Page 177 of Taming Seraphine
“Gabriel!” she screams, her voice panicked.
My eyes narrow. If Gabriel lives here, then Evangeline has to know about the liver transplants. Is she the one holding her son hostage?
Footsteps thunder from upstairs. I turn just in time to find a tall young man charging downstairs with a gun. He glowers at me, his scowl reminding me of a Capello twin.
This isn’t right at all.
Neither is the man pointing his pistol at me from the middle of the stairs. He has the signature green eyes and dark brown curls of the Capello family with a lean, healthy build. He looks nothing like the figure Seraphine pointed at on the basement’s television screen. That version of her brother was emaciated. This one is slender.
“Are you Gabriel Capello?” I ask.
“Who’s asking?”
“A friend of your sister’s.” I reach into my holster and pull out my gun.
Gabriel’s face falls slack. “Sera’s alive?” He lowers the gun and descends the stairs, his chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. “Where is she?”
“Safe,” I reply.
This is all wrong. Gabriel looks eager to know about his sister’s whereabouts, while Evangeline remains guarded. Guarded out of fear and suspicion or guarded because Capello took Seraphine with her consent?
I turn my attention back to Evangeline. “You know what happened to her, don’t you?”
She closes her eyes and shudders.
My pulse hammers at the increasing realization that Seraphine’s mother might be worse than mine. Two women who turned away from their children, but while mine helped me get away with murder, Seraphine’s mother allowed her to be abused and turned into a murderer.
“Mom?” Gabriel’s voice cuts through my anger. “What’s he talking about?”
Evangeline shakes her head. “Your father told me to make a choice. He could put a bullet through my head or I could pay him back for all the money he wasted on us.”
Gabriel grabs the banister, the rest of his body slumping to the stairs. Having heard Seraphine’s story, I’m already one step ahead of him, but I’m curious about how much he knows.
“What did she tell you?” I ask, not moving my gun away from Evangeline.
He swallows, his head bowing. “She said Roman Montesano murdered Sera to hurt Dad.”
“And you believed that?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I-I don’t know. He went to jail for killing another woman, so it made sense.”
“Your father framed Roman,” I reply, my nostrils flaring. “From what your mother says, it looks like Capello gave her an ultimatum. Seraphine’s life or hers.”
Gabriel raises his head and stares at me through glassy eyes.
“Mom?” His voice trembles.
I glare down at the cowering woman. How is she going to talk her way out of this situation? Who is she going to throw to the sacrificial pyre?
“You don’t know what that man did to me.” Her voice thickens, and her face contorts into a rictus of agony. “I had no other choice?—”
“But to let your daughter suffer for your infidelity?” I growl. “What Capello and his sons punished her for five years solid.”
My fingers twitch toward her neck. I want to grab her throat and crush her lies, but out of consideration for Seraphine, I don’t.
“You always had a choice. You could have saved your daughter and taken the bullet.”
Gabriel rises off the stair, his green eyes widening, all the color draining from his shocked features. “What’s he talking about, Mom?”