Chapter 4 - The Locked GardenI returned to Apartment 5B in daylight.
This time I knocked.
Luna opened the door.
“Mr. Santoro.”
She held Bunny.
“Hello, Luna.”
“You were outside yesterday.”
I froze.
“You saw me?”
She nodded.
“I saw your big shoes.”
Apparently my surveillance skills did not extend to toddlers.
Elena appeared.
Her eyes were red.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you?”
“To show you something.”
I handed her the restored pension documents.
She looked at the amount.
Sat down.
Then cried.
Luna immediately wrapped her arms around her mother.
“It’s okay, Mama.”
Elena laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
Luna looked at me.
“Did the money wake up?”
I couldn’t speak for a moment.
“Yes.”
I crouched.
“It woke up.”
Then I noticed the back door.
Beyond it:
A small garden.
Or what used to be one.
A heavy steel chain locked the gate.
“Why is that closed?”
Elena shrugged.
“City inspectors said the wall was dangerous.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
I examined the padlock.
Municipal seal.
But the wall looked stable.
Too stable.
Vincent arrived thirty minutes later carrying property records.
His expression told me enough.
“The condemnation order was fake.”
Elena stared.
“What?”
Marcus’s network had bribed a code-enforcement officer.
The garden was closed deliberately to create documented “habitability problems.”
Then the building could be condemned.
Residents forced out.
A developer would purchase it cheaply.
I asked:
“Who owns the developer?”
Vincent swallowed.
“Santoro Urban Renewal.”
My company.
I stared at him.
My own corporation was about to steal the home of the widow I had promised to protect.
That was when I understood.
Marcus was not simply rotten.
My empire had become large enough for corruption to survive beneath my name without requiring my participation.
Which meant my innocence did not matter as much as I wanted it to.
I had built the structure.
I had stopped looking.
That was my failure.
“Cut it.”
Vincent frowned.
“The chain?”
“Yes.”
Twenty minutes later, hydraulic cutters snapped the lock.
The gate opened.
Luna ran into the overgrown grass.
Elena shouted:
“Luna!”
The child stopped.
Then looked back.
“Can I?”
Elena stared at the garden she had not entered since Gabriel died.
“Yes.”
Luna ran.
Bunny bounced in her hand.
I watched her disappear into weeds almost as tall as she was.
Then told Vincent:
“Buy the building.”
“Boss?”
“Not through Santoro.”
“Then how?”
“Resident trust.”
Elena turned.
“What are you doing?”
“Stopping us from owning it.”
May you like
That surprised everyone.
Including me.
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