Chapter 119 The Promise
Third Person POV
Gavin stared at the pendant on the floor. It was silver with a hue of green, a very delicate looking thing . The chain coiled like a question mark against the hardwood.
He crossed the room and picked it up, his movements were slow almost like he was scared to approach it.
The moment the metal touched his palm, recognition slammed into him like a fist to the gut. He knew this pendant.
His eyes moved to Melissa. She was curled on her side, snoring softly. Her face was peaceful in sleep, she looked really young and innocent to him at that moment.
Gavin’s hand closed around the pendant. He turned and walked out of the room, his footsteps were silent on the floor.
He walked down the hallway, past his bedroom and straight into his study.
He locked the door behind him with a soft click.
The bottom drawer of his desk required both a key and fingerprint scan. His hands were steady as he opened it, pulling out a small wooden box that hadn’t seen daylight in a while.
Inside, nestled in worn velvet, was another pendant. Identical to the one he’d just found. It was the same colour and even the same intricate tree design with branches spreading outward.
But only half a tree. Cut down the middle.
It was incomplete.
Gavin set both pendants on the desk. They fit together perfectly, the jagged edges aligning to form one whole piece.
His breathing changed. Becoming shallow.
He opened his pendant first. The one he’d carried for twenty years. The one that had been pressed into his bloody hands along with words he could never forget.
Inside was a photograph. It was faded and worn out from two decades of being carried everywhere. Inside was a picture of a man with brown hair and kind eyes, holding a little girl on his shoulders. She was maybe five years old, caught mid-laugh, her small hands gripping his head for balance.
Gavin’s hands began to shake.
He opened Melissa’s pendant with fingers that didn’t feel like his own.
The same photograph stared back at him.
But complete. Where his showed only the man and child, hers revealed the full picture. The man. The girl. And standing beside them, younger and smiling, was Diana.
A family. Before he’d destroyed them.
The pendant slipped from Gavin’s fingers and clattered onto the desk.
He stood there, staring at it, his mind refusing to process what he already knew.
Melissa.
Melissa was the little girl.
The one who’d been there that day.
The one who’d watched her father die.
The one he’d been searching for.
The one he’d promised to find.
His legs gave out. He collapsed into his desk chair, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps.
The memories came flooding back. It was twenty years old but vivid as yesterday.
———
It was a cold afternoon in late autumn in Chicago. It was so cold that it made even the bone feel cold.
Gavin had been twenty-two years old. He was young and was still desperately trying to win Zeus his father's affection. He did everything just for Zeus to look at him proudly. To him that was worth the blood on his hands.
The target was simple. A man named John Hayes Spenser. A Small-time gambler who’d borrowed from the wrong people and couldn’t pay back. The issue with John though was he dared to challenge Zeus. And that signed his death warrant even without him knowing. Or maybe he knew but was to stupid to run away.
Zeus had positioned his men carefully. On every rooftops and Alley way. Every exit was covered.
And Gavin had been given the rifle.
“This is your test,” Zeus had said, his hand heavy on Gavin’s shoulder. “Show me you’re ready. Show me you’re mine.”
Gavin had set up on the rooftop across from the ice cream shop. Checked his sight. Steadied his breathing.
John Hayes appeared right on schedule. With his brown jacked and kind face, nothing was remarkable about him.
Except he wasn’t alone.
A little girl walked beside him. Maybe five years old. Dark hair in pigtails. She was talking animatedly, her small hands gesturing as she told some story. John was smiling down at her, completely focused on whatever she was saying.
Gavin’s finger hesitated on the trigger.
“Take the shot.” Zeus’s voice crackled through the earpiece.
The little girl laughed at something her father said. John bent down to her level, adjusting her jacket against the cold.
“Ben Gavin Cross. Take the shot.”
His hands were sweating inside his gloves. His heart was pounding too hard.
This was different. This wasn’t some rival gang member or drug dealer. This was a father with his daughter. This was…
“Now, Gavin. Or I will.”
Zeus’s voice was ice.
