Chapter 5 - ROOM 214
Rocco refused to let Audrey go to the warehouse.
Audrey refused to stay behind.
“I’m the one they attacked.”
“You’re carrying my grandchild.”
“Exactly.”
Rocco knew the argument was over.
They went after midnight with Gary and four guards.
Preston was not invited.
Audrey left him at the estate under watch.
The warehouse sat beside the river like a dead animal, windows black, loading doors rusted shut.
The key opened a narrow service entrance.
Room 214 was on the second floor.
Inside, they found nothing but metal shelves and an old desk.
Gary swept the room.
“No files.”
Audrey ran her hand beneath the desk.
Her fingers found tape.
A small flash drive had been fixed under the drawer.
Rocco smiled sadly.
“Your mother never trusted locks.”
Gary plugged the drive into an isolated laptop.
The first folder contained invoices from Hale Capital Advisory.
The second contained recordings.
Sofia’s voice came through the speakers.
“If this is being heard, I failed to make Rocco listen.”
Rocco closed his eyes.
Audrey stared at him.
Sofia continued.
“Brenda Hale offered to make a damaging debt disappear if I transferred future voting rights away from Audrey’s children.”
Audrey whispered, “Why would she care about children I didn’t have?”
The answer came from the recording.
“Because Brenda is not working for herself.”
A man’s voice suddenly spoke in the background.
“Turn that off, Sofia.”
Rocco went rigid.
Gary looked at him.
Audrey had heard that voice at Christmas dinners, birthdays, and family meetings her entire life.
It belonged to Carlo Venn, Rocco’s attorney.
May you like
The man who drafted Audrey’s marriage agreement.
The man who had introduced Preston to the Bellini family.
