Chapter 14 - Shadows at the Rail Depot
The revelation hit us like a physical blow.
Isabella hadn't acted alone when she tried to steal Elena and manipulate Marcello.
Someone with access to Grandfather’s hidden trusts was funding her defense.
Someone who wanted our family torn apart.
"Sofia and the baby are coming inside," Dad said immediately, his protective instincts overriding his shock. "Nobody leaves this house unprotected."
"No," I said, looking at the red key. "We need to know what Adrian left behind. If Grandfather's trusts are active, the answers are in that storage unit."
Marcello looked at the key on the table.
"I’m going with you, Elena," Marcello insisted. "Sofia is safe here with Mom and Dad. I need to face whatever is happening."
Within thirty minutes, Marcello and I were driving down the rain-slicked highway toward Route 9.
The rail depot was a decrepit brick warehouse built in the nineteen-forties.
Most of the lockers were rented by estate liquidators and antique hoarders.
The smell of damp concrete and rust greeted us as the manager led us down hallway C.
"Locker 414," the elderly manager said, shining a flashlight on a heavy padlocked door. "Hasn't been opened in twenty-seven years. Rent is paid automatically every ten years through an escrow account in Boston."
My heart pounded as I inserted the red-painted key into the padlock.
The mechanism groaned, rusted metal grinding against metal.
Then, with a sharp snap, the lock popped open.
Marcello pulled the heavy iron door upward with a screech.
Inside sat three wooden crates, covered in heavy canvas tarps.
I stepped into the dust-filled darkness and pulled off the first tarp.
It wasn't filled with paintings or stolen cash.
The crates were filled with hundreds of detailed, handwritten files, each stamped with our family company’s crest.
On top of the center crate lay a framed photograph.
It showed Uncle Adrian standing next to a young woman holding an infant.
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The woman wasn't Aunt Celeste.
The woman was Isabella's mother.
