Chapter 13 - THE FINAL VAULT
The third-floor east attic was a space I rarely visited.
It was a massive, vaulted room filled with dust-covered furniture, old crates, and forgotten heirlooms from the previous owners.
Lena followed closely behind me, holding a high-powered tactical flashlight.
The beam cut through the thick dust motes floating in the stale air.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lena whispered, her footsteps echoing softly on the wooden floorboards.
"If that blackmailer comes back..."
"He won't be back until midnight," I interrupted, shining my own flashlight along the far eastern wall.
"According to Margaret's architectural blueprints that I managed to pull up on my tablet, this entire wall is double-layered."
I ran my hands along the wooden wainscoting.
Searching for seams.
For a hidden latch.
"Help me move this old oak wardrobe," I instructed Lena.
Together, we grabbed the heavy piece of furniture and dragged it several feet across the floor.
Revealing a plain white plaster wall behind it.
I pressed my knuckles against the drywall.
*Thud. Thud. Hollow.*
It wasn't solid.
There was a cavity behind the plaster.
I grabbed a heavy iron fireplace poker from the nearby rack and slammed it hard into the drywall.
*CRACK!*
Plaster dust exploded into the air, coating our clothes and hair.
I swung again and again until a gaping hole opened in the wall.
Shining my flashlight through the gap, I saw a heavy steel wall safe bolted directly into the wooden studs.
"There it is," I breathed.
"The blackmailer wasn't lying."
I reached through the jagged hole, feeling along the top of the safe.
There was a magnetic key slot.
The exact spot for the brass key the stranger had shown me.
Wait.
I didn't have the brass key.
The blackmailer had kept it as collateral.
"Can you pick it?" Lena asked, watching anxiously.
"I don't have lock-picking tools," I muttered, frustration flaring in my chest.
Then, my eyes caught something glinting on the top ledge of the wooden rafter right above the safe.
A small, leather-bound diary with a brass key resting right on top of it.
I reached up, grabbing the key and the diary.
I dusted off the cover.
Embossed in gold lettering: *Margaret Collins - Master Records.*
I slid the brass key into the safe's lock and turned it clockwise.
*Click.*
The heavy steel door swung open smoothly.
Inside sat three flash drives labeled *OFFSHORE_BACKUPS* and a stack of legal documents.
I grabbed the top document and shone my flashlight on it.
My breath hitched in my throat.
It wasn't a corporate blackmail file.
It was adoption papers.
May you like
Legal adoption papers transferring full parental guardianship of Nico and Noah... to Lena Morales.
Dated three months before she was ever hired as our nanny.
