Chapter 3 - The Secret Behind Thirty-Fifth Street
“Olivia.”
She froze.
The voice outside the door was familiar.
Too familiar.
“Ryan?”
Adrian raised one hand.
Nobody moved.
Olivia's eyes filled with tears.
“Ryan?”
The voice came again.
“Olivia, open the door.”
She stepped forward.
Adrian blocked her.
“No.”
“But that's my brother.”
“You don't know that.”
The voice outside laughed softly.
“Smart man.”
Adrian's face became expressionless.
Leo moved toward the hallway.
The door suddenly opened.
Nobody stood there.
Only an empty corridor.
Olivia stared.
Then she saw something on the floor.
A small brown envelope.
Adrian picked it up.
“Don't.”
He looked at her.
“You recognize it?”
Olivia nodded.
“It belonged to Ryan.”
He opened it.
Inside was an old key.
And a receipt.
The receipt was from a storage facility on the South Side.
Thirty-Fifth Street.
Olivia remembered the alley.
The diner.
The night Felix found her.
Everything seemed connected to that street.
Adrian looked at Leo.
“Get the car.”
Olivia stood.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“It's about my brother.”
“Exactly.”
“You can't keep me out of this.”
Adrian studied her.
For the first time, something like respect appeared in his eyes.
“Then stay beside me.”
The storage facility was nearly empty.
They entered under the cover of darkness.
Unit 214 opened with the key.
Inside was a table.
A broken laptop.
Several folders.
And dozens of photographs.
Olivia walked toward them.
Every photograph showed her.
Leaving work.
Entering her apartment.
Buying groceries.
Walking home.
Sleeping in her car.
Her hands trembled.
“How long?”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“Months.”
“Who took these?”
“We don't know yet.”
Olivia turned.
“You said Ryan contacted you.”
“Yes.”
“What was he investigating?”
Adrian looked at the folders.
“Felix's business.”
“Felix owns a construction company.”
“That's what the records say.”
“What does he really do?”
Adrian opened a folder.
Inside were copies of property transfers.
Shell companies.
Bank records.
Missing names.
Olivia stared.
“This can't be real.”
“It is.”
She looked at one document.
Her father's name appeared.
She stopped breathing.
“My father?”
Adrian nodded.
“Your father was involved with Felix.”
“My father died when I was seventeen.”
“I know.”
“Then how?”
Adrian pointed to a signature.
Olivia recognized it immediately.
Her father's handwriting.
The date was two years after his death.
Someone had forged his signature.
Or someone had used his identity.
Olivia sat down.
“Why would anyone do this?”
Adrian closed the folder.
“Because your father knew something.”
“What?”
“That Felix was moving money through companies connected to your family.”
Olivia shook her head.
“My family had nothing.”
Adrian looked at her.
“That's what you were supposed to believe.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Leo raised his hand.
Everyone became silent.
Then the storage facility lights went out.
Olivia grabbed Adrian's sleeve.
A crash sounded nearby.
Another.
Someone was breaking into the building.
Adrian whispered:
“Stay behind me.”
They moved through the darkness.
Olivia heard footsteps.
Then a man's voice.
“Find the girl.”
Adrian's expression hardened.
He pulled Olivia into a narrow storage room.
They waited.
The footsteps passed.
Then Olivia noticed something behind a stack of boxes.
A second door.
She opened it.
Inside was a hidden compartment.
A single tape recorder sat on a shelf.
She pressed play.
Ryan's voice filled the darkness.
“Olivia, if you're hearing this, I'm already gone.”
Her knees weakened.
“Don't trust Felix.”
She covered her mouth.
“Don't trust anyone who tells you our father died without leaving something behind.”
Adrian stared at the recorder.
Ryan continued.
“The key is not the money.”
A pause.
“The key is the person who signed the last document.”
The recording ended.
Olivia looked at Adrian.
“Who signed it?”
He didn't answer.
She opened the folder again.
The final document had three signatures.
Her father's.
Felix's.
And one more.
Olivia recognized the third name.
Her own mother.
“No.”
Adrian looked at the document.
“Your mother wasn't just a witness.”
Olivia stared.
“She was the one who authorized the transfer.”
A noise came from outside.
Someone was approaching.
Then a phone vibrated.
Not Olivia's.
Not Adrian's.
Leo reached into his pocket.
His face went pale.
“Sir.”
Adrian looked at him.
“What?”
Leo turned the phone around.
A message contained one photograph.
Ryan was alive.
And he was sitting beside Olivia's mother.
May you like
Under the photograph were five words:
BRING OLIVIA TO HER.
