Chapter 6 - The Trust Nobody Was Supposed to Find
The maintenance building fell silent.
Chloe looked at Beatrice.
“What trust?”
Beatrice did not answer.
Gabriel did.
“My father's original estate trust disappeared after he died.”
Chloe turned toward him.
“Disappeared?”
“The lawyers had copies.”
“Then how can it disappear?”
“Copies can be challenged.”
Nico held up the flash drive.
“An original can't.”
Gabriel stared at him.
“You told Victor she knew where it was.”
“I told Victor I suspected she knew.”
“That’s enough.”
“I needed him to move.”
“You used my mother as bait.”
Nico's face hardened.
“I was trying to stop him before he took control of Costello Holdings.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
Anthony moved slightly between them.
Beatrice suddenly slapped both hands together.
Everyone looked at her.
She signed to Chloe.
Tell them to stop behaving like children.
Chloe translated.
Neither man looked pleased.
Beatrice continued.
The original trust exists.
Gabriel stopped breathing.
“Where?”
Beatrice looked at him.
Then shook her head.
Gabriel stared.
“Ma.”
She signed.
You did not listen for six months.
You can listen for six minutes.
Chloe bit the inside of her cheek.
Gabriel looked personally wounded.
Beatrice turned toward Chloe.
When my husband Carlo became sick, Victor started asking questions about ownership.
Chloe translated sentence by sentence.
Carlo did not trust him.
Three weeks before Carlo died, he changed the trust.
Gabriel's face tightened.
“How?”
Beatrice continued.
He increased my voting protection.
He added a clause.
If anyone tried to have me declared incompetent through fraud, Victor's shares would automatically transfer.
“To who?”
Beatrice looked directly at Gabriel.
You.
Gabriel's expression changed.
Nico exhaled.
“That’s why Victor needs the original destroyed.”
Beatrice nodded.
Chloe translated the rest.
The copies held by lawyers did not contain the final handwritten amendment.
Only the original did.
Victor believed Carlo died before signing it.
But he signed it.
Beatrice hid it before the funeral.
Gabriel stared at his mother.
“For seventeen years?”
She nodded.
“Where?”
Beatrice's eyes moved toward Chloe.
Chloe immediately stepped backward.
“No.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What?”
“She knows.”
Beatrice shook her head.
Chloe pointed at herself.
“I absolutely do not know.”
Beatrice smiled faintly.
You know now.
Then she signed three words.
Leo's old church.
Chloe's face emptied.
“What?”
Gabriel looked between them.
“What did she say?”
Chloe barely heard herself.
“She said my brother's church.”
Gabriel frowned.
“What does your brother have to do with this?”
Beatrice reached inside her handbag.
She removed a tiny silver key.
Chloe stared at it.
The key looked familiar.
Not because she had seen it before.
Because a symbol had been engraved into the metal.
A small dove.
St. Matthew's Deaf Ministry used the same symbol.
Leo had volunteered there every Saturday.
Chloe's voice became thin.
“How do you know that church?”
Beatrice signed.
I went there for years.
Chloe stared.
“You knew Leo?”
Beatrice's eyes softened.
Gabriel went completely still.
Chloe leaned closer.
“You knew my brother?”
Beatrice nodded.
The world seemed to tilt.
Leo had never mentioned Beatrice Costello.
Or maybe he had.
Chloe remembered an older woman from his stories.
Mrs. B.
A woman who brought too many cookies.
A woman who hated being treated like a child by her family.
Chloe covered her mouth.
“Mrs. B.”
Beatrice smiled sadly.
Chloe felt tears rise before she could stop them.
“Leo talked about you.”
Beatrice reached for her hands.
He talked about you too.
Chloe looked away.
The grief arrived without warning.
Two years had passed.
Some days it still felt like two minutes.
Gabriel watched silently.
Beatrice continued signing.
Leo helped me hide the trust.
Chloe snapped her head back.
“What?”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“What?”
Chloe translated.
Beatrice explained.
Carlo had asked her to keep the document outside every Costello property.
