Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Gone
St. Helena Hospital had once served the wealthiest families in the region.
My family had funded half of it.
My mother had a private wing there.
Matteo and I had both been born there.
So had my son.
The hospital closed after a financial scandal nine years earlier.
Matteo had handled the sale.
Of course he had.
We reached the property before dawn.
Valentina’s vehicle was parked behind the maternity building.
The doors had been forced open.
I entered with six guards.
“Nobody fires unless there is no other choice.”
We moved through the dark corridor.
Old signs still hung from the ceiling.
MATERNITY.
NEONATAL CARE.
OPERATING THEATER.
Then we heard voices.
Valentina.
“Please.”
A woman answered.
“You had twelve years to say please.”
Elena.
I moved closer.
The voices came from an old records room.
I pushed the door open.
Valentina spun around.
Elena stood beside a filing cabinet.
She was alive.
Older.
Thinner.
A dark bruise ran across the side of her face.
But alive.
Sophia’s mother looked at me.
For a long moment, she said nothing.
Then she lowered her eyes.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
I looked at Valentina.
“What are you doing here?”
She looked exhausted now.
Nothing like the calm woman on the staircase hours earlier.
“I came for answers.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“No.”
“She came for the file.”
Valentina’s eyes flashed.
“Elena.”
“Enough.”
I stepped between them.
“What file?”
Elena pointed toward the cabinet.
“Delivery records.”
“The originals.”
My heart pounded.
“From the night of the fire?”
“Yes.”
Valentina backed away.
I looked at her.
“Stay where you are.”
She stopped.
Elena unlocked the cabinet with the silver key Nico had given me.
Inside was a thin red folder.
She handed it to me.
Three mothers had delivered babies during the same six-hour period twelve years earlier.
Valentina Rossi.
Isabella Rossi.
And an unnamed emergency patient.
I opened Valentina’s file.
One male child.
Healthy.
My son.
Then Isabella’s.
Twin boys.
One delivered at 10:42 p.m.
One at 10:47 p.m.
I stared at Elena.
“Twins.”
She nodded.
“One supposedly died before sunrise.”
“Supposedly?”
“The death certificate was false.”
My skin went cold.
“Both lived?”
“Yes.”
“Where are they?”
Elena looked toward Valentina.
“One died in the fire.”
Valentina closed her eyes.
“And the other?”
Elena answered.
“He survived.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
I stared at her.
“You hid Nico.”
“Yes.”
“Did you hide Isabella’s surviving son too?”
“For a while.”
“What happened?”
“Matteo found us.”
Valentina whispered.
“No.”
Elena turned on her.
“You don’t get to say no.”
“You were there.”
“You knew.”
“I didn’t know everything.”
“You knew enough.”
I slammed my hand against the cabinet.
Both women went silent.
“Tell me what happened that night.”
Elena looked at me.
“Isabella discovered Matteo had been lying about who he was.”
My grip tightened around the folder.
“She had his DNA tested.”
“Why?”
“Because she overheard your father arguing with the family doctor.”
My heart stopped.
“What argument?”
“Your father told the doctor Matteo should never discover the truth about his birth.”
I looked at the DNA report in my mind again.
Not my brother.
Not by blood.
Elena continued.
“Isabella became afraid.”
“She believed Matteo was moving money through companies he had no legal right to control.”
“She planned to tell you after giving birth.”
“But she went into labor early.”
“And Matteo learned about the test.”
I looked at Valentina.
“Where were you?”
Her face crumpled.
“In the room next door.”
“With my son?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know about Isabella?”
“No.”
Elena cut in.
“She’s lying.”
Valentina turned.
“I didn’t know he would hurt her.”
“But you knew he was going to take the baby.”
Silence.
Something inside me broke.
I stepped toward my wife.
“You knew Matteo was going to take my son?”
Valentina began crying.
“I thought he was sending him away.”
My voice dropped.
“You let him take our newborn child?”
“He said it was temporary.”
“Why?”
She covered her mouth.
I grabbed the edge of the desk to stop myself from shaking.
“Why, Valentina?”
Her answer barely came out.
“Because Matteo and I were already together.”
The room went still.
“Twelve years ago?”
She nodded.
My marriage had begun with a lie.
My son’s grave had been built over another lie.
Then Elena said something worse.
“There is one thing neither of them knows.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“Isabella did not die in the fire.”
Valentina’s head snapped toward her.
“What?”
May you like
Elena stared directly at me.
“She lived long enough to record everything.”
