Chapter 2 - The Garage That Did Not Exist
Carmine sent Leo upstairs with Marco Bell, the only security officer who had worked for him since before Alessia died.
Then he locked the main garage doors.
Helena folded her arms.
“You’re being dramatic.”
Carmine held up the red key.
“You know what this opens.”
“No.”
“You tried to take it from a seven-year-old.”
“I didn’t know what he had.”
“That was not the question.”
Helena looked away.
Carmine had spent twenty years learning the difference between fear and insult. Helena was not insulted.
She was afraid.
He walked toward the rear wall.
The estate had been renovated twice. The plans showed storage on the other side of the concrete, then a narrow service corridor leading to the old gardener’s entrance.
Carmine pressed his palm against a section near the tool cabinets.
Hollow.
He looked over his shoulder.
Helena whispered, “Carmine, don’t.”
That was the first honest thing she had said.
He pulled the cabinet away from the wall.
Behind it was a narrow steel panel painted the same gray as the concrete.
A tiny red lock sat near the floor.
The key fit.
The panel opened inward.
Cold air moved across Carmine’s face.
A narrow room waited beyond it.
No windows.
No furniture except a metal filing cabinet, two storage bins, and an old wooden chair.
Helena remained outside.
Carmine stepped in.
The first bin contained Leo’s old clothes.
Not random clothes.
Shirts with stains.
A torn jacket.
A pair of pajamas with a dark brown mark near the sleeve.
Each item had a white evidence tag attached.
DATE.
INCIDENT.
BEHAVIOR.
Carmine’s stomach tightened.
He opened the filing cabinet.
The first folder carried Leo’s name.
LEONARDO DE LUCA.
BEHAVIORAL ESCALATION LOG.
Inside were photographs of bruises.
Notes about tantrums Carmine had never witnessed.
Statements supposedly made by teachers.
One page claimed Leo had threatened to jump from a balcony.
Carmine read it twice.
The date was three months earlier.
He had been home that entire week.
No balcony incident had happened.
He opened the next file.
Petition for Emergency Protective Guardianship.
Applicant: Helena Rusk.
Carmine’s hands went still.
The petition was not filed.
Not yet.
But it was nearly complete.
Attached were declarations from a private pediatric consultant and a child behavioral specialist.
Both claimed Leo was unstable.
Both claimed Carmine’s criminal exposure made him an unsafe parent.
Both recommended temporary guardianship transfer to Helena in the event of Carmine’s arrest, hospitalization, or death.
Helena stepped into the doorway.
“I can explain.”
Carmine turned another page.
A signature waited at the bottom.
His signature.
Except Carmine had never signed it.
He looked at Helena.
“Who forged this?”
Her voice dropped.
“You don’t understand what Alessia left behind.”
Carmine stopped breathing.
Helena nodded toward the bottom drawer.
“There’s another file.”
He opened it.
The label read:
BELLADONNA TRUST — BENEFICIARY: LEONARDO DE LUCA.
And beneath Leo’s name was a handwritten warning from Alessia:
IF HELENA RUSK EVER ENTERS THIS HOUSE, SALVATORE FOUND A WAY BACK TO MY SON.
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The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
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