Chapter 6 - The Room Above the Laundry
Dante slammed the emergency lock.
The gate stopped halfway.
The woman disappeared.
Marcus did not move.
Neither did I.
The photograph remained wedged beneath the gate.
Dante retrieved it.
I wanted it to be fake.
It was not.
My mother’s handwriting covered the back.
But handwriting proved only who wrote the words.
Not what they meant.
Marcus looked seventeen years old for the first time.
Not sarcastic.
Not brave.
Just a kid.
“Is Alessandro my father?”
“I don’t know.”
Dante studied Marcus.
If the photograph was literal, Marcus was his half brother.
I expected rage.
Instead, Dante said, “Until we know, nobody gets to tell you who you are.”
Marcus looked at him.
Something changed between them.
We stabilized Gabriel.
Victor organized security.
Then Titan led me back to the laundry room.
He sniffed the wall behind the dryers.
Scratched.
Dante helped move the machines.
Behind them was a narrow service door.
No handle.
The architecture plans showed nothing there.
We forced it open.
Stairs climbed inside the wall.
They ended in a room directly above the laundry.
A surveillance room.
Screens showed the kennels, gates, hallways, kitchen, gatehouse.
Someone had watched everything.
On one wall were photographs.
Me.
Marcus.
Dante.
Titan.
My mother.
Dates stretched back years.
There were photographs of me leaving veterinary school.
Marcus playing baseball.
My mother entering hospitals.
Someone had watched my family long before I entered the Castellano estate.
A desk held veterinary drugs.
Antifreeze.
Cloned security cards.
And the bracelet buried with my mother.
I picked it up.
My hands shook.
Dante stood beside me.
“They opened her grave.”
I could barely speak.
“Why?”
“To frighten you.”
“No.”
I turned the bracelet.
There was fresh glue inside the oval charm.
Someone had opened it.
I pried it apart.
A tiny strip of paper fell out.
Numbers.
Bank account.
Password.
Marcus entered them into a secure laptop.
An offshore account appeared.
Balance: $48 million.
Account owner:
EVELYN WHITTAKER TRUST.
Marcus stared.
“We were getting eviction notices.”
“Mom probably couldn’t touch it,” I said.
Victor examined the records.
“He’s right. The account required two biometric authorizations.”
“Whose?”
“Evelyn’s.”
“And?”
Victor looked at Marcus.
“Alessandro Castellano’s biological heir.”
Silence.
Dante was already Alessandro’s son.
But the system had never accepted him.
That meant the authorization was tied to someone else.
Marcus.
We tested his fingerprint against an encrypted local authentication file.
Accepted.
Marcus sat down.
Dante did not.
The photograph had been telling the truth.
Marcus was Alessandro’s son.
My mother had kept it from everyone.
Including him.
Including me.
Dante walked to the window.
I followed.
“Say something.”
“What?”
“Anything.”
He turned.
“My father had another son.”
“Yes.”
“He knew.”
“Probably.”
“And your mother hid him.”
“To protect him.”
“From my family.”
“Can you blame her?”
The words came out harder than I intended.
Dante flinched.
Then nodded.
“No.”
That hurt more.
I touched his arm.
He looked at my hand.
Our faces were close.
Too close.
For one second, the conspiracy disappeared.
Then Titan barked.
Marcus called us.
He had opened another file.
The trust account contained transaction records.
Northstar had been paying one person monthly for sixteen years.
Not Stefano.
Not Gabriel.
Someone named C. Vale.
Victor went pale.
“Claudia Vale.”
“Who?”
Dante answered.
“My mother.”
I stared at him.
“I thought your mother was dead.”
“She is.”
“When?”
“Seventeen years ago.”
One year before Marcus was born.
Victor shook his head.
“No. Claudia Castellano disappeared seventeen years ago. Alessandro told everyone she died.”
Dante looked as if the room had tilted.
His mother might have been alive.
My mother might have helped hide her.
And someone using Claudia’s name had received millions.
Marcus found an audio file.
Date: two days before my mother died.
He pressed play.
Evelyn spoke.
“Claudia, if you’re hearing this, Stefano knows about Marcus. Alessandro cannot protect both boys anymore. Take the evidence and disappear.”
Another woman answered.
“I won’t leave Dante.”
My mother said, “If you stay, they’ll use him.”
The recording stopped.
Dante stared at the speaker.
He had not heard his mother’s voice since childhood.
Then another file appeared.
Recorded eleven years later.
Long after Evelyn’s death.
The same woman spoke.
“Rosalind is ready.”
My skin went cold.
Ready for what?
Footsteps sounded on the hidden staircase.
Titan positioned himself in front of me.
Dante raised his gun.
The door began opening.
May you like
And his dead mother’s voice came from the darkness.
“Put the gun down, Dante. I came for my son.”
