Chapter 7 - Locker 118

Union Station was crowded.

That helped.

Damian wore no suit jacket.

The black dagger tattoo showed beneath his rolled sleeve.

Veronica walked beside him.

Elena and Walter stayed across the concourse.

I remained with them.

Locker 118 was in an old storage corridor.

Damian inserted the key.

Nothing.

He tried again.

Click.

Inside sat one canvas bag.

Veronica opened it.

Documents.

A disposable camera.

Two cassette tapes.

One sealed envelope.

On the front:

FOR VERONICA.

Her hands started shaking.

Damian looked at her.

“Open it.”

She did.

Rebecca’s handwriting.

Veronica recognized it immediately.

She began crying before reading a word.

My darling,

If you are reading this, then either I survived long enough to tell you the truth, or somebody kinder than I deserved carried it to you.

Veronica stopped.

Damian waited.

She continued.

I helped Marco Russo move money.

I told myself I was protecting your father’s career.

Then I learned the money paid for violence.

Antonio Russo discovered part of it.

Elena discovered the rest.

Your father buried the case.

I tried to undo my part.

Marco found out.

Veronica covered her mouth.

There was more.

If Marco tells you Damian’s father was his enemy, believe him.

If he tells you he killed Antonio only for power, do not.

Antonio had evidence that Marco was not a Russo.

Damian looked up.

“What?”

Walter stepped closer.

Veronica read again.

Marco Russo was born Marco Bellini.

He was placed with the Russo family as a child.

His biological father was Carlo Bellini.

Damian frowned.

The name meant nothing to him.

Elena whispered:

“It means something to me.”

Everyone turned.

“Carlo Bellini was my father.”

Damian froze.

“Your father?”

“Yes.”

Walter’s eyes widened.

“Then Marco…”

Elena’s face had gone white.

“My half brother.”

Silence.

Damian stared.

“The man who raised me is your brother.”

Elena nodded slowly.

“My father had another child before he married my mother.”

Veronica continued reading.

Rebecca had written:

Antonio discovered Marco and Elena were related.

Marco feared Elena would learn he had spent years manipulating both families.

He also feared Antonio would expose that Marco had no legal claim to certain Russo trusts.

Damian looked at Elena.

“So he needed you gone.”

“Yes.”

“And my father dead.”

“Yes.”

Veronica read the final paragraph.

Marco’s greatest secret is not where the money went.

It is who is still alive because of it.

Locker 118 contains photographs.

Veronica opened the disposable camera envelope.

Printed photographs.

A private clinic.

A woman in a wheelchair.

Rebecca.

Alive.

Date stamped:

Eleven months earlier.

Veronica stopped breathing.

“My mother.”

Another photograph.

Rebecca beside someone else.

A man.

Older.

Thin.

Scar along his jaw.

Damian looked at Elena.

She dropped the photograph.

“No.”

Damian picked it up.

“Who is he?”

Elena stared.

“My husband.”

Damian’s face changed.

“My father?”

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She nodded.

“Antonio.”