Chapter 4 - Locker 314
Union Station never slept completely.
Even after midnight, footsteps echoed through the old Los Angeles terminal.
Detective Bell wanted Stallone to wait.
Stallone refused.
Ethan stayed at the mansion with two officers and Maria.
Vanessa was told not to leave.
She complained for fifteen straight minutes.
Nobody cared.
Locker 314 was located in an older storage corridor that had been sealed from public use years earlier.
The brass key still worked.
Bell turned it.
The metal door clicked open.
Inside sat a black medical bag.
Nothing else.
Stallone stared at it.
“That’s it?”
Bell pulled it out carefully.
Dust covered the top.
The zipper had rusted.
Inside were baby records.
Two hospital bracelets.
A small cassette recorder.
And a sealed envelope addressed to Stallone.
His hands trembled when he saw Rachel’s handwriting.
Bell said, “Let forensics open it.”
“No.”
“Sly.”
“She wrote my name.”
Bell hesitated.
Then nodded.
Stallone opened the envelope.
Inside was one page.
Sly,
If you’re reading this, something happened to me.
Vanessa knows.
I heard her talking to Dr. Keller.
They think I’m asleep.
They keep saying “the twins.”
You were told there was one baby.
There are two.
Two girls.
Lily and Rose.
If they tell you either one died, demand proof.
Please find them.
Please don’t trust—
The sentence ended there.
No signature.
No explanation.
Stallone lowered the paper.
“Twins.”
Bell’s face hardened.
“One of the documents in your frame said ‘second child survived.’”
“Then what happened to the first?”
“We don’t know.”
Stallone picked up the hospital bracelets.
BABY A.
BABY B.
No names.
Both listed the same mother.
Rachel Carter.
Both listed the same father.
Sylvester Stallone.
He sat down hard on the bench.
For twelve years, he had believed one daughter died.
Now there had been two.
Bell switched on the cassette recorder.
Static filled the corridor.
Then Rachel’s voice.
Weak.
Breathless.
“If Sly hears this… Vanessa is lying.”
Stallone stopped breathing.
“They moved one baby. I don’t know where. Keller says there was a complication, but I heard crying. I heard both of them crying.”
A door slammed on the recording.
Rachel whispered.
“Oh God.”
Footsteps.
Then another voice.
Vanessa.
“You should be resting.”
Rachel replied, “Where are my daughters?”
Static crackled.
Vanessa’s recorded voice became faint.
“You need to stop asking questions.”
The tape ended.
Stallone stared at the machine.
Bell said nothing.
There was nothing useful to say.
Then his phone rang.
An officer at the mansion.
Bell answered.
His face changed immediately.
“What do you mean she’s gone?”
Stallone stood.
“Who?”
Bell listened.
“When?”
Another pause.
Then he lowered the phone.
“Vanessa disappeared.”
“What about Ethan?”
“He’s safe.”
Stallone grabbed his jacket.
“How did she get out?”
“They found a service tunnel beneath the wine cellar.”
Bell cursed under his breath.
Then his phone rang again.
Different number.
He answered.
A woman was crying.
Bell put the call on speaker.
“Detective Bell?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Maria Alvarez. I work for Mr. Stallone.”
Stallone stepped closer.
“Maria?”
Her breathing was broken.
“She took Ethan.”
Stallone’s face drained of color.
Bell snapped, “You just said he was safe.”
“He was. She came back through the tunnel. She knew where the cameras were.”
“Where are you?”
“In the pantry. She hit me.”
Stallone grabbed the phone.
“Maria, where is my son?”
“She took him through the garage.”
“Did she say anything?”
“Yes.”
Maria started sobbing harder.
May you like
“She said she was going to finish what she should have finished twelve years ago.”
Then the line went dead.
