Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO SHOULD HAVE DIED
The abandoned hospital stood behind a rusted fence, its windows boarded and its entrance swallowed by weeds.
Luca arrived with Dominic and six armed men. Adrian insisted on coming, despite the suspicion still hanging between the brothers.
They entered through a side door.
Inside, the corridor smelled of dust and damp plaster. Old signs pointed toward maternity rooms that had been closed for years.
A woman's voice echoed from the end of the hall.
“You have to understand, Emily. I was trying to protect you.”
Luca recognized Vanessa.
He signaled his men to remain behind him and approached the open doorway.
Emily sat on an examination table, her wrists bound with plastic ties. Her face was streaked with tears, but she was conscious.
Vanessa stood beside a cabinet holding a thick envelope.
“Untie her,” Luca said.
Vanessa spun around.
For a moment, relief crossed her face.
Then she saw Adrian.
“You brought him here?”
Adrian's voice was flat.
“You kidnapped a pregnant woman. I think we can stop pretending I'm the dangerous one.”
Vanessa backed toward the door.
“You don't understand what happened.”
“Then tell us,” Luca said.
She looked at Emily.
“Your daughter was born alive. The hospital told you she died because the people who controlled the charity wanted her identity erased. Your father had uncovered their accounts. They needed leverage over him.”
Emily began shaking.
“No.”
“Your mother signed papers believing she was saving you. She thought your daughter would be placed with a family that could protect her.”
“Who took my baby?”
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“Elena.”
Luca felt the floor tilt beneath him.
Vanessa explained that Elena had discovered the illegal trafficking of identities through the hospital charity. When she found Emily's daughter, she arranged to move the child to safety.
But Elena had been betrayed by someone she trusted.
Dr. Shaw had informed the people behind the scheme that she was preparing to expose them. The hospital fire had been used to destroy records and eliminate witnesses.
“Elena survived the fire,” Vanessa whispered. “She was badly injured. Adrian helped her escape, but the people hunting her found us at the river.”
Adrian's face was rigid.
“I thought she was dead.”
“She wasn't. She was alive when they took her away.”
Luca stared at Vanessa.
“Then whose body did I bury?”
“I don't know.”
“You signed the hospital paperwork.”
“I was told it was Elena. I never saw the body.”
Luca's hands curled into fists.
For three years, he had mourned his wife while the woman who had helped conceal her disappearance stood beside him, wearing his engagement ring.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because the people behind the ledger threatened Sophie. They said if you investigated, she would disappear next.”
Emily looked up.
“And my daughter?”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“I don't know where she is now.”
Emily's breath came in ragged bursts.
“You let me believe my baby was dead.”
“I was afraid.”
“You let me work in this house, carrying another child, while you knew what had happened to my first.”
Vanessa couldn't answer.
Luca moved toward her.
“Who is behind the ledger?”
Before she could speak, a loud crack echoed through the corridor.
The lights went out.
Gunfire erupted from the stairwell.
Dominic pulled Emily off the examination table as Luca returned fire. Adrian dragged Vanessa behind a concrete pillar.
The attackers wore hospital security uniforms, but their weapons were military-grade.
Luca realized the truth immediately.
Someone had known they would come here.
Someone had sent them into a trap.
“East exit!” Dominic shouted.
They moved through the corridor, taking cover behind abandoned equipment. Emily stumbled, one hand pressed against her belly.
“Keep moving,” Luca told her. “You're almost there.”
A bullet struck the wall beside Adrian.
He turned to return fire, then froze.
A man stood at the far end of the corridor, holding a silver walking cane.
His hair was white. His face was older, thinner, but unmistakable.
Luca's father.
The man who had supposedly died eight years earlier.
The man whose funeral Luca had attended.
The old man lifted his cane in greeting.
“Hello, sons.”
Adrian stared at him in disbelief.
“You told me he was dead.”
Luca couldn't speak.
Their father smiled without warmth.
“I'm afraid your family has been making a great many mistakes.”
Then he pointed his cane toward Emily.
“Take the girl.”
Two armed men seized her.
Luca fired, but the attackers dragged Emily through a service door and disappeared into the darkness.
His father turned toward him.
“Choose carefully, Luca. Your wife is alive, your daughter is in danger, and the woman you just lost is carrying the last person who can expose us all.”
Luca lunged forward.
But the old man vanished behind a closing security door.
When Dominic forced it open, there was nothing beyond it except an empty loading dock.
On the floor lay a single photograph.
Elena stood beside an older woman, holding a little girl with dark curls.
On the back, someone had written:
May you like
YOUR DAUGHTER HAS A SISTER.
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