Chapter 4 - The Safe-Deposit Box
The bank opened at nine.
By nine fifteen, Dominic and Emma were inside a private vault room.
The brass key fit box 417.
Emma’s hands trembled as she pulled it open.
Inside was a leather-bound ledger, a flash drive, a small velvet ring box, and one envelope.
Her name was written across the front.
Emma opened it first.
My Emma,
If you are reading this, I owe you more apologies than one life can hold.
She stopped.
Dominic turned away, giving her privacy.
Emma continued.
I wanted to ask you to marry me the night I disappeared. The ring is here because I was too much of a coward to carry it when I went after Matteo. I thought if I survived, I would come back, put it on your finger, and spend the rest of my life becoming the kind of man you deserved.
If I did not survive, never let our child inherit my war.
Let her inherit my love.
Emma pressed the letter to her lips.
Inside the ring box was a simple diamond.
Not enormous.
Not flashy.
Exactly the kind Gabriel knew she would have chosen.
Dominic quietly said, “He loved you.”
“I know.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have.”
She looked at him.
“Stop punishing yourself for not knowing what everyone worked so hard to hide from you.”
His eyes met hers.
For a second, neither moved.
Then the vault door opened.
A bank employee stepped inside.
“Mr. Salvatore, there’s a problem.”
Dominic’s hand immediately moved beneath his jacket.
“What problem?”
“Federal agents are in the lobby.”
Emma’s stomach dropped.
Dominic stayed calm.
“Names?”
“Special Agent Sarah Klein.”
Dominic relaxed slightly.
“You know her?”
“She’s been trying to put me in prison for six years.”
“That does not sound comforting.”
“It means she isn’t owned by Matteo.”
Agent Klein entered alone.
Forty years old, composed, sharp-eyed.
She looked at Emma.
“So you’re the waitress.”
Emma bristled.
“My name is Emma.”
Klein nodded.
“Fair.”
Then she looked at Dominic.
“You’re playing with something bigger than your organization.”
Dominic placed a hand on the ledger.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Klein opened a folder containing photographs of crates marked as medical equipment.
Inside were rifles.
“Raines has been moving weapons through relief shipments for years. Matteo Salvatore provides transportation access and financial laundering.”
Emma asked, “Why haven’t you arrested them?”
“Because every witness disappears.”
Klein’s gaze moved to the ledger.
“Gabriel Salvatore was our first source.”
Dominic froze.
“You knew my brother?”
“For six weeks.”
“Where is he?”
Klein’s silence answered.
Dominic took one step toward her.
Emma touched his arm.
The contact stopped him.
Klein spoke carefully.
“Gabriel was supposed to enter protective custody. He never arrived at the safe location.”
“Body?”
“No.”
“So you don’t know he’s dead.”
“No.”
Hope was crueler than grief.
Dominic looked physically shaken.
Klein continued.
“We believe he survived longer than Matteo knew.”
“How long?”
“Possibly years.”
Emma felt the room disappear.
“Years?”
Klein showed them a photograph.
It had been taken four years earlier in Montreal.
A bearded man walked into a clinic.
Even blurred, Emma recognized him.
Gabriel.
Alive.
Her knees gave way.
Dominic caught her.
“He was alive,” she whispered.
“At least four years ago,” Klein said.
Emma stared at the photograph.
“Why didn’t he come back?”
“We don’t know.”
Dominic’s voice was cold.
“Find out.”
Klein looked at him.
“I’m not one of your employees.”
“Then consider it a request.”
“That somehow sounded worse.”
She took out another file.
“The clinic treated trauma patients with memory disorders.”
Emma’s breath caught.
“He may not remember us.”
Klein nodded.
“Or he may have been hiding.”
Dominic looked at the ledger.
“What do you need?”
“Everything Gabriel left.”
“In exchange?”
“I don’t make deals like that.”
“You do today.”
Klein’s jaw tightened.
Dominic spoke quietly.
“You want Matteo and Raines. I want my brother. Emma wants safety for her daughter. We can all waste time pretending we don’t need one another, or we can solve all three problems.”
Klein stared at him.
Then she said, “Forty-eight hours.”
Emma looked at her.
“For what?”
“To verify the Montreal lead.”
That evening, Emma sat alone in the library.
Dominic found her holding Gabriel’s ring.
“You still love him.”
It was not an accusation.
Emma considered the question.
“I love who he was.”
Dominic sat across from her.
“That’s not the same thing?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked at the ring.
“For six years, I built a life around believing he was dead. I hated him sometimes. I forgave him other times. I told Lily he was brave because I couldn’t tell her he vanished.”
Dominic said nothing.
Emma’s eyes filled.
“And now he might be alive.”
“If he is, we’ll find him.”
“You say that like you can promise it.”
“I spent twenty-one days finding a waitress with no address and no digital footprint because she saved my life.”
A faint smile touched her lips.
“I’ll find my brother.”
Emma looked at him.
“And after that?”
Dominic understood the question she had not meant to ask.
What happens to us?
His answer came slowly.
“After that, you choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Whatever life you want.”
He stood.
Even if it doesn’t include me remained unspoken.
May you like
Emma watched him leave.
For reasons she did not want to examine, that possibility hurt most of all.
