CHARACTER
No One Can Knowby Kate Alice Marshall

Gabriel Mahoney

Gabriel Mahoney

Quick Facts

  • Role: Protective confidant from Emma’s past; present-day ally and reluctant caretaker of the Palmer house in Arden Hills
  • First appearance: Chapter 7
  • Key relationships: Emma Palmer, Lorelei Mahoney (grandmother), Kenneth Mahoney (father), Randolph Palmer, Rick Hadley and Craig Ellis (investigating officers)
  • Notable detail: Keeps Lorelei safe and medicated, even if it means skirting the law through Logan Ellis

Who They Are

Boldly compassionate yet deeply guarded, Gabriel Mahoney is the grandson of Emma’s art mentor and the only person who truly witnesses the reality of Emma Palmer’s abuse before her parents’ murders. His history with the Palmers—particularly the animosity between his father and Randolph Palmer—makes him both a target and a shield: the boy who wanted to protect Emma becomes the man who must navigate the fallout of her lie. When Emma returns to Arden Hills after the death of Nathan Gates, Gabriel evolves from a resentful gatekeeper into her most steadfast partner, an anchor amid the town’s suspicion and the novel’s obsession with the past’s influence on the present. He embodies the counterweight to secrecy and abuse born of family trauma and dysfunction: a hard-won honesty that creates a genuine refuge.

Personality & Traits

Gabriel’s character blends steel with gentleness. He is protective to the point of recklessness, principled even when he breaks rules, and honest enough to admit his anger. His guardedness isn’t a pose—it’s a wound. Yet when the crisis demands it, his loyalty is immediate and unflinching.

  • Loyal and protective: He shelters Emma after her parents destroy her art and her father hits her (Chapter 27), and again after Nathan’s murder, taking her home and shielding her from initial police scrutiny (Chapter 30).
  • Guarded, resentful honesty: Years of suspicion and Emma’s absence harden him. He confronts her directly—“You gave yourself an alibi and left me without one”—refusing to let intimacy erase accountability (Chapter 10).
  • Principled compassion: He secures pain medication for Lorelei through Logan Ellis, an illicit act driven by care rather than thrill or profit—evidence that his morality prioritizes people over rules.
  • Haunted by history: The suspicion he endured and his alcoholic father’s disappearance weigh on him, shaping his caution and his determination to face truths others avoid.
  • Impulsive heroism, tempered: His own words—“young and hotheaded”—describe the night he drove to confront Randolph (Chapter 31), a flawed bravery that later becomes measured resolve.

Appearance note: Gabriel’s boyish softness has sharpened into striking beauty—tousled curls, deep brown eyes, and a defined jaw—signaling how the past has refined, not erased, the person he was (Chapter 7).

Character Journey

Gabriel begins as the keeper of thresholds—of Lorelei’s home, of the Palmer house, of memories no one else wants. His early bitterness toward Emma is earned: her lie left him exposed, and Arden Hills never let him forget it. But when new violence strikes, his reflex is protection, not punishment. Investigating alongside Emma, he uses his father’s notebook to trace criminal threads back to Randolph and the town’s rot, even as he confronts what that means for his own family. Accepting the likely truth that Kenneth was murdered—implicating Randolph and Rick Hadley—forces Gabriel to reframe the narrative that has trapped him since youth. By the end, he’s chosen a different inheritance: not secrecy or rage, but clarity, care, and a future with Emma built on what they can finally say out loud.

Key Relationships

  • Emma Palmer: Once the girl he tried to save, Emma becomes the woman he insists be honest. Their bond—strained by her lie and years of silence—rebuilds through candor and shared risk, transforming a teenage crush into an adult partnership shaped by trust and the reckoning with secrets and lies.
  • Lorelei Mahoney: Gabriel’s devotion to his grandmother is quiet and absolute. Caring for her grounds him, offering a purpose that counters the chaos of his past and keeps him rooted in a town that would otherwise be unbearable.
  • Kenneth Mahoney: His father’s alcoholism and disappearance cast a long shadow. Gabriel resents Kenneth’s failures yet aches for closure; uncovering his likely fate is painful, but it frees Gabriel from endlessly circling a wound he couldn’t name.
  • Rick Hadley and Craig Ellis: To Gabriel, the police are not neutral. Hadley embodies institutional grudge and corruption, while Ellis is complicated by his son Logan’s role in supplying Lorelei’s medication—proof that even “help” in Arden Hills comes tangled in risk.
  • Randolph Palmer: Gabriel’s youthful impulse to confront Randolph puts him near the murder scene—fuel for suspicion that dogs him for years. As an adult, Gabriel dismantles Randolph’s power not with bravado but with evidence, refusing the cycle of intimidation that once defined their families.

Defining Moments

Gabriel’s turning points reveal a pattern: he moves from reactive heroics to deliberate protection, from secrecy’s collateral damage to truth’s advocate.

  • The night of the murders (Chapter 31): After sheltering Emma earlier, he drives to confront Randolph in a “young and hotheaded” bid to fix what he can’t bear. This places him near the crime, branding him in the town’s memory and shaping his guardedness.
  • The confrontational phone call (Chapter 10): He finally tells Emma the cost of her lie. By forcing honesty, he reopens connection on fair terms—no partnership without truth.
  • Offering sanctuary (Chapter 30): When Nathan is killed, Gabriel acts without hesitation, taking Emma in and absorbing the immediate blowback. The gesture renews his role as protector, this time with hard boundaries and clear-eyed consent.
  • Investigating with Emma (Chapter 35): Using Kenneth’s notebook, he links Randolph to cargo thefts, shifting from bystander-suspect to strategist. This shared labor cements their adult bond and gives Gabriel agency over the narrative that once defined him.
  • The final kiss (Chapter 56): By the river, he and Emma choose a future unshackled from inherited violence and deceit—a quiet culmination that exchanges spectacle for earned peace.

Essential Quotes

“You lied, Emma. You told him you were with your sisters that night. And I know you weren’t, because you were with me. You gave yourself an alibi and left me without one.”
(Chapter 10)

This is not cruelty; it’s boundary-setting. Gabriel names the harm precisely so their rebuilt trust can rest on confessed history rather than selective memory.

“I was young and hotheaded and I wanted to be a hero.”
(Chapter 31)

His self-assessment reframes a suspicious act as character growth: what was once impulsive bravado becomes reflective accountability, the raw material of maturity.

“I’m not going anywhere.”
(Chapter 31)

A simple vow with layered meaning. He refuses to abandon Emma, but also refuses to flee Arden Hills—choosing to stand his ground against a town that misread him.

“I think that you should consider what it is that you deserve, Emma. What you want.”
(Chapter 56)

Gabriel’s care is not possession but permission. He pushes Emma toward self-determination, offering safety without control—the inverse of the coercive relationships that defined her past.