Chapter 8 - The Child Isabella Tried to Protect
Dominic met Grace in the library, with Daniel present and two trusted guards outside.
She looked exhausted, as if she had spent three years preparing for this conversation and still dreaded every word.
“Where is Ethan?” she asked.
“Safe.”
“May I see him?”
“After you tell me why you disappeared.”
Grace lowered her eyes.
“Because Isabella begged me to.”
She explained that she had worked at St. Vincent's and had become close to Isabella during her pregnancy. At the time, the hospital had been investigating fraudulent records connected to a private fertility clinic owned by Victor Sterling.
The clinic had secretly diverted money from a charitable medical program. Isabella discovered the scheme while helping a friend who had received suspicious medical bills.
“She wanted to expose Victor,” Grace said. “Vanessa convinced her that if she stayed quiet, no one would be hurt.”
“Then why was Vanessa at the hospital when Ethan was born?”
Grace took a deep breath.
“Because Vanessa was involved in the clinic's finances. She was trying to recover a file Isabella had taken.”
Dominic leaned forward.
“What was in the file?”
“Records showing that Victor had used the clinic to conceal illegal transfers. There were also documents concerning a medical error that had been covered up.”
Grace opened the envelope she had brought.
Inside were two birth records.
One belonged to Ethan.
The other belonged to a baby girl born on the same night.
Dominic looked at the second record.
“Who is this child?”
Grace's eyes filled with tears.
“Her name was Sophie. She was the daughter of a woman who died shortly after delivery. Isabella stayed with her while the staff tried to locate the family.”
“What does that have to do with my son?”
“Nothing directly. But the clinic's records were altered to make it appear that Sophie had been transferred to another facility. She hadn't been.”
Dominic stared at her.
“What happened to her?”
Grace looked toward the window.
“I don't know. Isabella believed someone had taken her.”
The revelation changed the shape of the case. Isabella might have been investigating more than financial fraud. She might have uncovered a crime involving a missing infant.
Grace continued.
“Vanessa knew Isabella had kept copies of the clinic records. After the accident, she searched the house for them. When she couldn't find them, she began manipulating the trust and trying to send Ethan away.”
“Why would sending Ethan away help her?”
“Because he was the only person who might remember the night Isabella died. And because Isabella had hidden something in his belongings.”
Dominic's face tightened.
“What?”
Grace looked at him.
“I don't know. She never told me where.”
They searched Ethan's old belongings, but found nothing.
Then Lily remembered the stuffed rabbit he had carried everywhere when he was three. It had been placed in a storage box after its ear tore.
Inside the rabbit's lining, they found a tiny key taped to a folded piece of paper.
The note contained a short message in Isabella's handwriting:
For my son, when he is old enough to understand.
Dominic opened the safe-deposit box downtown with Daniel and Grace present.
Inside lay a flash drive, a handwritten letter, and a small envelope addressed to Ethan.
The letter was brief.
Dominic, if you have found this, I failed to protect our family. I need you to know that I loved you. I also need you to understand that I was afraid—not of you, but of what your enemies might do to our son.
She explained that she had discovered evidence connecting Victor to the clinic scandal and to a plan to gain control of Ethan's inheritance.
She had intended to meet a state investigator the night she died.
The final paragraph read:
If anything happens to me, find the original hospital recording. It will prove who was with me in the car.
Dominic gripped the letter.
“Where is the recording?”
Grace shook her head.
“Isabella told me she had hidden it somewhere only Ethan could identify.”
Dominic looked toward the envelope addressed to his son.
Inside was a drawing of a blue car, a house, and a tree.
Ethan studied it carefully.
“That's Mommy's car.”
“Do you remember where you saw it?”
He pointed to the tree.
“The big tree near the gate. Mommy parked there when she talked to the man.”
Dominic felt a chill.
The tree stood at the far end of the estate, near an old security camera that had been disconnected after Isabella's death.
They recovered the camera's original storage unit from a maintenance shed.
Most of the footage was corrupted, but one file remained.
It showed Isabella's car stopping near the gate.
A man approached the driver's window.
Then another vehicle pulled into view.
Dominic leaned closer to the screen.
The second driver stepped out.
It was not Victor Sterling.
It was someone Dominic had trusted with his life.
May you like
And when the figure turned toward the camera, Dominic recognized the face of his own father.
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