Chapter 8 - The Room of Lies
The locked room did not look like a storage space.
It looked like a bizarre shrine built by a madman.
The walls were covered in hundreds of photographs.
Norah walked slowly into the center of the dusty space.
She realized with a sickening jolt that every photograph was of her.
There were pictures of her first day of kindergarten.
Pictures of her high school graduation.
Pictures of her sitting alone in a coffee shop last week.
Vincenzo looked at the walls in utter confusion.
He turned his gun on Dominic.
He demanded to know where the financial ledger was hidden.
Dominic looked just as shocked as Norah.
He swore he had never been inside this room.
Norah saw a small wooden desk sitting beneath the window.
A leather-bound journal rested on top of it.
She walked over and opened the pages.
It was filled with Salvatore's handwriting.
The entries detailed every single day of Norah's life.
He had been paying for her schooling, her housing, and her security from the shadows.
Vincenzo lost his patience and grabbed Norah by the hair.
He pressed the barrel of his gun against her temple.
He screamed that he did not care about the old man's creepy obsession.
He wanted the ten million dollars and the blackmail files.
Norah noticed a loose floorboard beneath the desk.
She remembered the scuff marks from Salvatore's secret bunker.
She kicked the floorboard hard with her heel.
It snapped in half to reveal a hidden metal safe.
Vincenzo shoved her aside and dropped to his knees.
He practically drooled as he stared at the metal box.
He demanded the combination.
Norah looked at Dominic.
She shouted for him to cover his eyes.
Norah grabbed a heavy book from the desk and smashed it against the window.
The glass shattered outward into the storm.
A violent gust of wind blew into the room.
It knocked over a precarious jar of white powder sitting on the sill.
The powder exploded into a massive cloud of chemical dust.
Vincenzo screamed as the blinding agent burned his eyes.
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Dominic grabbed Norah and pulled her out of the room.
They slammed the door shut and locked Vincenzo inside.
