Chapter 7 - THE CHILD ELENA CHOSE
Luca had faced death without hesitation.
But the video of Sophie broke something inside him that no enemy had ever touched.
He gathered his men in the underground garage.
“No one leaves this city without my permission. Every camera, every private airport, every road out of Albany gets checked.”
His security chief nodded.
“And the ledger?”
Luca looked at the screen showing Sophie's frightened face.
“We find my daughter first.”
Rachel approached him.
“The message mentions a child Elena saved. It could refer to your brother.”
“Or Sophie.”
“There's another possibility.”
She handed him the hospital file.
“The record lists two newborn girls admitted on the same night. One was Elena's. The other was registered under an unknown mother's name.”
Luca stared at the dates.
“Two girls?”
Rachel nodded.
“The second baby disappeared from the records before sunrise. I always assumed it was a clerical error.”
Luca looked toward Emma.
“Did Elena ever mention another child?”
Emma hesitated.
Then she nodded.
“Once. About a month before she disappeared, she asked me whether I believed a mother could love a child who wasn't biologically hers.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her love wasn't a blood test.”
Emma's eyes filled with tears.
“She cried after that. I never knew why.”
Luca closed his eyes.
He remembered Elena sitting beside Sophie's crib, singing the same lullaby every night. He remembered the way she held their daughter as though the world could never touch her.
He had believed those moments were ordinary.
Now each one seemed like a message he had failed to understand.
Rachel traced a finger over the hospital file.
“The second baby's identification number matches the one on the photograph.”
Luca's stomach tightened.
“Who was the mother?”
“The name was removed.”
“Can you recover it?”
“Possibly. The hospital's backup archive was transferred to a private server after the accident.”
“Whose server?”
Rachel looked up.
“Salvatore's.”
They drove to the old Moretti data center, a fortified building beneath a disused warehouse. Luca had not entered it since his father's funeral.
The servers still hummed behind locked doors.
Rachel worked for twenty minutes before a file appeared on the monitor.
Two birth certificates.
Two baby bracelets.
One read SOPHIE MORETTI.
The other read LILY VESCARI.
Luca stared.
“Who is Lily?”
Rachel opened the attached photograph.
A newborn baby lay beside a woman whose face had been partially obscured.
But the woman's hand was visible.
A crescent-shaped scar crossed her thumb.
Isabella.
Rachel whispered, “She had a daughter.”
Luca felt the room tilt.
“Then where is the child?”
A second file opened automatically.
It contained a transfer authorization signed by Salvatore Moretti.
The destination was listed as a private residence outside Boston.
The recipient's name was blank.
But at the bottom of the document was a handwritten note.
The girls must never meet until the ledger is recovered.
Luca looked at the screen.
“Why would my father separate two children?”
Rachel's expression darkened.
“Because one of them was evidence.”
Before Luca could respond, the building's emergency lights switched on.
A warning siren began to howl.
His security chief rushed into the room.
“Boss, someone has accessed the system remotely.”
“Cut the connection.”
“I'm trying.”
The monitor flickered.
A live video appeared.
Sophie sat on a chair in a dimly lit room. Beside her stood a woman wearing a dark veil.
The woman lifted her head.
“Hello, Luca.”
He froze.
Elena.
She looked older, thinner, and exhausted. But it was her face.
“Where is my daughter?”
Elena glanced toward Sophie.
“Safe. For now.”
“Bring her home.”
“I can't.”
“Then tell me why.”
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
“Because the people who want the ledger don't just want money. They want the names of every child your father moved through his private network.”
Rachel stepped closer to the screen.
“Elena, what did Salvatore do?”
Elena looked directly at her.
“He sold identities. He moved children between families, changing records whenever someone paid enough.”
Luca felt sick.
“Did he take Sophie?”
“No.” Elena shook her head. “He took someone else.”
“Who?”
Elena pressed her palm against the camera.
“Lily.”
A sound came from behind her.
A door opening.
Elena turned sharply.
Someone entered the room.
Only a shadow was visible.
But the voice that followed was unmistakable.
“Thank you for finding the ledger, Luca.”
The screen went black.
His security chief turned toward the server rack.
“Boss, the file is gone.”
Luca stared at the blank monitor.
Then his phone buzzed.
A new message appeared.
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YOU HAVE ONE HOUR TO CHOOSE WHICH GIRL COMES HOME. SOPHIE OR LILY.
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