Chapter 2 - THE DOCTOR WHO DISAPPEARED
Luca stared at the medical folder as if it contained the remains of a dead man.
I stood across his desk, one hand resting against my stomach.
"What's in there?" I asked.
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he removed a photograph.
It showed a younger Luca standing beside an older man in a white coat. Luca looked barely twenty-three. His hair was shorter, his expression less guarded.
"Dr. Adrian Whitmore," he finally said. "He was the surgeon who treated me after the accident."
"What accident?"
"Twelve years ago, my car went through a guardrail outside Boston. I was in the hospital for nine days. Internal injuries. Complications. They told me there was extensive damage."
He turned another page.
"The doctors said I would never father children."
"Did they explain why?"
"They said the damage was irreversible."
I pulled out the chair opposite him.
"And you believed them?"
"I had no reason not to."
His voice was unusually quiet.
Then he showed me the final page.
A document carrying the hospital's official seal stated that Luca had undergone additional testing six months after the accident.
But something was wrong.
The report was dated three weeks before the accident.
I looked up.
"This says they diagnosed you before you were injured."
Luca's expression changed.
He snatched the paper back.
"That's impossible."
"Look at the date."
He studied it.
For several seconds, he didn't move.
Then he reached for his phone.
"Get me every medical record from St. Catherine's Hospital. Every original. Not the copies."
He called his head of security.
"Marco, I want the name of every person who had access to my medical file twelve years ago. Nobody leaves this house until I know who handled it."
He ended the call.
I watched him.
"Luca, what does this mean?"
"It means someone may have lied."
"About your diagnosis?"
"About more than that."
He came around the desk and knelt in front of me.
His expression softened.
"Are you certain?"
I nodded.
"Two tests. Both positive."
"Have you seen a doctor?"
"Not yet."
He took my hands.
"Then tomorrow morning, we're going."
For a moment, the terrifying mafia heir disappeared.
There was only a man staring at the possibility of becoming a father.
"Do you want this baby?" I whispered.
His eyes lifted.
"I spent twelve years believing I would never have a family."
He pressed his forehead against my hands.
"I don't know how to explain what I'm feeling."
Then he looked directly at me.
"But if this child is mine, Evelyn, nobody will ever make you feel alone."
I wanted to believe him.
I really did.
The next morning, Luca arranged an appointment with a private obstetrician.
The ultrasound confirmed an early pregnancy.
The doctor estimated approximately eight weeks.
Luca held my hand throughout the examination.
When the heartbeat appeared on the monitor, he stopped breathing.
"That's our baby?" he asked.
The doctor smiled.
"That's your baby's heartbeat."
Luca looked at the screen.
Then at me.
Something broke through his expression.
Wonder.
Pure, unguarded wonder.
But it lasted only a moment.
His phone vibrated.
Marco had sent a message.
We found Dr. Whitmore. He died six years ago.
A second message followed.
His medical practice was purchased by a company connected to the Varenna family.
Luca's face hardened.
"Who owns the company?"
Marco called immediately.
"Your uncle."
I felt Luca's hand tighten around mine.
"Which uncle?"
"Salvatore."
The room went cold.
Salvatore Varenna was Luca's father's younger brother.
He had managed the family's finances during Luca's recovery.
He had also been the man who convinced Luca to abandon his engagement to a wealthy Italian heiress twelve years earlier, claiming the family needed a different succession plan.
Luca stood.
"Find out everything."
Then his phone rang again.
This time, the caller was his mother.
He answered.
"Mother."
Her voice came through the speaker.
"Your uncle just called me. He says you've been asking questions about the old hospital records."
Luca went still.
"How does Salvatore know that?"
A pause.
Then his mother whispered something that made my blood turn cold.
"Because he was the one who ordered your original medical file destroyed."
Luca stared at the phone.
"Why?"
May you like
His mother's voice cracked.
"Because your father discovered what they had done. And three days later, he was dead."
