Chapter 13: Clinic and Safety Deposit
The private medical clinic in the downtown medical district was quiet, sterile, and smelling faintly of antiseptic and clean linen. I sat on the edge of the examination table while Salvatore carefully worked a piece of sterile gauze over a shallow graze along my forearm, the result of a flying shard of gravel from when Rossi's men had scattered. The harsh fluorescent lights overhead cast a clinical white glow across the small room, a stark contrast to the damp, brutal atmosphere of the railyard we had just left behind.
"You didn't have to step into the line of fire back there," Salvatore said quietly, concentrating on applying a piece of medical tape to my arm with steady, practiced fingers. His suit jacket was discarded over a plastic chair, his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing pale forearms and faint scars from old encounters.
"If I stayed behind you, I'd still be a servant," I replied, looking down at him with a faint, tired smile. "I'm done hiding behind other people's caution, Salvatore."
Salvatore finished taping the gauze, stepping back and looking into my eyes for a long moment before letting out a slow, heavy breath. A rare, genuine expression of respect softened the hard lines of his face. "You have Bellandi's blood, all right. Stubborn to a fault."
"Which brings us to the final piece," I said, reaching down to pick up my leather bag from the metal stool beside the table. I pulled out a small, heavy iron key—not the brass warehouse key, but a safety deposit box key bearing the seal of the Central Trust Bank downtown. "Before our mother died, she left one final document in a private vault. Not financial ledgers. Personal letters. The truth about why she left Bellandi's house."
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Salvatore’s expression shifted, the lingering adrenaline of the railyard fading into a profound, heavy stillness. He reached out and took the small iron key from my palm, his fingers brushing against mine.
"The Central Trust vault closes in an hour," Salvatore said, his voice dropping into a quiet, steady cadence. "Let's go find out what else they kept from us."
