Chapter 3 - Breaking the Silence
Clara agreed, mostly because leaving meant walking into a Russian mob war, but also because of the little boy who peeked his head around the bedroom door later that afternoon.
Leo ran to the bed, carefully avoiding her injured shoulder, and buried his face in her good side.
Thank you, his small hands signed clumsily.
Over the next three weeks, the fortress transformed. Clara moved into a suite down the hall from Leo. She implemented a strict routine. No more isolated iPads. No more silent dinners.
She forced Gabriel to sit at the table with them.
“You can't just throw money at him,” Clara scolded Gabriel one evening in the grand dining room. “You have to look at him. Deaf people listen with their eyes, Gabriel. If you look away, you're hanging up the phone.”
Gabriel, a man who commanded thousands of lethal soldiers, sat obediently, staring at Clara’s hands.
“Show me again,” he demanded softly.
Clara held up her hand, tapping her thumb to her forehead, then bringing it forward. “Father.”
Gabriel mirrored the gesture perfectly. He turned to Leo across the table and signed it. Father.
May you like
Leo’s eyes went wide. He dropped his fork, a massive, radiant smile breaking across his face. He signed back, pointing at Gabriel, then crossing his arms over his chest. Love Father.
Gabriel froze. The ruthless Syndicate boss closed his eyes, a single tear slipping down his scarred cheek. When he opened them, he looked at Clara with an intensity that made her entire body burn.
