Chapter 5 - Sophia’s Locket
The key was no larger than Elena’s thumbnail.
Maria placed it on a velvet cloth in Salvatore’s office while Marco examined it under a lamp.
“It’s old,” Marco said. “Could be a safe-deposit key.”
Elena stared at it in disbelief.
“My mother gave Sophia that locket before she died.”
“She never told you about the key?” Salvatore asked.
“No.”
“Maybe she hoped no one would ever find it.”
Sophia sat silently beside Elena, her hand wrapped around her mother’s fingers.
“Is it mine?” she asked.
“It belongs to you,” Elena said.
“Then why do bad men want it?”
No adult answered immediately.
Finally, Salvatore crouched in front of her.
“Because some grown-ups think money and secrets are more important than people.”
Sophia frowned. “That’s stupid.”
“Yes,” Salvatore said. “It is.”
Marco traced the number stamped on the key and found the bank within an hour. The safe-deposit box was registered under an alias used by Elena’s mother.
Salvatore wanted to send men.
Elena refused.
“It’s my mother’s box,” she said. “I’m going.”
“You could be followed.”
“I’m already being followed.”
The bank was closed to the public when they arrived. Salvatore had arranged for a private appointment. Elena walked between him and Marco through a back entrance, Sophia held close against her side.
Inside the vault, the manager opened a narrow steel box.
There was no cash.
No ledger.
Only a cassette tape, an envelope, and a child’s red mitten.
Elena picked up the mitten. It was hers.
Her mother had kept it all those years.
The envelope bore Elena’s name.
With trembling hands, she opened it.
Inside was a letter.
Elena, if you are reading this, then Vincent’s past has found you. I am sorry. I tried to keep you away from it. Your father did terrible things, but he also tried to make one thing right. He took the book from men who planned to use it to destroy families. He hid it where only you could find it. Do not trust Salvatore Costa blindly. But do not assume he is your enemy either. The truth is more complicated than either of you deserve.
At the bottom was a location.
A church on Maple Street.
The same church behind the shelter where Elena and Sophia had slept.
Before Salvatore could respond, the vault lights went out.
A sharp click echoed through the room.
The bank manager gasped.
Then Marco drew his weapon.
“Ambush,” he said.
The steel door began to close.
Salvatore shoved Sophia and Elena toward the exit.
“Move!”
But two men appeared at the far end of the corridor.
One grabbed Elena’s arm.
Sophia screamed.
Salvatore struck the man so hard he crashed against the wall. Marco fired once into the ceiling as a warning, and the second attacker fled.
But in the confusion, one thing disappeared.
The letter.
And with it, the location of the book.
That night, Elena blamed herself.
“If Sophia had never worn the locket—”
“No,” Salvatore interrupted. “This is not her fault.”
“But they are coming because of us.”
“They are coming because people like them don’t understand the difference between weakness and innocence.”
Elena looked at him.
“Who are they?”
Salvatore’s answer came slowly.
“Dominic Vale.”
The name meant nothing to Elena.
But Marco went pale.
“Vale is dead,” he said.
Salvatore’s face became stone.
“No,” he said. “Apparently, he’s been waiting.”
Dominic Vale had once been Salvatore’s mentor.
He had also been the man who ordered the warehouse fire.
Vincent Russo had not started it.
He had tried to stop it.
May you like
And Salvatore had spent fifteen years hating the wrong man.
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