Chapter 4 - The Missing Page
Arthur spent the next three hours searching every archive connected to Julia.
Nothing.
No address.
No financial account.
No medical record.
No trace.
It was as if someone had deliberately erased her life.
Renata sat quietly in Arthur's office.
She didn't touch the expensive food his assistant brought her.
She kept holding the wallet.
Arthur noticed.
“Why do you keep holding that?”
Renata looked down.
“Because Mom said it was important.”
“Did she tell you why?”
“She said Grandpa gave it to her.”
Arthur stopped.
“Grandpa?”
“My grandfather?”
Renata nodded.
“Your father.”
Arthur stared at the child.
His father had died years before Julia disappeared.
He had left Arthur everything.
Or so Arthur thought.
Arthur opened the wallet again.
Behind the photograph was a thin hidden compartment.
He had never known it existed.
Inside was a tiny brass key.
Arthur's expression changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was already there.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Arthur…”
Arthur held up the key.
On it was a number.
417.
Daniel's face changed.
“You know what that is?”
“Yes.”
Arthur looked at him.
“Then tell me.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Deposit box.”
“Where?”
“The old Vance private bank.”
Arthur felt his pulse rise.
That bank had been closed eleven years ago.
The same week Julia disappeared.
Arthur turned to Renata.
“Did your mother know about this?”
Renata nodded.
“She told me never to give it to anyone.”
Arthur held the key carefully.
“Then why give me the wallet?”
Renata looked directly at him.
“She said you needed to remember something.”
“What?”
“That she never stole from you.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
Eleven years of anger.
Eleven years of certainty.
Suddenly one sentence was enough to shake all of it.
He called the bank's former manager.
The man answered after several rings.
“Arthur?”
“I need access to box 417.”
Silence.
Then:
“That box doesn't belong to you.”
Arthur's eyes narrowed.
“Whose is it?”
The manager whispered:
May you like
“Julia's.”
👉 The key had led Arthur to a box Julia had kept hidden for eleven years, and the former bank manager's fear suggested its contents could destroy the story Arthur had believed all this time.