She had already been attending the deaf ministry secretly because Gabriel's father had encouraged her to meet people who signed.
Leo volunteered in the archive room.
He helped her place a locked metal case inside an unused storage wall.
He never knew what document was inside.
Only that Beatrice believed someone might steal it.
Chloe's breathing became shallow.
“Did Leo know anyone was after you?”
No.
“Did Victor know Leo?”
Beatrice hesitated.
That hesitation changed everything.
Chloe's voice cracked.
“Did Victor know my brother?”
Beatrice signed slowly.
I saw Victor outside the church once.
Two weeks before Leo died.
Gabriel cursed under his breath.
Chloe stood.
“No.”
She walked away.
Gabriel caught her arm gently.
“Chloe.”
She pulled free.
“My brother was killed by a drunk driver.”
Nobody answered.
Chloe looked at Nico.
“Who was the driver?”
Nico frowned.
“I don't know.”
“His name was Dean Mercer.”
Nico's face changed.
Gabriel saw it.
“You know him.”
Nico looked at the ground.
“Nico.”
Gabriel's voice became dangerous.
Nico exhaled.
“Mercer worked for one of Victor's transportation companies.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Gabriel's face hardened.
“Doing what?”
“Collections.”
Chloe backed away.
“No.”
Beatrice reached for her.
Chloe moved out of reach.
“It was random.”
Nico said nothing.
“It was a drunk driver.”
Still nothing.
Chloe looked at Gabriel.
“Tell me it was random.”
Gabriel could not.
She laughed once.
The sound broke halfway out.
“Of course.”
She wiped angrily at her face.
“Of course I walk into one stupid private room and suddenly my brother's death belongs to your family too.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
“We don't know that.”
“Your mother saw Victor outside Leo's church.”
“That isn't proof.”
“Then let's get proof.”
Chloe looked at Beatrice.
“Where exactly is the trust?”
Beatrice gave the location.
Archive room.
North wall.
Behind a plaque honoring Father Michael Grant.
Gabriel looked at Anthony.
“Call nobody.”
Anthony nodded.
“We move now.”
Nico stepped forward.
“Victor will expect that.”
Gabriel pointed his gun at him.
“You're not coming.”
Nico's face remained calm.
“If Victor knows the trust is at St. Matthew's, you're walking into a trap.”
“Good.”
Gabriel's voice lowered.
“Then maybe I'll finally meet someone willing to tell me the truth.”
They left the maintenance building in Anthony's truck.
Nico remained behind under guard.
Beatrice sat beside Chloe in the back.
Neither signed for several minutes.
Then Beatrice touched Chloe's hand.
I am sorry.
Chloe swallowed.
“You didn't kill Leo.”
I brought danger near him.
“You don't know that.”
Neither of them believed the words.
St. Matthew's stood on a quiet street west of downtown.
The church had closed for renovations months earlier.
Scaffolding covered one side.
The doors were locked.
Anthony forced a service entrance.
They moved through dark hallways.
Chloe knew the building instantly.
Memories were everywhere.
Leo laughing near the vending machine.
Leo signing insults behind a priest's back.
Leo teaching children to fingerspell their names.
Chloe's chest hurt.
They reached the archive room.
The plaque remained on the north wall.
Father Michael Grant.
1962-2019.
Beatrice handed Chloe the key.
Anthony removed the plaque.
Behind it was a narrow metal door.
Chloe inserted the key.
It turned.
Inside sat a black document case.
Gabriel exhaled.
“We found it.”
Chloe lifted the case.
A red light appeared on Gabriel's chest.
Chloe saw it first.
“Down!”
She shoved him.
A suppressed shot struck the wall.
Anthony fired toward the doorway.
Gabriel pulled Beatrice behind a cabinet.
Chloe hit the floor with the case.
A man rushed inside.
Anthony tackled him.
Another figure appeared behind the shelves.
Chloe recognized him from a photograph on Nico's phone.
Victor.
He held a pistol.
He aimed directly at Beatrice.
“Give me the case.”
Gabriel stepped between them.
May you like
Victor smiled.
“There you are.”
