Chapter 14 - The Hidden Safe
Later that afternoon, while reviewing the master inventory of the mansion's private vaults, Ethan and Emma descended into the basement archive room. Marcus accompanied them, holding the master keys to the heavy steel door that led to Catherine Carrington’s original private study—a room that had remained locked since Ethan’s father had passed away fifteen years earlier.
Marcus unlocked the heavy door, revealing a dust-covered room filled with leather-bound books, antique oil paintings, and original architectural blueprints of the estate. In the center of the far wall stood a massive floor-to-ceiling iron safe, its brass dial dull with decades of tarnish.
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Ethan stepped up to the safe, using the numerical combination Marcus had retrieved from Catherine’s old diary. With a heavy, metallic click, the thick iron door swung open, revealing a row of velvet-lined shelves containing private family records that had never been submitted to the estate auditors.
Emma reached onto the top shelf, pulling out a small wooden box bound with brass corners. She opened the latch, revealing a collection of original birth certificates and private adoption records dated thirty years ago—records that bore the official seal of the state health department.
