Chapter 94: Gabriels Clients

The red-sealed buyout card read 7:00 A.M., and the people waiting beneath the rain awning had not come for Noah. Their closed umbrellas dripped at their feet as they watched the envelope in my hand. Noah was upstairs with Dr. Hall. His fever had not broken. I met strangers only in the old conservatory, with the locked unit door in sight. "You have three minutes," I said. The older woman nodded. Silver hair escaped her knot. She put her red portfolio on the floor. "Marian Bell. Rafi Mendoza. Your father represented us when Moretti money tried to silence clinic workers." Rafi gripped his cane. "Gabriel said heroes were easy to bury." Gabriel was a sentence a stranger had kept alive. "Then don't make one of me," I said. Marian's mouth moved, almost a smile. "We didn't send you a rescue." She drew out a cream card with a broken red seal: an offer to buy the small Moretti blocks Gabriel's clients held. It expired at seven tomorrow morning. "Vittoria's people left these at our doors last week," Marian said. "Not enough money to make us rich. Enough money to make us quiet." She set it beside my sealed proxy slip and stopped short of both. The choice was mine. "We own small Moretti blocks. Alone, Vittoria ignores us. Together, through one proxy, we can force people to hear a serious question. You own nothing and get no answer—only a limited choice to use our votes later." Plain enough. A tool, not a miracle. "And you picked me because Gabriel was dead?" I asked. "Because he was dead," Rafi said. "And because your name has been used by that family for five years without your permission." Outside, a black sedan delivered Bianca and two Moretti guards in the rain. My three minutes got smaller. "What do you want in return?" I asked. Marian's eyes went to the elevator doors, then back to mine. "Proof you won't use us to bargain for a safer place at Vittoria's table." The conservatory door opened before I could answer. "Elena." Bianca's voice arrived sweet and sharp. "Mrs. Moretti has asked that your visitors leave the property. The lobby is no place for people trying to capitalize on a family crisis." One guard stepped on Marian's portfolio, grinding the red-sealed cards into wet tile. Rafi lurched. I caught his elbow and planted a hand against the guard's chest. "This is not Moretti property," I said. "And this is not your family crisis to manage." Bianca's smile narrowed. "Vittoria is protecting the company from a woman who is collecting strangers around a sick child. It looks ugly, Elena." Not a custody order or treatment decision. Shame, aimed where she thought I would flinch. "Step back," I told the guard. He looked at Bianca. I gathered the cards into Marian's hands, then raised my phone toward the lobby camera. "If he needs permission to knock down an older man for carrying paper, we can explain it to the reporters downstairs." The guard took one slow step away. Bianca's color changed, just a little. "You enjoy making scenes now." "No," I said. "I enjoy choosing who gets to make me disappear." Marian held out the ruined buyout card. I looked at her. When she gave one hard nod, I tore it across Vittoria's red seal and dropped both halves into the rainwater pooled under the glass wall. Bianca's breath caught. It was a small thing, only paper. But her money had just lost its cleanest path through this room. I looked toward the elevator. Noah was feverish upstairs with Dr. Hall. Taking this might put a brighter target on the door I had defended for months. Giving it back would not make us safer either. It would only leave Vittoria with one less person willing to say no. I turned my back on Bianca. Not forgiveness for Dante or trust in them—just the first thing that belonged to me in this room. I picked up the proxy slip. "My terms: no one near Noah or using his name with the press. Dante hears nothing. Gabriel's recorder, my phone, and everything I carry stay mine. If this endangers my son, I walk." Marian did not reach for the paper. "Agreed." Rafi's breath left him in a rough sound. "Gabriel would have liked that you made it hard." "Gabriel would have liked that I made it mine," I said. I folded the slip and put it inside my coat beside his recorder. Bianca gave a short, false laugh. "A handful of old clients cannot touch Vittoria." "Maybe not today," I said. "But today isn't yours to take from me either." Below us, cameras began collecting at the lobby windows. Bianca had not come for a private refusal. She had come to make Marian and Rafi look like strangers circling a sick child. "Their names are already downstairs," Bianca said. "By noon, every reporter here will be asking what price bought them into your hallway." Marian lifted her portfolio from the floor. At the door, she placed the last intact buyout card against the glass between us. "At seven tomorrow, Vittoria's people expect us to sell our silence," she said. "Before that hour, meet us on the courthouse steps and say, where everyone can hear, that you will not trade this proxy for her protection." Bianca's smile finally disappeared. Marian looked at the slip tucked against Gabriel's recorder in my coat. "Accepting it was the easy part. At dawn, prove you are willing to fight Moretti instead of merely survive them."