Chapter 6 – SINS OF THE FATHER

The marble walls of the bank vault seemed to close in on me.

“No,” I backed away, clutching Lily to my chest. “No, you’re lying. Daniel is her father. He raised her!”

“Look at the date on the back of the photo,” Gabriel said, his voice breaking.

I looked. It was dated exactly nine months after a night I had tried desperately to forget.

Five and a half years ago, before I ever met Daniel, I worked as a waitress at a private club. Gabriel was there, drowning his grief after his father’s funeral. We spent one night together. In the morning, he was gone, leaving only an envelope of cash.

A month later, I found out I was pregnant. I was terrified. Then I met Daniel. He was kind, gentle, and he promised to take care of us. He married me and claimed Lily as his own.

“He knew,” Gabriel whispered, staring at Lily. “Daniel knew she was mine. He married you to protect you from my world.”

Tears streamed down my face. “He loved us. He was a better man than you will ever be.”

“I know,” Gabriel said softly. He knelt down in front of Lily. “He was the best of us.”

Suddenly, the heavy metal door of the vault slammed shut, locking us inside.

The intercom on the wall crackled to life.

“It’s a tragic family reunion,” Vincenzo’s voice echoed through the speaker. “But it ends here.”

Marcus cursed, banging his fists against the reinforced steel door. “He bought the bank manager. We’re trapped.”

“Turn off the ventilation,” Vincenzo ordered through the intercom.

The low hum of the air conditioning died. The vault was completely sealed. We had maybe an hour of air.

Gabriel began pacing, examining the walls. “There has to be an emergency release.”

“There isn’t,” Marcus said, slumping against the wall, clutching his bleeding shoulder. “It’s a time-lock. It won’t open until 8 AM.”

I held Lily close. She was scared, hiding her face in my neck.

“Mommy, I can’t breathe good,” she whimpered.

“It’s okay, baby,” I lied, kissing her forehead.

Gabriel grabbed the leather ledger from the safety deposit box. He flipped through the pages rapidly.

“Daniel documented everything,” Gabriel said, his eyes scanning the numbers. “Every bribe, every murder Vincenzo ordered. It’s enough to put him away for ten lifetimes.”

“Much good it does us in here,” Marcus muttered.

I looked at the safety deposit box. My mind raced back to my childhood, growing up poor in Chicago, fixing broken locks in cheap apartments just to keep the cold out.

“Give me your hairpin,” I told Lily.

She pulled a thick metal bobby pin from her hair and handed it to me.

I walked over to the vault’s internal electronic override panel. I smashed the plastic cover with the butt of Marcus’s gun.

“What are you doing?” Gabriel asked.

“Daniel taught me a few things,” I said, my hands shaking as I crossed the wires. “He said if you ever need to short-circuit a magnetic lock, you find the primary ground.”

I jammed the metal hairpin into the exposed circuit board.

Sparks flew. The heavy steel door groaned, and the magnetic seal disengaged with a loud thud.

Gabriel stared at me in shock.

“Daniel chose a smart wife,” Marcus grinned weakly.

Gabriel pushed the heavy door open.

The bank lobby was empty, but through the glass doors, we saw Vincenzo’s men waiting in the street.

Gabriel handed me the ledger. “Take Lily and Marcus out the back alley. Go to the police station. Hand this to the FBI.”

“What about you?” I asked.

Gabriel pulled a spare magazine from his pocket and loaded his weapon.

“I’m going to finish this,” he said.

Before I could argue, the glass doors of the bank shattered inward. A smoke grenade bounced across the marble floor.

Through the thick gray smoke, a figure walked in.

It wasn’t Vincenzo.

It was a man with a jagged scar over his left eye.

“Hello, little brother,” Leo smiled. “Did you really think Vincenzo was in charge?”

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