Chapter 2 - THE MAN AT THE DOOR
“I found a baby,” Elena told the dispatcher. “She's sick. Please hurry.”
She gave her address, answered questions, and followed the instructions with shaking hands.
“How long ago did you find her?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“About an hour.”
Saying it aloud hurt.
A hard knock struck the door before the ambulance arrived.
“Elena? Open up.”
She had never heard that voice, but it knew her name.
“Who are you?”
“The child's father.”
Through the narrow window, she saw a black coat, a pale face, and eyes that seemed to have forgotten how to blink.
Lorenzo Moretti.
Behind him stood two men who filled the basement stairwell.
Elena kept the chain on the door.
“An ambulance is coming.”
“Give her to me.”
“She needs a hospital.”
“I have doctors.”
“She needs one now.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Then the baby gave a thin, broken cry.
Lorenzo's expression collapsed.
“Lucia,” he whispered.
He pressed his palm against the door as if it were all that kept him from falling.
“Please.”
Elena opened it.
He reached for the baby, but she held on until his arms were steady. When he gathered Lucia against him, his hands shook harder than hers.
“How did you find me?”
“Your manager gave us your address.”
Of course he had. Mr. Vale never remembered her overtime, but he had found her address quickly enough.
The paramedics arrived behind Lorenzo's men. One took charge immediately, asking everyone to move.
Lorenzo started giving orders.
The woman ignored him and checked Lucia.
“I'm taking her,” she said.
For once, he obeyed somebody without a fight.
At the hospital, Elena stood under harsh lights while a nurse cut away the damp clothing. Oxygen, monitors, urgent footsteps. Everything happened too fast, yet every second felt stolen.
A doctor turned to her.
“You found her?”
“Yes.”
“You did the right thing calling. Waiting could have cost her life.”
Elena nodded once. She deserved the truth.
Lorenzo heard it, too.
He looked at her bloody knuckles, her soaked uniform, her empty arms.
Then his phone vibrated.
An unknown number had sent a photograph taken outside Elena's building.
She was visible through the open doorway, holding Lucia.
May you like
Beneath it were six words.
YOU FOUND HER. WE FOUND THEM.
