Chapter 14
On it was an address.
2147 W. Carroll Avenue — Unit 18
I stared.
“What is that?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Daniel gave it to me shortly before he died. He said Clara should have it if she ever came asking about Harbor Ridge.”
“Clara?”
“He didn’t say her name. He said, ‘If the Valente family ever sends someone who asks questions instead of making promises.’”
I took the key.
There was another word written on the reverse side of the tag.
A name.
Dominic.
My own name.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then a memory returned.
My uncle dropping keys into my lap.
Do your uncle a favor, kid.
A storage facility.
Boxes.
Me driving my father’s Mercedes west because I wanted the car for the weekend.
I had moved something.
I had helped Raffaele move something.
And I had forgotten.
I looked at Mateo.
“Carroll Avenue.”
His expression had gone completely serious.
“There’s an old storage complex there.”
“Still operating?”
“I’ll check.”
I closed my hand around the key.
Twenty years earlier, I had carried boxes without asking what was inside.
Five years earlier, I had promised Clara I would never make her feel alone.
One year earlier, I had begun breaking that promise in ways too quiet to draw attention.
And two nights ago, my wife had nearly died while trying to uncover a truth my family had buried before she ever met me.
I looked through the glass wall toward Clara’s room.
For the first time, I understood that whatever waited inside Unit 18 was not simply about my father.
Or my uncle.
Or an old business deal.
It was about the kind of man I had become by never asking questions when silence benefited me.
Mateo stood.
“Want me to send somebody?”
I looked at the brass key in my palm.
“No.”
“Dom—”
“Clara went looking for the truth herself.”
I put the key into my pocket.
“This time, so will I.”
And as I turned toward the elevator, one question followed me down the corridor.
If my mother had spent years trying to repair the damage in secret, and my father had tried to stop whatever Raffaele started…
what exactly had they hidden in a storage unit with my name on the key?
Chapter 3: The key to unit eighteen
Unit 18 had not been opened in seventeen years.