Chapter 3 - The Safe Beneath the Theater
The memory card contained one video.
Seventeen minutes.
I did not watch it inside my house.
Mara's letter had included another instruction.
Go to the Rialto Theater. Ask for Evelyn Park.
The Rialto was an abandoned movie palace in Newark that I secretly owned through three holding companies.
Nobody used it anymore.
Or so I thought.
At 11:40 that night, I entered through the stage door with Nico.
An elderly Korean-American woman waited beneath the faded gold balconies.
“Roman Moretti?”
“Yes.”
“I'm Evelyn Park.”
She had been Mara's attorney.
And apparently Elena's.
“You knew my sister?”
“I helped her prepare evidence.”
My jaw tightened.
“For five years?”
“For six.”
“And nobody told me?”
“Your sister specifically instructed us not to.”
“Why?”
Evelyn looked at me calmly.
“Because she loved you.”
“That doesn't answer my question.”
“It does.”
She walked toward the stage.
“Your sister believed you would start a war if you knew who betrayed her.”
She was right.
Beneath the stage was an old projection archive.
Inside stood a steel safe.
Evelyn entered a code.
The door opened.
Files.
Photographs.
Bank records.
Audio transcripts.
And DNA documentation establishing Noah as Elena's biological son.
My nephew.
My family.
Then Evelyn handed me another file.
“Read this before watching the video.”
Inside were financial transfers from companies controlled by Dominic Vale.
Payments to a former Moretti driver.
Payments to a mechanic.
Payments made two days before Elena's fatal crash.
I stared at the numbers.
“Dominic killed her?”
“We cannot prove he ordered her death.”
“Then what can you prove?”
“That he financed the people who sabotaged her investigation.”
I looked toward the memory card.
“And the video?”
“Elena recorded it.”
We inserted it into an offline laptop.
My sister appeared on the screen.
Alive.
Smiling nervously.
Pregnant.
For several seconds, I could not speak.
Then Elena looked directly into the camera.
“Roman, if you're watching this, something went wrong.”
My hands curled into fists.
She explained everything.
Daniel had discovered Dominic was secretly redirecting Moretti shipments and selling route information.
Elena helped him.
Dominic learned they were investigating.
They hid Noah's identity before he was born.
Then Elena said something unexpected.
“Do not punish Celeste for her father's decisions.”
I looked up.
Elena continued.
“She helped me.”
Nico stared at me.
“What?”
The video ended with Elena naming Celeste as the person who had secretly provided documents against Dominic.
My fiancée had known.
May you like
For six years.
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