CHAPTER 20 — THE NIGHT GABRIEL DIED
Gabriel lowered the knife.
The countdown continued.
03:21.
03:20.
Charles’s recording remained frozen on the screen.
Gabriel stepped closer.
“What lie?”
Claire touched the panel.
The message continued.
“You were told Daniel left you in the water. You were told he watched you drown because he wanted to become my only heir.”
Gabriel’s eyes did not leave the screen.
“That is what happened.”
“No,” Charles said. “Daniel jumped into the water after you.”
A grainy security video appeared.
Two seventeen-year-old boys stood on a private dock.
A younger Margaret walked behind Gabriel.
She lifted a heavy metal object.
She struck him at the back of the head.
Gabriel fell into the water.
Daniel jumped after him immediately.
Margaret screamed for the guards.
But when Daniel surfaced, the guards dragged him away.
Another boat approached from the darkness.
Men pulled Gabriel from the water.
Margaret had not tried to kill him.
She had staged his death.
Gabriel touched the back of his head.
“She said Daniel pushed me.”
“Margaret kept you hidden because Charles planned to divide the company equally between both sons,” Claire said.
Gabriel’s breathing became uneven.
“She said my father chose Daniel.”
The recording resumed.
“I searched for you for seventeen years,” Charles said. “By the time I found you, Margaret had already convinced you that I was your enemy.”
Gabriel looked through the window.
Daniel stood on the roof of the second train.
Their eyes met.
For the first time, hatred disappeared from Gabriel’s face.
It was replaced by uncertainty.
And grief.
The countdown reached two minutes.
Claire pointed toward Noah.
“Help us join the trains.”
Gabriel looked at the control panel.
“There is no command for that.”
“Then why do the trains run beside each other?”
“To transfer the keys.”
“Not the children?”
Gabriel shook his head.
Claire stared at the ceiling supports.
The trains were less than three feet apart.
Daniel was preparing to jump.
“No!” Claire shouted.
Daniel stepped back.
Then he ran.
He leaped across the darkness.
His hands caught the edge of Claire’s roof hatch.
Gabriel grabbed his wrists.
For one terrible second, the brothers stared at each other.
Daniel waited for Gabriel to let him fall.
Instead, Gabriel pulled him inside.
Daniel landed on the carriage floor.
He immediately looked through the window.
“Noah is alone.”
A shadow moved behind Noah.
Margaret appeared inside the second train.
She placed one hand on the boy’s shoulder.
In the other hand, she held the red key.
Daniel attacked Gabriel.
“You left him with her!”
Gabriel blocked him.
“She wasn’t there when I crossed.”
Margaret smiled through the window.
Then she pressed the red key into a control panel.
The tracks began separating.
Claire’s train turned toward the final station.
Noah’s train moved toward the concrete wall.
The countdown dropped to sixty seconds.
Daniel lunged toward the roof hatch.
Claire caught his arm.
“You cannot reach him now.”
“He’s my son!”
“He’s my son too!”
Across the widening gap, Noah pounded against the glass.
Margaret leaned close to him and whispered something.
Noah stopped struggling.
Then Margaret pointed toward Claire.
May you like
Noah looked directly at his mother.
And shook his head.
