said he knew something about you.”
Gabriel waited.
Serena continued.
“He said you had children.”
My stomach dropped.
Gabriel’s face changed.
“You knew before last night.”
Serena shrugged slightly.
“I knew someone claimed you had children.”
“How long?”
“Three weeks.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Would you have believed me?”
“Yes.”
“No, Gabriel.”
Her voice became sharper.
“You would have torn Manhattan apart trying to find them.”
Gabriel did not deny it.
Serena looked at me.
“And apparently she preferred to stay hidden.”
I leaned forward.
“You approved the photographer.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I wanted proof.”
“Of five-year-old children?”
“Of their relationship to Gabriel.”
“They have faces.”
“So does Gabriel.”
“You put their faces online.”
“I did not publish those photographs.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel spoke.
“Who forged Claire’s letter?”
Serena froze.
It lasted less than a second.
I saw it.
So did Gabriel.
“What letter?”
“Wrong answer.”
She looked at him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Gabriel opened the photograph of the old handwritten note.
Serena stared at it.
Then she laughed.
“You kept that?”
“You recognize it.”
“I recognize Claire’s handwriting.”
“It isn’t hers.”
Serena looked at me.
I said nothing.
Gabriel leaned closer.
“Did you write it?”
“No.”
“Did you arrange it?”
“No.”
“Did you tell me Claire confronted you at the Mercer Hotel?”
Serena’s eyes shifted.
“That was years ago.”
“Did she?”
Silence.
Gabriel’s voice became colder.
“Did Claire ever confront you at the Mercer Hotel?”
“No.”
The word entered the room softly.
Gabriel stared at her.
I thought he might explode.
Instead, he asked,
“Why did you lie?”
Serena’s composure finally cracked.
“Because you were miserable.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“You were fighting every week.”
“So?”
“So you talked about leaving.”
“I talked.”
“You never acted.”
“And therefore you lied to me.”
“I pushed you.”
“You fabricated a threat from my wife.”
“You wanted out.”
“You don’t get to decide what I wanted.”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“You kissed me.”
Gabriel went still.
There it was.
The part no conspiracy could erase.
He had kissed her.
He had chosen to betray me.
Serena looked at me.
“He kissed me before I lied about the hotel.”
“I know.”
I said.
Gabriel glanced at me.
I continued.
“You don’t have to defend your affair to me.”
Serena’s expression hardened.
“You’ve spent five years pretending I stole him.”
“No.”
I looked directly at her.
“You could not steal a man who was willing to walk away.”
Gabriel lowered his eyes.
“But you manipulated what happened afterward.”
“Yes.”
Serena blinked.
Then she seemed to realize she had answered too quickly.
Gabriel did not miss it.
“What did you manipulate?”
“Nothing.”
“Serena.”
She looked toward the door.
Marco blocked it.
Serena smiled nervously.
“You’re holding me prisoner now?”
“No.”
Gabriel’s voice was almost gentle.
“You can leave.”
Marco moved aside.
Serena hesitated.
Gabriel continued.
“But if you walk out that door without telling me why Anthony Bell knew about my sons three weeks before I did, you will never enter one of my properties again.”
Serena stared at him.
“You’re choosing her.”
“No.”
His answer surprised all of us.
“I’m choosing my children.”
Serena’s face went pale.
Gabriel continued.
“You and Claire are irrelevant to the decision I’m making right now.”
That sentence should have offended me.
Instead, I respected it.
Because for once, he was right.
This was about the boys.
Serena sat down again.
“Bell said there was an old Cross inheritance provision.”
Gabriel’s face changed.
“What provision?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He said any biological sons could alter control of your father’s trust.”
I looked at Gabriel.
He said nothing.
“Is that true?”
“I don’t know.”
Serena laughed.
“That’s what Bell said too.”
Gabriel looked at Marco.
“Call Nathan.”
Marco stepped outside.
Nathan Cross had been Gabriel’s father.
Dead for eight years.
His will had been handled privately by Gabriel’s uncle Vincent.
I had attended the reading.
At least, I thought I had attended the entire reading.
Gabriel looked at Serena.
“Who else knows?”
“Bell.”
“Who else?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who introduced you to Bell?”
Serena hesitated.
There it was again.
Fear.
Real fear this time.
“Serena.”
She looked toward me.
Then toward Gabriel.
“I can’t tell you.”
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“You can.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you won’t believe me.”
“Try.”
She stood slowly.
“This was a mistake.”
