Hours later, Damian and Mira were sitting across from each other in a small cafe that was nestled between a dry cleaner and a used bookstore.
It was a kind of place that they were both sure no one would look at twice, much less anyone in it. Sowhere conversations could happen without being overheard or anything like that.
Damian had even chosen a corner booth too, with his back to the wall and eyes constantly scanning the room as if looking for suspicious persons.
"You sounded so urgent on the phone but I could not speak so much since Lucas was right beside ," Mira said as she wrapped her hands around a coffee cup that she had not previously touched.
Her disguise scarf and sunglasses were enough to conceal her face properly.
"Damian, are you so sure about what you said? Did you really find it for ?"
Damian leaned forward as his voice ca out in a whisper. "Oh co on, of course I’m sure. I just don’t understand how you don’t rember it yourself either."
Mira’s heart skipped at that. Was he suspecting sothing?
She sure hoped he wasn’t, not now that the money had been found. She couldn’t also look ignorant because it was sure to raise questions she knew she couldn’t answer.
So she forced a confident and slightly irritated sigh. "Of course I rember. But only a little, you might not know it but the doctor told that this is normal because I went through a traumatic event so so of my mories will only co back little by little. So I’m just a little fuzzy on the details concerning this one."
A look of relief washed over Damian’s face. "Oh... that’s why? I understand you. Let explain maybe it’ll trigger it then."
He pulled out his phone and showed her a photo, so strange storage facility receipt with a date from three months ago. And the na on it wasn’t Lorena Sanders.
"lissa Chen," he said as he pointed to the signature. "Rember her?"
Mira stared at the fake na as her mind raced, hoping that she didn’t slip up and ruin all of these for herself. "Uhm...?"
"The alias, Lorena! You used an alias to hide it all. You don’t rember even that too?"
Mira quickly nodded as if it all ca rushing to her, "Yes yes! That!"
Lucas continued, "Exactly. And honestly, you are brilliant about it. You did so well using an alias and using even without telling ."
Mira could not understand a thing that he was talking about but kept nodding along like she did.
"The investigations were getting hotter and you knew they were going to freeze all your assets so you acted very fast." His voice even carried a little admiration as he looked at her and kept talking.
"I’m so proud that you converted a whole four and a half million dollars into gold bullion over the course of just six weeks using small transactions and different dealers."
Mira was confused, very. Yet the figure four and a half million dollars stuck repeatedly in her skull.
Even if she didn’t understand a thing that Damian had just said, she definitely understood figures and that figure was enough to send air out of her lungs.
It was more money than she had ever even dread of getting access to.
What the hell?
"You even used fake IDs," Damian continued without noticing her internal turmoil. "Then you rented a storage unit under the Chen identity and stashed everything there. The smartest thing you did was even use as a backup contact in case sothing happened to you. Nah, I’m so proud of you, Lori. So proud."
Mira nodded as she tried to put on a proud smile too, like this was sothing she was just rembering rather than sothing that she was hearing for the very first ti.
Damian reached into his jacket and pulled out a small silver key to place between them on the table.
"You made it so easy for to find them out because I was the backup contact. I went there yesterday, Lorena. And when I opened the unit, I saw the crates. Each one about the size of a shoebox and all sealed with industrial tape."
Mira sat up properly. "And they were all there?"
"They were, Lori. All wooden crates with the golds." Damian leaned even more towards Mira as if to make sure no one heard them.
"But I can’t help but get paranoid, now that we know, I feel like the police might too or even anybody at all. That’s why I had to tell you fast so we could go back to check together and if possible just move it. I could keep them for you for now even, at least until the court proceedings are sorted."
A waitress approached their table at that exact ti with a coffee pot in hand but Damian was quick to wave her away with irritation that he didn’t care to conceal.
Mira could not help the real and tangible hope that latched onto her, because she could picture everything that Damian was saying.
She could already imagine so much money in her account with a plane ticket and a life far away from here.
She could picture freedom. With money!
"Let’s go." Mira suddenly said as she reached for her purse. Her voice was now trembling with a desperate need that she didn’t even have to fake. "We need to go there right now, Damian."
They both left the cafe in silence and got into Damian’s car.
Every car that followed them for more than two blocks seed to make both of them paranoid and even every person who glanced in their direction seed suspicious.
The drive took them through the worst part of the city with abandoned warehouses that had broken windows staring at them like dead eyes. The sll of industrial chemicals and rotting garbage seeped even deeper through the car’s air conditioning sohow.
But soon they were pulling into a parking lot that looked like it hadn’t seen maintenance in decades. It had cracks in the walls and weeds that pushed up through the gaps.
The storage facility on the other hand itself was a long and low building with fluorescent lights that buzzed ahead making everything look like a cri scene waiting to happen.
How on earth had Lorena even found such a place to hide her stash? It didn’t seem obvious yet safe either. Mira thought to herself.
Damian led her down a corridor so silently as if soone might pop out of nowhere with a gun to their backs and say, "Your money or your life?"
They stopped in front of a unit with the number 247 and Damian turned the lock.
It turned easily as he grabbed the handle and yanked the rolling door open.
His face crunched up imdiately in surprise causing Mira to move forward to see what he was seeing too.
It was empty.
And not just empty but violated.
Wooden crates were overturned and scattered all around with their lids open and cast aside.
The space that should have held Lorena’s fortune was empty.
Mira took an ambling step forward before she could help it. "No." She whispered before going louder. "Where is it, Damian? Where are they? Are we in the wrong unit?"
Behind her, Damian was shocked too but his ca with a string of vicious curses as he slamd his fist against the tal wall causing it to echo like a gunshot in the space.
"It was here, Lori! I swear!" He roared, genuinely and terrifyingly frustrated.
"I saw it! I saw them with my own two eyes! It was right here! How could they have been gone? Soone must have known about it too! Did you tell anyone else about this other than , Lori? You have to rember now! You have to try!"
Mira only trembled as she now kneeled in the dust. "I... I didn’t tell anyone else? Who... who could have taken it between the ti you found it and now, Damian? How’s that even possible?"
Before he could say anything else, Damian’s phone rang startling them both in the frustrating situation they were already in.
"What is it, mom?" His voice ca irritated.
Mira watched as his expression changed while he listened to whatever was being said on the other end of the line. Color drained from his cheeks and his jaw clenched so tight she could practically see the muscles.
"How is that possible? Didn’t he say he would no longer do that?" He asked in a hoarse voice.
Mira noticed more fear on his face.
"She’s right here with , mom. We’ll be right there." He said finally and then ended the call.
"What?" Mira asked as she scrambled to her feet and wiped the dust from her knees with shaky hands.
"What happened?"
Damian was already moving toward the exit in an urgent manner. "We need to go. Now."
"Why? What is it?"
He stopped just outside the unit to face her. Then he spoke like he was reading a life sentence.
"It’s the company, Lorena. Lucas lied."
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