Chapter 2 - The Woman in Room 417
Sebastian took his daughter to his private study, where the doors were reinforced and the windows overlooked the estate's iron gates.
He refused to let anyone else carry her.
The baby had stopped crying and was sleeping against his chest, one tiny hand curled into his shirt.
“What is her name?” he asked.
Clara stood beside the desk, her stained uniform replaced by a borrowed sweater.
“Isabella named her Lily.”
Sebastian smiled faintly.
“Lily Romano.”
“She said you once told her that lilies grew in places where people thought nothing beautiful could survive.”
He remembered.
He had said it to Isabella in a hospital garden after a shooting nearly killed him. She had laughed and told him that he was far too dramatic for a man who claimed not to believe in poetry.
He closed his eyes.
“Tell me everything.”
Clara drew a shaky breath.
Eight months earlier, she had worked as a nursing assistant at St. Agnes Medical Center before leaving to care for her sick mother. She had met Isabella there during a routine prenatal appointment.
Isabella had been frightened.
She told Clara that someone was following her, that her medical records had been accessed without permission, and that she suspected someone inside Sebastian's organization wanted to keep her away from him.
“She didn't trust the police,” Clara explained. “She thought the people following her had connections everywhere.”
“Why didn't she come to me?”
“She tried.”
Sebastian remembered the phone call.
He had been in a meeting when Isabella called repeatedly. Vanessa had entered the conference room carrying his phone and told him Isabella was being emotional again.
An hour later, Vanessa had announced the accident.
“She called me,” Sebastian whispered.
Clara nodded.
“She told me she had called you. She was waiting for you at the hospital when two men arrived with transfer papers.”
“Where did they take her?”
“St. Agnes first. Then a private facility outside the city.”
“Which facility?”
Clara hesitated.
“Blackwood Recovery Center.”
Sebastian's jaw tightened.
He knew Blackwood.
It was a private medical facility owned through a chain of companies connected to the Romano family. It was supposed to provide long-term rehabilitation for wealthy patients.
It was also the kind of place where inconvenient people could disappear behind locked doors and confidentiality agreements.
“Who signed the transfer?”
Clara looked down.
“Vanessa Sterling.”
Sebastian placed Lily gently in a bassinet beside his desk.
Then he turned toward Marco, who had just entered.
“Find every record connected to Blackwood Recovery Center. Patient transfers, invoices, staff rosters, security footage. Everything.”
Marco nodded.
“And bring me Vincent.”
“Your uncle?”
“Especially my uncle.”
Marco paused.
“There's something else. The hospital's chief administrator claims Isabella Moretti was never admitted to St. Agnes.”
Sebastian looked at Clara.
“That's a lie.”
“I have proof,” Clara said.
She reached into her bag and removed a small notebook.
Isabella had written down dates, names, and the number of a room.
417.
“The room where she gave birth,” Clara explained. “She asked me to memorize it. She said the room number mattered because it was the only part of her hospital record that hadn't been changed.”
Sebastian picked up the notebook.
At the bottom of the page, Isabella had written:
If anything happens to me, ask Dr. Evelyn Shaw why the original records disappeared.
“Who is Dr. Evelyn Shaw?”
“The obstetrician who delivered Lily.”
Marco immediately made a call.
Five minutes later, he returned with a troubling update.
Dr. Shaw had resigned from St. Agnes three weeks earlier and had not reported to her new employer.
Her apartment was empty.
Her phone had been disconnected.
Sebastian looked at the sleeping baby.
“Someone has been cleaning up.”
Clara nodded.
“Isabella knew they would.”
Sebastian studied her.
“You risked your life to bring Lily here. Why?”
Clara's eyes filled with tears.
“Because Isabella saved my mother when we couldn't afford her treatment. She didn't want money. She didn't ask for anything in return.”
She looked down at Lily.
“And because no child deserves to grow up believing her mother abandoned her.”
Sebastian's expression softened.
“You won't have to face this alone.”
A knock sounded at the door.
Marco entered, holding a printed report.
“We found a financial connection between Blackwood and Sterling Holdings.”
Sebastian took the pages.
The company had paid for Isabella's treatment, private security, and a second identity.
But one payment stood out.
A transfer of two million dollars had been authorized on the night Isabella was declared dead.
The recipient was a company called Northbridge Patient Services.
Its registered director was Vincent Romano.
Sebastian stared at the page.
His uncle had personally delivered Isabella's death certificate.
His fiancée had authorized her transfer.
And his own family's company had paid to keep her hidden.
He looked toward the study door.
“Bring Vanessa in.”
Marco hesitated.
“Sir, she says she needs to speak to you privately.”
Sebastian's eyes hardened.
“She has had eight months to speak.”
May you like
He looked at Lily once more.
“Now she can speak in front of the truth.”