Marco returned.
“Nathan’s attorney is dead.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“When?”
“Eleven months ago.”
“Who has the archived trust files?”
Marco checked his screen.
“Cross Legal Management.”
“Who controls that?”
Marco did not answer immediately.
Gabriel already knew.
“So do I.”
I said.
Vincent Cross.
Gabriel’s uncle.
The man who had raised Gabriel after his mother died.
The man who had stood beside him at our wedding.
The man Gabriel trusted more than almost anyone alive.
Serena looked at Gabriel.
“You asked who introduced me to Anthony Bell.”
Gabriel slowly turned toward her.
She swallowed.
“It was Vincent.”
The room went silent.
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
“I told you.”
“Vincent believed Bell was dead.”
“Vincent is the reason Bell disappeared.”
Gabriel took one step toward her.
“Stop.”
Serena did not.
“He paid Bell to vanish after your father died.”
“Stop.”
“He also knew Claire might have been pregnant.”
My entire body froze.
“What?”
Gabriel turned to me.
I stared at Serena.
“Say that again.”
Serena looked terrified now.
“Two weeks after the divorce, Vincent asked me if Claire had ever mentioned being pregnant.”
I could barely breathe.
“How would he know?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel’s voice became dangerously low.
“What exactly did Vincent say?”
Serena closed her eyes.
Then she repeated the words.
“He said, ‘If Claire Bennett left carrying Nathan Cross’s future grandsons, Gabriel can never be allowed to find out.’”
My knees nearly gave way.
Gabriel caught my arm.
I pulled away.
“No.”
He released me.
I looked at Serena.
“Did you know I was pregnant?”
“No.”
“Did you help him find out?”
“No.”
“Did you ever look for me?”
Her silence answered.
Gabriel’s head lifted.
“Serena.”
She whispered,
“Once.”
My stomach turned.
“Where?”
“Boston.”
I remembered the weeks after the divorce.
The feeling that someone was watching.
The black sedan that appeared twice outside my first apartment.
The stranger who asked my neighbor whether I lived alone.
I had dismissed it as paranoia born from years inside Gabriel’s world.
It had not been paranoia.
Gabriel stared at Serena.
“What happened in Boston?”
She looked at me.
“I saw Claire leave an obstetric clinic.”
The floor seemed to move beneath me.
Gabriel did not breathe.
“You knew.”
I whispered.
Serena’s eyes filled with tears.
“I suspected.”
“You knew.”
“I didn’t know there were three.”
“That matters?”
“I panicked.”
“You panicked?”
My voice rose.
“My sons spent five years without their father because you panicked?”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
Serena looked at him.
“I was afraid you’d go back to her.”
Gabriel opened his eyes.
“You should have been afraid of what would happen if you lied to me.”
“Gabriel.”
“Did you tell Vincent?”
Silence.
Gabriel took one step closer.
“Did you tell Vincent Claire was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
The answer broke something.
Not only in Gabriel.
In me.
Because I had spent five years carrying the guilt of never telling him.
Now I learned someone else had known.
Someone who could have told him.
Someone who had chosen silence for reasons much darker than mine.
Gabriel looked toward the windows.
“I want Vincent found.”
Marco nodded.
“He’s at the Westchester estate.”
Gabriel turned.
“Get the car.”
I blocked him.
“No.”
His eyes flashed.
“Move.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“You were right earlier.”
He stopped.
“About what?”
“They want you angry.”
I pointed at Serena.
“Vincent knew she would eventually crack.”
Serena looked offended.
I ignored her.
“If he’s at the estate right now, he either thinks you don’t know or he wants you to come.”
Gabriel stared at me.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Marco immediately said,
“Don’t answer.”
Gabriel answered.
“Cross.”
A familiar older voice filled the speaker.
I had heard it at Thanksgiving dinners.
At board meetings.
At our wedding.
Vincent.
“Gabriel.”
Gabriel’s face became unreadable.
“Uncle.”
Vincent chuckled softly.
“I assume Serena finally disappointed me.”
Gabriel looked at her.
She turned pale.
Vincent continued.
“Bring Claire.”
Gabriel’s eyes met mine.
“And leave the children where they are.”
My blood went cold.
“How do you know where they are?”
Gabriel asked.
Vincent laughed.
“My boy.”
His voice was almost affectionate.
“You still think that penthouse belongs to you.”
Then every light in the building went out.
The room dropped into darkness.
May you like
Somewhere above us, three little boys screamed.
---
