Chapter 8 - The Secret Vault in the Costa Estate
The next morning, Gabriel ordered a convoy of four armored SUVs.
“We are going to the ancestral estate in the northern valley,” Gabriel told Tessa. “It is time you see the truth.”
They drove two hours outside the city, passing through iron security gates into an expansive countryside estate surrounded by ancient pine forests.
The Costa ancestral mansion was a grand stone manor built in the nineteenth century.
Gabriel led Tessa down into the subterranean levels beneath the mansion—a reinforced vault sealed by biometric scanners and heavy steel doors.
Inside lay the Costa family archives: centuries of ledgers, antique weapons, paintings, and ancestral relics.
Tessa walked along the glass display cases, her heart racing.
Everything here felt eerily familiar.
The scent of aged paper, leather, and dried lavender was the exact scent that had clung to her mother’s old coat.
Gabriel stopped in front of a private cedar cabinet at the center of the room.
May you like
“My mother kept her most precious personal belongings here before she passed away five years ago,” Gabriel said.
He pulled a silver key from his pocket.