Gavin’s finger tightened on the trigger.
He told himself he could miss. Could aim wide. Could…
The rifle kicked against his shoulder.
For a split second, Gavin thought he had missed. Hoped he had.
Then he saw the little girl’s body jerk like someone had yanked her.
John Hayes had seen the muzzle flash, and managed to push his daughter away from harm's way on time.
The bullet that was meant for his chest hit him in the shoulder instead.
“Run!” John screamed at the little girl. “Melissa, run!”
She was crying. Scared. But she was smart. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry.
Gavin was moving before he realized it. Down the fire escape. Across the street. His ears were ringing.
By the time he reached John Hayes, the man was on the ground. Blood spreading across the pavement beneath him.
Another shot had been fired. This one from Zeus’s position.
This one hadn’t missed.
Gavin dropped to his knees beside him. His hands were shaking so badly he could barely hold them steady.
“I’m sorry,” he choked out. Tears were streaming down his face. He couldn’t stop them. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to…”
John’s eyes found his. They weren’t angry. They were… sad. Resigned to his fate.
“When I… owed the debt…” Each word was a struggle. Blood bubbled at the corners of his mouth. “I knew… this day would come.”
His hand moved. Fumbled at his neck. Pulled something free.
A pendant on a silver chain. He pressed it into Gavin’s bloody palm. His grip was surprisingly strong.
“Find her.” Marcus ’s eyes were intense despite the pain. “Please. Find her and… take care of her. She’s…”
The third bullet hit him in the throat. Warm blood sprayed across Gavin’s face. John Hayes died without finishing his sentence.
Gavin sat there, covered in a stranger’s blood, holding a pendant he didn’t understand, while Zeus approached from behind.
The old man’s hand came to Gavin’s face. Wiped some of the blood away with his thumb in an almost tender gesture.
“Why did you hesitate?” Zeus asked quietly.
Gavin couldn’t answer. Couldn’t speak. Could barely breathe.
He just clutched the pendant and stared at the man he’d killed.
The man with the kind eyes who’d pushed his daughter out of the way.
The man who’d known he was going to die and had spent his last breath asking Gavin to find his little girl.
That was the day Gavin decided to leave.
Not immediately. It took time. He couldn’t just escape Zeus' grip but that was the day he knew he couldn’t do this anymore.
That was the day something inside him broke.
And for twenty years, he’d carried that pendant. Searched for the little girl with pigtails who’d watched her father die.
Never knowing her name was Melissa.
Never knowing she’d grow up to be the woman he’d fall in love with.
Gavin’s hands were trembling violently now. He grabbed his cigarettes with fumbling fingers, lit one, and took a desperate drag.
The smoke did nothing to calm him.
Melissa was the little girl.
He’d killed her father.
She’d been there. And had watched it. Had run when John told her to run.
And then what? Had she gone home to Diana? Had they fled Chicago? Changed their names?
No. Not changed names. Diana was still Diana Hayes. Melissa was still Melissa Hayes.
They’d just… disappeared.
And Gavin had spent twenty years trying to find them.
Never making the connection. Did Diana know that he was responsible for her husband's death?
He took another cigarette. His third. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
His chest felt like it was collapsing. Like his ribs were caving in. He couldn’t get enough air.
This changed everything.
Gavin stood abruptly. And started pacing. The cigarette burned down between his fingers.
He had to tell her.
Had to.
She deserved to know the truth.
But how?
How did he tell the woman he loved that he’d killed her father?
Gavin’s hand went to his chest. Clutched at his shirt like he could physically hold his heart together.
This was going to destroy them.
“I’m sorry,” Gavin whispered to the photograph. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
But sorry didn’t change anything.
Sorry didn’t bring John Hayes back.
Sorry didn’t erase the blood on Gavin’s hands.
And sorry wouldn’t save what he had with Melissa once she knew the truth.
Gavin sat there in his study, holding two halves of a broken promise, and felt something inside him crack apart.
He’d finally found her.
And telling her the truth was going to make him lose her forever.