Chapter 4 - Storage Unit 317
They reached the storage facility shortly before two in the morning.
Dante had wanted Lena to remain at the estate.
She refused.
For once he did not argue long.
The brass key belonged to her mother.
The answers belonged to Lena.
The warehouse-style building stood beside a deserted industrial road near the river.
Rainwater ran through cracked asphalt.
A flickering security light illuminated the entrance.
Dante arrived with Matteo and six men.
Lena came because nothing could have stopped her.
Leo remained at the estate under the protection of Dante’s longtime housekeeper, Rosa.
Lena had hated leaving him.
That surprised her.
She had known the baby only hours.
Yet when his fingers had slipped from hers, something inside her had hurt.
Dante noticed everything.
He said nothing.
They entered the facility.
The night attendant was missing.
Matteo inspected the desk.
“Coffee’s warm.”
Dante looked toward the security screens.
Half were black.
“Someone got here first.”
Lena’s pulse increased.
They moved through the corridor.
Units 301.
305.
312.
317.
The lock was old brass.
Lena held the key.
Her hand trembled.
Dante stood beside her.
“You don’t have to open it tonight.”
“Yes, I do.”
She inserted the key.
It turned.
The metal door rolled upward.
Darkness waited inside.
Matteo swept a flashlight across the room.
Boxes.
A wooden desk.
Three filing cabinets.
A rocking chair.
And against the far wall, covered by a white sheet, something tall.
Lena stepped inside.
The air smelled like dust and cedar.
Then she froze.
Her mother’s perfume.
It was faint.
Impossible after twelve years.
Yet Lena recognized it immediately.
Gardenia.
Elena Valdez had worn it every Sunday.
Lena’s eyes filled.
“My mother was here.”
Dante watched her touch the desk.
“Recently?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“I mean… this was hers.”
On the desk sat a photograph.
Lena picked it up.
Elena.
Younger.
Smiling.
Beside her stood Gabriel Rosselli.
Dante’s brother.
Gabriel had one arm around Elena.
His other hand rested gently across her stomach.
Pregnant.
Lena sat down hard.
Dante closed his eyes.
The truth had become almost undeniable.
On the back, Elena’s handwriting read:
For our daughter, if the world ever becomes safe enough.
Lena broke.
Not dramatically.
No scream.
No collapse.
She simply pressed the photograph to her chest and cried.
Dante turned away.
He had seen grief in many forms.
This kind deserved privacy.
Minutes passed.
Then Lena whispered, “She lied to me.”
Dante looked at her.
“She protected you.”
“She lied.”
“Both can be true.”
Lena wiped her face.
“Did Gabriel know about me?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“He told me.”
Her eyes lifted.
“When?”
“The night he died.”
Lena could barely speak.
“What did he say?”
Dante stared at the dark storage unit.
“He said he was going to be a father.”
His voice roughened.
“He said it was the first thing in his life that made him want to become better than our family.”
Lena covered her mouth.
Dante continued.
“He wanted to leave.”
“With my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you help them?”
The question struck harder than a bullet.
Dante accepted it.
“Because I was twenty-two and stupid enough to believe blood loyalty mattered more than doing what was right.”
“You chose your father.”
“Yes.”
“And Gabriel died.”
“Yes.”
Lena stared at him.
“Do you blame yourself?”
“Every day.”
Matteo interrupted quietly.
“Boss.”
He had pulled the sheet from the object against the wall.
A safe.
Old.
Heavy.
Its door bore the same dragon symbol.
Dante approached.
“Combination?”
Lena looked around.
Then saw something etched beneath the desk.
101899.
October 18, 1999.
The day Gabriel died.
Matteo entered it.
The safe opened.
Inside were six ledgers.
Several videotapes.
Three passports.
A revolver wrapped in cloth.
And a sealed envelope marked:
FOR MY DAUGHTER ALINA.
Lena took it.
Her hands shook so badly Dante almost offered to open it.
He did not.
She unfolded the letter.
My sweet Alina,
If you are reading this, then I failed to keep the past buried.
Your father’s name was Gabriel Rosselli.
He loved you before you were born.
He died trying to protect people he had never met from men he once considered family.
Dante Rosselli is dangerous.
Do not mistake that.
But if the dragon ever finds you, look into the eyes of the man wearing it.
If it is Dante, ask him one question.
Ask him what Gabriel said before the fire.
Lena stopped reading.
She looked at Dante.
“What did Gabriel say?”
Dante’s face changed.
He knew exactly.
The words had followed him for twenty-seven years.
“He said…”
Dante swallowed.
“Protect my girls.”
Lena began crying again.
She returned to the letter.
I did not tell Dante you survived because I did not know whom to trust.
There was a traitor inside the Rosselli family.
Someone close enough to Dante to hear every order before it was given.
Victor Valenti did not act alone.
Until Dante discovers who betrayed Gabriel, you must never let anyone know who your father was.
The ledgers contain enough information to destroy the men responsible.
But there is one page missing.
Page 88.
That page names the traitor.
I hid it separately.
Only one person knows where.
Your godmother.
Isabella Marchetti.
Dante stared at the name.
Matteo cursed beneath his breath.
Lena looked up.
“Who is Isabella?”
Dante answered slowly.
“The widow of one of the five founding families.”
“Where is she?”
Dante and Matteo exchanged a glance.
Lena immediately understood something was wrong.
“Where?”
Dante said, “She disappeared ten years ago.”
Lena’s face fell.
Then one of Dante’s men shouted from the corridor.
“Boss!”
Gunfire erupted.
Matteo shoved Lena behind the safe.
Dante drew his weapon.
The overhead lights went dark.
Three shots.
A scream.
Then silence.
Dante pressed one finger to his lips.
Lena stopped breathing.
Footsteps entered the unit.
Slow.
Deliberate.
A flashlight beam moved across the floor.
Dante waited beside the doorway.
The man stepped inside.
Dante struck him.
The gun fell.
Matteo tackled a second attacker.
Within seconds it was over.
Dante dragged the first man beneath the emergency light.
“Who sent you?”
The attacker smiled through bloodied lips.
“You’re too late.”
“For what?”
“The baby.”
Dante froze.
The man laughed.
“While you came looking for ghosts, someone went to your house.”
Dante’s face transformed.
“Leo.”
May you like
He was already running.
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