Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
“Tell me exactly what you meant when you said my wife wasn't supposed to survive.”
Luca's voice was quiet.
That frightened Vanessa more than shouting ever could.
She stood beside the basement staircase, her diamond engagement ring catching the cold overhead light. A moment earlier, she had been ordering Clara around as if the pregnant maid were a piece of furniture. Now, she looked like a woman searching desperately for an exit.
“Luca, you're misunderstanding me.”
“Then make me understand.”
On the phone, Dr. Evelyn Brooks waited silently.
Clara pressed one hand against her stomach. The baby had moved, but the pain that had seized her on the stairs had not entirely disappeared.
Luca noticed her expression.
“Sit down, Clara.”
“I can finish my work, sir.”
“That wasn't a request.”
He pulled a chair toward her and then turned back to Vanessa.
“You have sixty seconds.”
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“Elena had complications during delivery. The doctors told the family there was a possibility she wouldn't make it. I was there for you, Luca. I watched you fall apart.”
“You weren't there when Elena delivered Sophia.”
“I came to the hospital afterward.”
“Three hours afterward,” he corrected. “And you told me my daughter was healthy.”
“She was.”
“Then why did the hospital register two girls?”
Vanessa's mouth opened, but no answer came.
Dr. Brooks interrupted through the phone.
“Mr. Moretti, I need you to secure that container. Please don't allow anyone to remove it. The contents include reference samples and documents related to a restricted investigation.”
“What investigation?”
“A review of neonatal identification records from the night your daughter was born.”
Luca looked at the seal again.
“Who initiated the review?”
“I cannot disclose every detail over an unsecured call. But I can tell you this: the laboratory received a formal request from a woman claiming to be the biological mother of a child who had been declared deceased at birth.”
Clara slowly raised her head.
Vanessa went white.
Luca saw it.
“You know something about that woman.”
“No.”
“You just reacted.”
“Because you're frightening me!”
“Good. Fear might finally make you honest.”
He ended the call only after Dr. Brooks promised to send a secure verification code. Then he called his head of security, Marco Bellini.
“Lock down the east entrance, the garage, and the basement. Nobody leaves with documents, medical supplies, or personal luggage without my approval.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“You cannot imprison me in your own house.”
“I'm not imprisoning you. I'm preventing someone from destroying evidence.”
“I'm your fiancée!”
“And until five minutes ago, I believed you were someone I could trust.”
The words struck her harder than a slap.
Clara watched them, feeling as if she had stepped into a room where every person carried a different version of the same terrible secret.
She had accepted the job at the Moretti estate six months earlier because the salary covered her prenatal appointments and the small apartment she hoped to rent before her baby arrived. She had known Luca was dangerous. Everyone in Chicago knew his name.
But the man standing in front of her now did not look like a criminal kingpin.
He looked like a father who had just discovered that the most important truth in his life might have been stolen from him.
“Mr. Moretti,” Clara said carefully, “the driver told me something else.”
Luca turned.
“What?”
“He said the delivery had already been attempted twice. The first time, someone at the estate refused to sign for it. The second time, the laboratory received a call saying the family had canceled the request.”
Vanessa's composure cracked.
“You don't know what you're talking about.”
Clara lowered her eyes.
“I only know what I heard.”
Luca took a step toward Vanessa.
“Who canceled the delivery?”
“I did.”
The confession fell into the room like a dropped weapon.
“Why?”
“Because I needed time to understand the results before you saw them.”
“You had the results yesterday?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
“And you hid them.”
“I was trying to protect Sophia!”
“From the truth about her own birth?”
Vanessa covered her face.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then a small voice came from the doorway.
“Daddy?”
Luca turned so quickly that the papers on the table scattered.
Sophia stood in her pink pajamas, hugging a worn stuffed rabbit. Her dark hair was tangled from sleep, and her eyes moved anxiously between the adults.
“Why are you yelling?”
Luca crossed the room and crouched in front of her.
“I'm sorry, sweetheart. We woke you up.”
“Is Clara having her baby?”
Clara managed a small smile.
“Not yet, honey.”
Sophia looked at the insulated box.
“Is that mine?”
Luca's expression changed.
“Why do you ask?”
“Mrs. Vanessa said my blood was bad.”
Vanessa made a strangled sound.
Luca rose slowly.
“What did you tell my daughter?”
“Luca—”
Sophia clutched her rabbit tighter.
“She said if I told anyone about the hospital lady, Daddy would send me away.”
Luca felt something inside him turn cold.
“What hospital lady, sweetheart?”
Sophia looked toward Vanessa.
Then she whispered, “The lady who came to my room and said she was my real mommy.”
Vanessa lunged forward.
“She's confused!”
Marco appeared in the doorway and blocked her path.
Luca knelt again, keeping his voice gentle.
“Did this woman tell you her name?”
Sophia nodded.
“She said her name was Grace.”
Then the little girl reached into the pocket of her pajamas and pulled out a folded photograph.
Luca opened it.
The picture showed Elena holding a newborn baby in a hospital bed.
Beside her stood a second woman whose face had been scratched out with a black marker.
On the back, written in faded blue ink, were six words:
ONE DAUGHTER LEFT. ONE DAUGHTER TAKEN.
And beneath them was a date from four years earlier—three months after Elena's funeral.
Luca looked at Vanessa.
She was staring at the photograph as though it were a death sentence.
“Where did you get this?” he demanded.
Sophia pointed toward the upstairs hallway.
“From Mommy's locked room.”
Luca had sealed that room after Elena died.
No one was supposed to have entered it.
But as he looked at the photograph again, he noticed something worse.
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The newborn in Elena's arms wore a hospital bracelet with a name different from Sophia's.
END OF CHAPTER 2
