Chapter 6 - The Price of Protection
Virgilio wanted to exchange the ledger for Matteo.
Clara wanted him to contact the authorities.
They argued for nearly an hour.
"Victor has people everywhere," Virgilio said. "If I involve the police, Matteo could be dead before they reach him."
"And if you go alone, he could kill you too."
"I can handle Victor."
"You couldn't handle him seven years ago. That's why he disappeared."
Virgilio stared at her.
She had spoken the truth, and both of them knew it.
Isabella joined them through a video call. She had already been informed about the threat and refused to leave her apartment.
"Listen to me," she said. "Victor wants you to react emotionally. That's how he controlled you before."
Virgilio rubbed his forehead.
"What do you suggest?"
"Find out what he actually wants. Not what he says he wants."
Clara remembered the bank locker.
"What if the ledger isn't the only thing in there?"
Isabella nodded.
"That's possible."
They decided to contact an attorney who had once worked with Gabriel Reyes. His name was Daniel Foster, a retired federal investigator who had spent years helping witnesses involved in organized crime cases.
Daniel agreed to meet them at a small law office outside the city.
When Clara entered, he immediately recognized her.
"You look just like your mother."
Clara's eyes filled.
"You knew her?"
"I helped her get the documents out of Texas."
He explained that Gabriel had discovered Victor was selling information to a rival organization while secretly taking money from Virgilio's father.
Gabriel had collected evidence and arranged to cooperate with investigators.
But before he could complete the process, Victor found out.
"Your father wasn't perfect," Daniel said. "He had made mistakes. But he was trying to fix them."
"Is he alive?"
Daniel looked down.
"I don't know."
Clara's heart sank.
"Then why did you let me believe he abandoned us?"
"Your mother asked me to protect you. She believed the safest thing was to let you disappear."
Daniel handed her a sealed document.
It contained the original access instructions for the Texas bank locker.
But he also revealed something else.
The locker had been accessed three months earlier.
By someone using Virgilio Marcelo's identity.
Virgilio stood.
"I didn't go to Texas."
"Then someone has been using your name."
Daniel opened another folder.
Inside was a photograph of Matteo entering the bank.
Clara stared at it.
"Matteo?"
Virgilio's expression became unreadable.
"He's been lying to me."
Daniel shook his head.
"Not necessarily. Look at the date."
The photograph had been taken seven years earlier.
The same week Isabella was attacked.
Matteo had gone to the bank shortly afterward.
"Maybe he was trying to retrieve the evidence," Clara said.
Virgilio looked at the photograph again.
He remembered Matteo disappearing for two days after Isabella's attack. At the time, he had assumed his friend was handling business for the organization.
Now the memory took on a different meaning.
That night, they returned to the secure property and examined the bank documents.
Clara noticed a small handwritten mark beside the locker number.
It was a date.
Her mother's birthday.
"Maybe she chose that date for a reason."
Virgilio checked the records.
The locker had been scheduled for automatic review on the same day, three days away.
They needed to get there first.
But before they could finalize the plan, a call came through from the hospital.
Isabella had been admitted after a man attempted to enter her apartment building.
She was unharmed, but the attacker had escaped.
Virgilio immediately reached for his jacket.
Clara grabbed his arm.
"Don't go alone."
He looked at her.
"I can't lose her again."
"Then don't make the same mistake twice."
For several seconds, he stood motionless.
Then he nodded.
They arranged for Isabella to be moved to a secure location.
At dawn, Daniel called with an update.
The bank had confirmed that the locker contained a sealed envelope and an old videotape.
But the employee had found something else.
A second person had recently requested access.
The name on the request was Gabriel Reyes.
Clara stopped breathing.
May you like
Her father might still be alive.
And whoever had opened the locker knew it.
