Chapter 10 - The Child Without a Grave
I grabbed Dr. Vale before he could run.
“Where is Lily?”
He struck my injured side with his elbow.
Pain tore through me.
I lost my grip.
Vale rushed toward the door.
A figure stepped from the darkness and hit him across the face.
Lorenzo entered the room.
“You should have answered her.”
Vale collapsed against the wall.
Gunfire continued below us.
Marco’s men had attacked the guards surrounding the hospital.
Lorenzo locked the door.
“We have less than three minutes.”
I knelt beside Vale.
“Tell me what happened to my daughter.”
“I do not know.”
Lorenzo pressed his pistol against the doctor’s hand.
“You altered her records.”
“You declared her dead.”
“You know something.”
Vale’s breathing became frantic.
“Marco took the infant.”
“Why?”
“He said she could be useful.”
My stomach twisted.
“Useful for what?”
“Leverage.”
“Against Mason.”
“Against Clara.”
“Against anyone who found the accounts.”
I grabbed his collar.
“Was she alive?”
“When she left the hospital, yes.”
The world stopped.
My daughter had survived the delivery.
I had buried an empty coffin.
“Where did he take her?”
“An unregistered clinic outside the city.”
“Name it.”
“St. Agnes Children’s Home.”
Lorenzo immediately called his men.
No one answered.
The hospital signal had been jammed.
Footsteps thundered through the corridor.
Lorenzo pushed a cabinet against the door.
Vale crawled toward a vent.
I saw something taped beneath his shirt.
A small transmitter.
“You were leading them to us.”
Vale grabbed the device.
Before he could activate it, Lorenzo shot the wall beside his head.
Vale froze.
“Remove it.”
He obeyed.
The device displayed a map.
A red dot moved through the hospital.
Marco was coming toward us.
Lorenzo searched Vale’s pockets and found a key card.
The card opened a private elevator behind the maternity ward.
We entered as bullets struck the door behind us.
The elevator descended below the basement.
The doors opened into a hidden archive.
Rows of cabinets filled the underground room.
Vale had kept copies of every falsified record.
Sofia’s file was there.
Leo’s file was there.
Lily’s file was there.
My hands shook as I opened it.
The first page listed Lily Hayes as deceased.
The second page carried a different name.
Female Infant 27.
Transferred to St. Agnes Children’s Home.
Condition stable.
My knees nearly gave out.
“She lived.”
Lorenzo steadied me.
“Clara, listen to me.”
“We do not know what happened afterward.”
“But she lived.”
“She lived after they told me she was dead.”
The private elevator began moving.
Someone was coming down.
Lorenzo gave me his phone and pointed toward a narrow emergency exit.
“Take the files.”
“Go through that door.”
“I am not leaving you.”
“You are going to find your daughter.”
The elevator numbers counted downward.
Three.
Two.
One.
The doors opened.
Marco stood inside holding a gun against Mason’s head.
Mason’s hands were tied.
His shoulder was covered with blood.
Marco smiled.
May you like
“Thank you for finding the archive.”
Then he shot Mason in the back and pushed him into the room.
