Chapter 6 - The Price of a Mother's Silence
Nora spent the night staring at the ceiling.
Every time she closed her eyes, she heard Giovanni's message.
Your child was the reason.
It made no sense.
Lily was an innocent baby.
She had no connection to the Moretti family.
Or so Nora had always believed.
At six the next morning, Lorenzo knocked on her hospital guest-room door.
“May I come in?”
She hesitated.
Then opened it.
He carried two cups of coffee and a paper bag.
“Breakfast.”
“I'm not hungry.”
“You should eat something.”
She gave him a tired look.
“Please don't tell me what I should do.”
Lorenzo stopped.
Then placed the bag on the table.
“You're right.”
He turned toward the door.
“Wait.”
He looked back.
Nora folded her arms.
“Your father said my baby was the reason someone brought me here.”
Lorenzo nodded.
“I know.”
“Do you know why?”
“Not yet.”
“Then find out.”
“I intend to.”
She studied him.
“You keep saying that.”
Lorenzo accepted the criticism.
“I've arranged for an independent attorney and a patient advocate. They'll speak with you privately, without me present, if you want.”
Nora looked surprised.
“Why?”
“Because you've had enough people making decisions for you.”
For the first time, she saw something different in him.
Not power.
Not intimidation.
An attempt to listen.
By noon, Marcus had uncovered the first connection.
Brody had received three payments from a company called Northstar Holdings.
The first payment came two weeks after Nora discovered she was pregnant.
The second arrived the day Brody disappeared.
The third was made shortly before Nora applied for the housekeeping position.
But the company itself was only a shell.
Its registered agent was a law firm that had once represented Matteo Romano.
Lorenzo stared at the records.
“Why Nora?”
Marcus opened another file.
“Because she worked at a fertility clinic before taking the estate job.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“She told us she had been training as a nurse.”
“She was. She worked part-time as a medical assistant.”
“And?”
“Someone accessed archived patient records through her old employee account.”
Lorenzo's expression darkened.
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
Marcus continued.
“The records concerned a private reproductive medicine program connected to several wealthy families.”
“Was Nora a patient?”
“No. But she had access to scheduling and administrative records.”
Lorenzo leaned back.
“So someone needed her inside the estate because they thought she knew something.”
“Possibly.”
“Then why involve her baby?”
Marcus hesitated.
“There's another possibility.”
He turned the screen.
A document appeared.
A prenatal laboratory report.
Nora Bennett.
Sixteen weeks pregnant.
The report had been downloaded by an unknown user.
Lorenzo stared at it.
“Why would anyone want her prenatal records?”
Marcus lowered his voice.
“Because somebody was looking for a genetic connection.”
Nora received the first threatening message at three seventeen that afternoon.
An unknown number.
You have something that belongs to us.
She stared at the screen.
A second message arrived.
If you want your daughter to live, stop asking questions.
Her hands began shaking.
She showed the messages to her attorney, who immediately contacted hospital security and the police investigator assigned to the case.
Within an hour, Nora was moved to a different room.
But she no longer felt safe anywhere.
That evening, she called her older sister, Rachel, in Ohio.
They had barely spoken since Brody disappeared.
Rachel answered on the second ring.
“Nora?”
Her voice cracked.
“Rachel, I need help.”
“What happened?”
Nora tried to explain.
The mansion.
The accusations.
The snow.
The threats.
By the time she finished, Rachel was crying.
“Come home.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because I don't know who is watching me.”
Rachel went silent.
Then she said something Nora didn't expect.
“There's something I should have told you months ago.”
Nora sat up.
“What?”
“Brody came to see me before he disappeared.”
Her blood ran cold.
“When?”
“Three days before you lost your apartment.”
“What did he want?”
“He asked for your birth certificate.”
Nora frowned.
“My birth certificate?”
“And Mom's old medical records.”
Nora felt the room tilt.
“Why?”
“He said he was helping you apply for benefits.”
“I never asked him to.”
Rachel's voice trembled.
“I know.”
Nora closed her eyes.
Their mother had died when Nora was sixteen.
She had been a quiet woman who worked two jobs and rarely spoke about her past.
Nora knew almost nothing about her mother's life before she married their father.
“Rachel,” she whispered, “what was Mom's maiden name?”
A long silence followed.
Then Rachel answered.
“Romano.”
Across the city, Lorenzo received a call from Daniel Mercer.
The investigator Isabella had hired.
“I have information about your father's trust,” Mercer said.
“Then send it to my attorney.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because the person who arranged the transfers is standing inside your organization.”
Lorenzo looked toward Marcus.
“Who?”
Mercer hesitated.
“Meet me alone.”
“No.”
“If I give you the name over the phone, I'll be dead before morning.”
Lorenzo considered the request.
Then said, “Send me the evidence through counsel. If it's real, I'll arrange protection.”
Mercer went silent.
“You don't understand.”
“Then help me understand.”
A sharp noise interrupted the call.
A door opening.
A man's voice.
Then Mercer whispered:
“Oh, God.”
The line went dead.
Ten minutes later, police found his car abandoned beside the Hudson River.
His phone was still inside.
And on the passenger seat lay a sealed envelope addressed to Lorenzo Moretti.
Inside was a photograph of Nora's mother.
Standing beside Giovanni Moretti.
Holding a newborn baby.
May you like
On the back were four handwritten words.
THE WRONG DAUGHTER SURVIVED.
