Chapter 5 - A Sister's Shadow
The silence in the study was interrupted by the sudden, frantic chime of Gabriel’s phone.
He glanced down at the screen. The caller ID read: **VICTORIA BLACKWOOD.**
His older sister. The golden child of the family. The woman who had spent the last five years living in a lavish penthouse in Manhattan, supposedly working as a high-end art curator, but in reality living entirely off monthly stipends paid directly from the family trust.
Gabriel pressed speakerphone and set the device on the desk.
"Gabriel?" Victoria’s high-pitched, demanding voice echoed through the room. "Thank God you picked up. Where the hell are you? Father isn't answering his phone, and Mother’s assistant said the wire transfer for this month’s gallery acquisition didn't go through!"
Everett closed his eyes in shame. Marlene turned her head away, unable to look at the phone.
Gabriel stared at the black device on the desk. "How much was the wire transfer, Victoria?"
A pause on the other end. Then an irritated sigh. "You know how much it is. It's the same every month. Eighteen thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars. The auction house needs the retainer cleared by 6:00 PM or they release the modern sculpture to another bidder. Did you authorize it or not?"
Gabriel felt a cold, bitter laugh bubble up in his throat.
The $18,450.
It wasn't an intake fee for St. Jude Academy.
The St. Jude committal document had been the cover story—a horrific, pre-signed threat Everett and Marlene had prepared to wield against Sophie to keep her silent, while the actual money siphoned under Gabriel’s forged signature was being wired directly to fund his sister’s frivolous, parasitic lifestyle in New York.
They weren't just torturing his daughter to hide their financial crimes; they were starving her, abusing her, and planning to exile her to a foreign asylum just to keep Victoria living in champagne luxury without having to explain why the family coffers were bone dry.
"Victoria," Gabriel said, his voice dead and terrifyingly calm.
"What? Gabriel, hurry up, I have a dinner at Le Bernardin in an hour."
"Look out your window," Gabriel said.
"What? Why?"
"Because tomorrow morning, you are going to pack your designer bags and get out of that penthouse. The lease has been terminated."
A sharp intake of breath. "Excuse me? Are you insane? What are you talking about?!"
"I know about the $14 million," Gabriel continued, his voice slicing through the speaker like a surgical blade. "I know about the forged wire authorizations. I know about the Caymans accounts. And within the hour, the federal fraud division and the Manhattan district attorney will have the complete financial forensic trail."
"Gabriel! No! What are you doing?!" Victoria shrieked, her haughty veneer collapsing into shrill panic. "Mother! Father! Put Mother on the phone right now! You can't do this to me!"
"Mother is currently preparing to meet with state homicide investigators," Gabriel said. "Lose this number, Victoria. If you ever set foot near my daughter or this estate again, I will have you indicted as a co-conspirator to grand larceny."
Gabriel ended the call with a tap of his thumb.
The study fell into a tomb-like stillness.
Marlene was shaking uncontrollably now, her chest heaving as if she were suffocating. "Gabriel... she is your sister. How could you be so cruel? How could you throw your own flesh and blood into the gutter?"
Gabriel looked at Marlene with an expression of such pure, unadulterated contempt that the older woman visibly recoiled.
"You kicked my ten-year-old daughter’s dinner onto the floor," Gabriel said, his voice dropping into a harsh whisper. "You told her she belonged with the dog. You bruised her arm. You locked her in a pitch-black pantry all night. You sabotaged Elena’s car and left my daughter to bleed in the wreckage of a canyon ditch. And you dare... you *dare* ask me how I could be cruel?"
Gabriel walked around the desk, picked up Elena’s black ledger, and tucked it firmly under his arm.
"Everett. Marlene. Walk out of this room."
"Gabriel, where are we going?" Everett pleaded, his knees trembling so badly he could barely remain upright. "Let us talk this through. We can transfer all our personal holdings to you. We can sign over the remaining deeds! Just don't call the police. Think of the scandal! The family name—"
"The Blackwood name died the night Elena’s car went off that road," Gabriel said. "Now move."
Gabriel escorted them back into the kitchen.
Sophie was still sitting on the barstool, eating a slice of chicken breast. When the heavy doors opened, she flinched, instinctively dropping her fork. But when she saw Gabriel walking behind them, tall and immovable as an iron fortress, a flicker of courage returned to her young eyes.
"Sophie," Gabriel said, his voice softening instantly. "Are you finished eating, sweetheart?"
Sophie nodded slowly. "Yes, Daddy."
"Good. Go upstairs to your room. Pack Barnaby’s leash and your favorite books into your backpack. We are leaving."
"Leaving?" Marlene echoed, her voice shrill with sudden desperation. "You’re leaving the mansion? But who will take care of the estate? Who will pay the staff?"
Gabriel didn't even look at her. "There will be no staff. By 7:00 PM, private security will arrive to lock every gate, board every ground-floor window, and change every digital lock on this property. You have exactly fifteen minutes to take your personal clothes and get out."
"You can't evict us!" Marlene screamed, her composure completely shattering into raving madness. She lunged forward, her fingers clawing at the air. "This is my home! I have lived here for forty years! I decorated these halls! I welcomed governors and senators into this dining room! You cannot throw me out like a dog!"
Gabriel leaned down until his eyes were level with hers.
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"You told Sophie that eating with the dog was her place," Gabriel whispered. "You were wrong. Sophie is going to sleep in a warm bed, in a home filled with light and love, where no one will ever raise a hand to her again. But you, Mother? The street outside those iron gates is cold. And that is exactly where you belong."
***
