Chapter 1 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE FREEZER BOX
"THE MAFIA BOSS SAW HIS PREGNANT MAID CARRYING A FREEZER BOX—THEN HIS FIANCÉE SCREAMED, “DON'T LET IT THAW!”
“KEEP MOVING! DON'T YOU DARE DROP IT!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE SCREAMED AS A SEVEN-MONTH-PREGNANT MAID STRUGGLED TO CARRY A HEAVY MEDICAL FREEZER BOX DOWN THE BASEMENT STAIRS. BUT WHEN LUCA GRABBED THE BOX AND NOTICED HIS SIX-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER'S NAME ON THE LABORATORY SEAL, HIS FIANCÉE BEGAN PANICKING.
“Please, Mrs. Sterling. It's too heavy.”
Clara Hayes, twenty-six, clutched the insulated medical container against her pregnant belly.
Her breathing was uneven.
Vanessa Sterling stood behind her on the basement staircase.
“Just get it downstairs. Now!”
Clara took another step.
A sharp pain crossed her stomach.
She gasped.
The box slipped.
Suddenly, a man's hand caught it.
“CLARA! LET GO!”
Luca Moretti stood at the bottom of the stairs.
He lifted the container from her trembling arms.
“Are you hurt?”
Clara nodded, pressing a hand against her belly.
“I'm sorry, sir. Mrs. Sterling said I had to move it immediately.”
Luca turned toward Vanessa.
“Why is a pregnant woman carrying something this heavy?”
Vanessa forced a smile.
“It's just medical supplies, darling.”
Luca placed the box on a nearby table.
Cold vapor escaped around its insulated lid.
A red warning label read:
TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED BIOLOGICAL SPECIMENS.
Luca frowned.
“Whose medical supplies?”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Don't worry about it. Just put it in the basement freezer.”
Luca reached for the lid.
Vanessa screamed.
“DON'T OPEN IT!”
He froze.
“Why?”
“Because the samples will be ruined!”
Luca looked at the tamper-evident seal.
It carried the name of a private genetics laboratory in Manhattan.
And beneath it was a patient identification label.
SOPHIA MORETTI — AGE 6.
Luca stopped breathing.
Sophia was his daughter.
His only child.
She'd undergone routine blood tests two weeks earlier.
He slowly looked at Vanessa.
“Why does this have my daughter's name on it?”
Vanessa's lips trembled.
“Luca, I can explain.”
“Then explain.”
Clara quietly spoke.
“Sir… there's something else.”
Luca turned.
“The delivery driver said this container was supposed to go directly to the hospital.”
Vanessa snapped, “SHUT UP!”
Clara flinched.
Luca stepped between them.
“Let her speak.”
Clara swallowed.
“He said the laboratory had been trying to contact you since yesterday.”
Luca stared at Vanessa.
“You told me Sophia's results were normal.”
“They are!”
“Then why are her samples being hidden in my basement?”
Vanessa backed away.
Luca examined the paperwork attached to the container.
One line had been circled in red.
RELEASE RESTRICTED — PATERNITY DISCREPANCY REQUIRES CONFIRMATION.
His hands went cold.
Sophia's mother, Elena, had died four years earlier.
Luca had never questioned whether Sophia was his biological daughter.
And he had loved her every day of her life.
But someone had ordered a genetic comparison without his knowledge.
“Who requested this test?” he demanded.
Vanessa said nothing.
Luca turned over the paperwork.
There was a signature.
VANESSA STERLING.
He looked up.
“You tested my daughter behind my back?”
Vanessa began crying.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From what?”
She shook her head.
Luca pulled out his phone and called the laboratory.
A woman answered.
“Dr. Evelyn Brooks speaking.”
“This is Luca Moretti. I found a specimen container labeled with my daughter's name.”
The doctor went silent.
“Mr. Moretti… that container was reported missing this morning.”
Luca stared at Vanessa.
“Missing?”
“Yes. And there's something you need to understand.”
“What?”
Dr. Brooks hesitated.
“The discrepancy wasn't between you and Sophia.”
Luca froze.
“Then between whom?”
The doctor's voice dropped.
“Between Sophia and the woman listed as her biological mother.”
Luca stopped breathing.
Elena.
His dead wife.
The woman who had given birth to Sophia.
He slowly looked toward Vanessa.
She was trembling so badly she had to grip the stair railing.
Then Dr. Brooks spoke again.
“Mr. Moretti, we need to discuss the original hospital records.”
Luca swallowed.
“Why?”
“Because according to those records, two baby girls were born under Elena Moretti's name that night.”
The basement fell silent.
Luca stared at the container.
Two babies.
One daughter.
And a fiancée who had tried to make the evidence disappear.
Then Vanessa whispered:
“Luca… Elena wasn't supposed to survive the delivery.”
He turned toward her.
“What did you just say?”
But Vanessa only shook her head.
And for the first time, Luca realized the secret might not be about who Sophia's father was.
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It might be about which baby had come home from the hospital.
Read Chapter 2 in the first comment to discover what happened to the second baby—and why Vanessa was desperate to keep Sophia's test results hidden. Thank you for reading!
