Chapter 2
I stared at the ring in my palm.
For two years, I had visited a grave with David’s name on it.
I had taken Logan there on his birthdays.
I had pressed my hand to cold stone and told my dead husband about rent, preschool, fevers, and how our son had his laugh.
Now a dying mafia boss was telling me the grave was a lie.
“No,” I whispered.
Alessandro’s eyes stayed on mine.
“Yes.”
Logan sat beside him on the bed, small and calm, Captain Bear tucked under one arm.
The doctor tried to move him.
Alessandro’s fingers tightened slightly around my son’s sleeve.
“Careful,” he rasped.
The doctor froze.
The huge guard stepped forward.
“Boss, you need treatment.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“Luca. The boy stays until I say otherwise.”
Luca’s jaw clenched, but he stepped back.
I found my voice.
“No. My son does not stay with anyone. Especially not you.”
Alessandro’s eyes sharpened.
“Then listen quickly.”
The room felt too small.
Too hot.
Too full of armed men and secrets.
He lifted the ring again.
“This was David’s real ring.”
My hand shook.
“I buried his real ring.”
“No. You buried a copy.”
I looked at Luca.
At the doctor.
At Vanessa, who stood near the door, pale and furious.
She should not have been there.
She had told me to stay away.
Now she watched the ring like it could accuse her too.
Alessandro noticed my gaze.
His eyes moved to Vanessa.
She stepped back.
“Catherine,” she said quickly, “you need to leave. This is not your business.”
I turned on her.
“My dead husband’s wedding ring is in that bed. It is very much my business.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“You are a janitor. You do not speak to me like that.”
Logan flinched at her tone.
That was all it took.
I moved to the bed and lifted him into my arms.
He clung to me.
Alessandro watched us.
“David was my accountant.”
I laughed once.
It came out broken.
“My husband repaired medical equipment.”
“That was his cover.”
“No.”
“He found money moving through this hospital, my shipping company, and a federal task force.”
The words made no sense.
Hospitals.
Mafia.
Federal agents.
David.
My David, who sang off-key while assembling cribs.
My David, who cried the first time Logan gripped his finger.
Alessandro breathed hard.
“He came to me because someone was using my name to move children.”
My stomach turned.
“Children?”
“Private adoptions. Fake deaths. Missing infants. Hospital records changed.”
The room blurred.
Logan pressed his face into my neck.
Alessandro continued.
“David found it. Then he vanished.”
“You said he didn’t die.”
“I said he didn’t die in that car.”
A cold spread through my chest.
“What does that mean?”
Alessandro’s mouth tightened.
“I don’t know if he is alive now.”
The small hope that had flashed inside me turned into a knife.
Luca looked at the monitor.
“Boss, enough.”
“No,” Alessandro said. “They found out I was coming here to get the last file. That is why they hit me tonight.”
“What file?”
His eyes moved to Logan.
“Ask your son why he left the closet.”
I looked down.
“Logan?”
He lifted his head.
“I heard Daddy.”
Everything inside me stopped.
“What?”
Logan rubbed one eye with his fist.
“Daddy said, ‘Find the cold man.’”
Vanessa made a small sound.
Alessandro looked at her again.
This time, Luca did too.
Vanessa backed toward the door.
“I have patients.”
Luca stepped in front of her.
“No, you don’t.”
Her face changed.
Anger vanished.
Fear appeared.
Alessandro’s voice dropped.
“Who told you the child was in the closet?”
Vanessa said nothing.
My arms tightened around Logan.
I had told no one.
Not one person.
Vanessa looked at me.
“You stupid woman. You should have gone home.”
Then the lights went out.
The entire trauma suite fell into darkness.
Logan screamed.
Luca shouted orders.
May you like
A gun clicked somewhere near the door.
And in the black, Vanessa whispered, “Take the boy.”
