Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
I didn't remember leaving headquarters.
I only remembered Victor shouting my name as I ran toward the elevator.
My daughter was missing again.
My mother was gone.
And somewhere in the city, my wife—the woman I'd buried five years earlier—was alive.
“Find them!” I ordered. “I want every camera, every vehicle, every phone signal checked. Nobody sleeps until Sophie is home.”
Victor followed me into the car.
“Boss, we have a possible location.”
“Where?”
“An old private medical facility in Queens. The building belongs to a company connected to your father's trust.”
I stared through the windshield.
“Get us there.”
The facility was almost deserted.
Its windows were dark, and weeds had grown through cracks in the parking lot.
I entered through a side door with Victor behind me.
The hallway smelled of disinfectant.
A receptionist's desk stood abandoned.
Then I heard something.
A child's voice.
“Daddy?”
I turned so quickly my shoulder struck the wall.
“Sophie!”
I ran toward the sound.
At the end of the hallway, a door stood slightly open.
I pushed it.
My daughter was sitting on a hospital bed, holding her teddy bear.
My mother stood beside her.
And across the room stood a woman wearing a black coat.
Light-brown hair.
Chocolate-brown eyes.
A familiar face I had dreamed about every night for five years.
Elena.
My wife.
My knees nearly gave out.
She looked at me with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Lorenzo.”
I couldn't speak.
Sophie jumped off the bed.
“DADDY!”
I caught her and held her tightly.
Then I looked at Elena.
“Is it really you?”
She nodded.
“I never stopped loving you.”
I wanted to run toward her.
I wanted to hold her, scream at her, ask a thousand questions.
Instead, I stood frozen.
“You were dead.”
“I know.”
“I buried you.”
“I know.”
“You let me raise our daughter believing her mother was gone.”
Elena lowered her eyes.
“I thought it was the only way to keep you both alive.”
I looked at my mother.
She stepped forward.
“Lorenzo, let her explain.”
“Not yet.”
I turned back to Elena.
“Why?”
She took a shaky breath.
“Your father arranged the accident. He wanted me dead because I had discovered the financial transfers. But someone warned me before the crash.”
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
I stared at her.
My mother began crying.
“I found out what Dominic was planning. I helped Elena escape from the hospital before he could finish what he'd started.”
My mind struggled to process the words.
“You helped fake her death?”
My mother nodded.
“Dominic had people watching the hospital. Elena's injuries were serious, but she survived. We arranged for another patient who had died to be identified incorrectly.”
I looked at Elena.
“And you never contacted me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Several times. Every attempt was intercepted.”
She pulled a folded photograph from her coat.
It showed me holding newborn Sophie.
On the back was a handwritten message.
I wish I could come home.
“I sent this through a lawyer,” she whispered. “Your father intercepted it.”
I looked at the photograph.
My hands were shaking.
“Why come back now?”
“Because Dominic is trying to transfer Sophie's inheritance. And because I discovered something about his plan.”
“What?”
Elena glanced at Sophie.
“Your father didn't just want her money. He wanted her identity.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“He arranged for a second birth certificate to be created. One that identifies Sophie as the daughter of another woman. If he succeeds, he can claim she has no legal connection to you or to my inheritance.”
I looked at my little girl.
She was playing with her teddy bear, unaware that adults had been trying to erase her existence.
I knelt beside her.
“Princess, Mommy is here.”
Sophie looked at Elena.
Then she walked toward her slowly.
“Are you my real mommy?”
Elena dropped to her knees.
“Yes, baby. I'm your mommy.”
Sophie studied her face.
“Why didn't you come to my birthday?”
Elena broke down.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
“Or Christmas?”
Elena reached for her.
Sophie hesitated.
Then she wrapped her little arms around her mother's neck.
“I missed you.”
Elena sobbed into her daughter's hair.
I turned away, unable to watch without feeling my heart break.
For five years, I'd told Sophie stories about her mother.
I'd shown her photographs.
I'd kept Elena's favorite dress in a locked wardrobe.
And now the woman herself was holding our child.
But the reunion was interrupted by a phone ringing.
My mother's face changed when she saw the caller.
Dominic.
She answered on speaker.
His voice filled the room.
“Lorenzo, I hope you've enjoyed your little family reunion.”
I stepped toward the phone.
“It's over, Father.”
He laughed.
“Not even close.”
Then came a sound.
A metallic click.
And a man's frightened voice.
“Boss...”
It was Victor.
I turned.
He wasn't beside me anymore.
Dominic continued.
“Your security chief has been very helpful. Now, if you want him alive, bring Elena and Sophie to the old harbor.”
The call ended.
I looked around.
Victor was gone.
And the next message contained a photograph of him kneeling beside Anthony.
Both men were bleeding.
May you like
Underneath it were five words.
BRING THE GIRL. COME ALONE.
