Chapter 7 - A Father Blinded
"Look at the spoon, Arthur!" Gabriel barked, holding up the amber vial. "Look at what she was trying to force down your daughter’s throat! She’s trying to kill Nora before her fifth birthday!"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" Arthur roared, stepping into the nursery, his hands shaking with a volatile mix of panic, grief, and exhaustion. "You’ve been spinning these paranoid delusions since yesterday! First the balcony, then the curtains, and now this?!"
"Arthur, please," Victoria wept, sinking onto the edge of the velvet armchair, trembling convincingly. "He’s been stalking the grounds. He was up on the master balcony in the middle of the night. Thomas saw him tampering with the railing! He’s trying to fabricate an incident to extort us for millions!"
Gabriel felt a cold realization settle into his gut. They had anticipated this.
"I have the video of Thomas tightening the bolts she loosened," Gabriel said, pulling his phone from his pocket. "I have the financial records showing she stole a hundred and forty million dollars from Julianna’s trust! She killed your wife, Arthur! She cut the brake lines on the Mercedes, and Nora watched her do it!"
*Smack.*
The slap was wild and clumsy, but it landed hard across Gabriel’s cheek. Arthur stood chest-to-chest with him, his eyes bloodshot and tears streaming down his face.
"Do not speak my wife’s name!" Arthur screamed, his voice breaking. "Julianna died in an accident! An accident! And you... you sick, opportunistic parasite... you're using my dead wife and my traumatized daughter to play some sick game?!"
"Daddy..."
The tiny voice came from the bed.
Nora was sitting up, her small body shaking so violently the headboard rattled. She reached out toward Gabriel, her eyes wide with terror. "Daddy, no... Gabriel saved me. The green lady... she made the glass fall. She’s going to hurt me..."
Arthur froze. For a single, agonizing heartbeat, doubt flickered across his devastated face. He looked at his daughter, then at the amber vial in Gabriel’s hand, then at Victoria.
Victoria saw the hesitation and moved in for the kill.
"Arthur," she whispered, her voice cracking with pure theatrical grief. "The child has been brainwashed by him. He was alone with her on that terrace for ten minutes before the medics arrived. God knows what he whispered into her ear while she was drowning. If you don't remove him right now, I am calling the commissioner of police. For Nora’s safety. For Julianna’s memory."
Arthur’s shoulders slumped. The burden of grief, the chemical haze of the sedatives, and twenty years of Victoria’s psychological dominance crushed whatever resolve he had left.
He looked at Gabriel with dead eyes.
"Give me the vial," Arthur whispered.
"Arthur, if you give this back to her, your daughter won't survive the night," Gabriel said, refusing to move.
"I said give it to me!" Arthur yelled. When Gabriel didn't move, Arthur reached over and snatched Gabriel’s phone from his hand, smashing it violently against the hardwood floor. The screen shattered into black spiderwebs, killing the video evidence.
"You are fired," Arthur said, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and shame. "You have ten minutes to clear your things from the carriage house. If you are on Bennett property after that, my private security has orders to shoot you on sight as an armed trespasser. Get out."
Gabriel looked at Arthur. He saw a man so terrified of facing the horrifying truth of his wife’s murder that he was willing to sacrifice his own child to maintain his comfortable illusion.
Gabriel looked past Arthur, locking eyes with Victoria Ashford.
Behind Arthur’s back, Victoria wasn't crying anymore. A cold, victorious smirk curved her lips. She had won. The guardian was gone. The board was cleared.
Gabriel didn't argue. He didn't shout. He looked down at Nora, holding her terrified gaze for one profound second. He tapped his chest twice—the universal sign they had shared over the past two years: *I am here.*
"Ten minutes, Mr. Bennett," Gabriel said quietly.
May you like
He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, listening to the heavy oak door click shut behind him.
***
