Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
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Clare stared at the key.
Her name was engraved in delicate lettering.
She had never seen it before.
"That's impossible," she whispered.
Isabella folded her arms.
"Perhaps you should explain why your name is on a key belonging to this family."
Clare turned toward Dante.
"I don't know what that is."
"Have you ever met my sister?" he asked.
"No."
"Have you ever been to Italy?"
"Never."
Isabella smiled faintly.
"Convenient."
Dante picked up the key.
"Marco, take it to the laboratory."
Isabella's expression changed.
"You're really going to believe a stranger over your own sister?"
"I'm going to believe evidence."
She laughed.
"Evidence? You have none."
Dante stepped closer.
"Then you won't mind answering a few questions."
Isabella looked at Clare.
"She's manipulating you."
Clare stood.
"I saved your nephew's life."
"By breastfeeding him on an airplane?"
"By helping him when nobody else could."
Isabella's face hardened.
"You think that makes you family?"
"No. I think it makes me someone who doesn't walk away from a crying baby."
For a moment, the room was silent.
Then Isabella turned to leave.
Dante stopped her.
"You're not going anywhere."
She looked at him with genuine hatred.
"You have no idea what you're doing."
The laboratory results arrived two hours later.
The key was made from an unusual alloy used in a private medical archive beneath San Vittore Hospital.
The name engraved on it had been added recently.
Someone wanted Clare to be implicated.
Dante called Marco.
"Find out who made it."
Marco nodded.
Meanwhile, Clare began thinking about the recording.
The woman's voice sounded familiar.
Not familiar because she had met her.
Familiar because of the way she pronounced certain words.
Clare had spent years working around doctors and hospital administrators.
She had heard hundreds of voices.
And there was something about the recording that reminded her of someone from Ohio.
Someone she had met before leaving Richard.
A woman named Vanessa Cole.
Vanessa had been a private nursing consultant at the hospital where Clare once worked.
She had occasionally traveled to Europe for medical conferences.
And she had once asked Clare unusual questions about infant hearing assessments.
Clare remembered a conversation in the hospital break room.
Vanessa had said, "Some parents will believe anything if a doctor tells them their child is beyond help."
At the time, Clare had thought it was an insensitive joke.
Now she wondered whether it had been something else.
She told Dante.
He immediately requested a photograph.
When Vanessa's picture appeared on the screen, he recognized her.
"She worked for Bellini."
Clare's stomach dropped.
"Do you know her?"
"She was part of the medical team that treated Alessia."
"Then she's the woman on the recording."
"Possibly."
Marco entered.
"Sir, we found Vanessa."
"Where?"
"At the airport. She was attempting to leave Italy."
Dante's expression darkened.
"Bring her here."
But Marco shook his head.
"She was arrested before we reached her."
"By whom?"
"Interpol."
Dante frowned.
"On what charges?"
Marco handed him a document.
Vanessa Cole had been connected to a network that falsified medical records for wealthy clients.
Some cases involved insurance fraud.
Others involved illegal drug trials.
But one file contained the name Leonardo Salvatore.
Dante read the page.
His face changed.
Vanessa had received payments from a company registered in Delaware.
The payments had begun three months before Leo's birth.
The company belonged to Richard Jensen.
Clare felt the room tilt.
"My husband?"
Dante looked at her.
"Apparently."
"That's impossible. Richard has never had anything to do with medicine."
Marco placed another document on the desk.
It showed a bank transfer from Richard's company to Bellini's private account.
The amount was $750,000.
Clare covered her mouth.
"Why would he do that?"
Dante looked at the next page.
There was a handwritten instruction attached to the transaction.
THE MOTHER MUST NEVER KNOW THE CHILD WAS EXCHANGED.
Clare felt the blood drain from her face.
"Exchanged?"
Dante slowly looked toward the nursery.
His son was sleeping.
For six months, he had believed Leo was the child born to Alessia.
Now a document suggested that someone might have switched babies.
And the person who financed the operation was Clare's husband.
But the final page contained an even more disturbing detail.
The original hospital record listed a second infant born on the same night.
A girl.
Her mother was identified only as:
JENSEN, CLARE.
Clare stared at the page.
Her hands began trembling.
She had given birth to Maya three years earlier.
But the date on the document was six months ago.
May you like
And beneath the entry was a handwritten note:
THE REAL CHILD IS STILL ALIVE.
