Chapter 8 - The Sister Who Wanted Everything
The hospital in the video was St. Catherine's.
Margaret identified it within minutes.
The building had closed its maternity wing years earlier, but its records remained in storage beneath the old administration block.
Dante wanted to send his men.
Elena refused.
"If you send armed men, Vanessa will disappear."
"She already has the key."
"Then we find out what she wants before you threaten her."
Dante looked at her.
"You're protecting her?"
"I'm protecting the truth."
They arrived at St. Catherine's just after midnight.
The basement smelled of dust and disinfectant. Old filing cabinets lined the walls, their labels faded.
Margaret had arranged access through a retired hospital administrator named Harold Price.
He was waiting near the records room.
"I remember your mother," he said when he saw Elena.
"Did you work here when she gave birth?"
He nodded.
"I was a junior administrator. I handled the adoption paperwork."
"How many babies were involved?"
Harold looked toward Dante.
"Three."
Elena closed her eyes.
"Tell me."
"The twins were delivered first. A boy and a girl. The boy was transferred to another hospital after complications. The girl was listed as stillborn."
"Was she?"
"No."
Elena felt cold.
"Who took her?"
"Vanessa's mother."
"And the third baby?"
Harold hesitated.
"That child wasn't born to your mother."
"Then whose child?"
He opened a cabinet and removed a file.
The name on the front was Dante Moretti.
Elena looked at her husband.
Harold spoke quietly.
"Your father was married before he met your mother. His first wife gave birth to a boy who was placed for adoption."
Dante took the file.
"Who?"
Harold pointed to the final page.
A signature.
Adrian Bell.
Dante stared.
"Adrian?"
"Your father arranged the adoption to protect the boy from a family feud. The child grew up under another name."
Elena looked between them.
"Are you saying Adrian is your brother?"
Harold nodded.
"By blood."
Dante closed the file.
"That's impossible."
"Your father knew," Harold replied. "He paid to keep the records sealed."
A noise sounded upstairs.
Dante's men moved toward the stairwell.
A moment later, a woman screamed.
Elena ran.
At the end of the corridor, Vanessa stood beside a hospital bed.
A baby lay in the crib.
But the child was not hers.
Vanessa held a small envelope.
"Don't come any closer."
Elena stopped.
"Who is the baby?"
Vanessa smiled sadly.
"My niece."
"Your daughter?"
"No."
"Then whose?"
Vanessa looked toward Dante.
"Your father's."
Dante stepped forward.
"My father is dead."
"Not the child."
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph of a woman holding a newborn.
The woman was Elena's mother.
Beside her stood a man whose face had been scratched out.
"Your mother had another child after the twins," Vanessa said. "A son. He was born in secret and raised by a family outside Chicago."
Elena felt her knees weaken.
"Why are you telling us this?"
"Because the trust is not the prize. The child is."
Vanessa looked at Elena.
"Your mother believed she could protect all of us. She couldn't."
Then she placed the envelope on the bed.
"I never wanted to hurt you."
Elena stared at her.
"You came into my home. You let my husband humiliate me. You watched him tell his pregnant wife to leave."
Vanessa's eyes filled.
"I wanted him to choose me."
"Why?"
"Because I spent my entire life being told I was unwanted. I thought if Dante chose me, the family would finally have to acknowledge who I was."
Dante stepped forward.
"You're my sister-in-law. Nothing more."
Vanessa laughed through her tears.
"That's not what your father told me."
Elena looked at her.
"What did he tell you?"
Vanessa's expression changed.
"He told me that if I ever found the third child, I would understand why your mother had to die."
The lights went out.
A gunshot exploded somewhere upstairs.
Dante grabbed Elena and pulled her behind the bed.
When the emergency lights came on, Vanessa was gone.
The crib was empty.
And on the pillow lay a single photograph.
May you like
A newborn baby.
With Dante's eyes.
