Chapter 5 - The Coffin That Wasn't Mine
For three days, I refused to speak.
I couldn't sleep.
Couldn't eat.
Couldn't look at Leo.
Because every time I saw him, I saw a thousand impossible questions.
Was he my son?
Was he Sophia's?
Was Noah even real?
Lorenzo stayed near me without forcing conversation.
Then the DNA results arrived.
I opened them with shaking hands.
The report confirmed that Leo was biologically related to me.
He was my son.
My Noah.
My baby.
The child I had mourned for weeks was alive.
I collapsed.
Lorenzo caught me.
“I knew,” he whispered.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You knew my baby was alive?”
“No.”
He held me while I cried.
“He's yours.”
I pushed away.
“Then where was he?”
That was the question nobody could answer.
Vale finally confessed everything.
Sophia had discovered that someone inside the Rossi organization wanted to use her unborn child as leverage against Lorenzo.
She had secretly contacted Vale.
She wanted her baby protected.
When the bombing occurred, chaos consumed the hospital.
Vale panicked.
Another newborn died that same night.
The records became confused.
And someone exploited the confusion.
That someone was Elena.
Lorenzo's sister.
She had orchestrated the identity swap.
She believed that if Lorenzo's heir disappeared, she could eventually control the Rossi empire through a proxy.
But there was another twist.
Elena hadn't ordered the bombing.
Someone else had.
A man named Marcus Bell.
Lorenzo's former lieutenant.
Marcus had wanted Lorenzo dead.
Sophia had simply been collateral damage.
When Elena discovered Leo had survived, she took advantage of the chaos.
But why had my son ended up in my arms?
Vale finally revealed the answer.
“Elena had planned to send Leo away.”
“Where?”
“Europe.”
“Why?”
“Because nobody would know where to find him.”
“Then why didn't she?”
Vale looked at Lorenzo.
“Because Sophia had arranged another protection.”
“What protection?”
Vale hesitated.
“Your mother.”
Lorenzo went still.
“My mother?”
“Margaret knew Sophia.”
“She was supposed to be in Italy.”
“She wasn't.”
“Then where?”
“At the hospital.”
Everything clicked.
Margaret had discovered the switch.
She tried to correct it.
Someone killed her.
But before she died, she left a message.
A message hidden in the hospital archives.
We found it that night.
One sentence.
PROTECT THE BOY WHO THINKS HE LOST HIS MOTHER.
I stared at it.
My hands shook.
Lorenzo stood beside me.
“She knew.”
“She knew about me?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Maybe she couldn't.”
A noise came from the nursery.
Leo cried.
I rushed to him.
He calmed the moment I picked him up.
I held him close.
“My baby.”
The words finally came.
“My baby.”
Lorenzo stood in the doorway.
He watched us.
Then he quietly said:
“You're his mother.”
I looked at him.
“And you're his father.”
He smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
For the first time, there was something warm between us.
Then the phone rang.
Lorenzo answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
I watched him.
“Where?”
He hung up.
“Marcus has Elena.”
My blood ran cold.
“What does he want?”
May you like
Lorenzo looked toward Leo.
“He wants the baby.”
