Chapter 5
We watched the memory card on Father Matteo’s old laptop.
The first file opened into a spreadsheet.
Names.
Dates.
Birth weights.
Hospital wings.
Payment codes.
My stomach turned before I understood all of it.
David stood behind me, one hand on Logan’s shoulder.
Luca stood by the window.
Father Matteo prayed under his breath.
Then came the videos.
A hospital corridor.
A nurse carrying a newborn.
A doctor signing forms.
A woman in a navy suit speaking to Vanessa outside an elevator.
The woman turned.
My breath stopped.
“That’s my supervisor’s sister,” I said.
David leaned closer.
“Dr. Helena Hart. Director of neonatal services.”
Vanessa’s sister.
Of course.
My supervisor had not accidentally found me hiding Logan.
She had known who I was.
Maybe for months.
Maybe since the day I applied.
The next video showed David in our old kitchen, the night before his crash.
He was younger.
Clean-shaven.
Terrified.
He looked into the camera.
“Cat, if you see this, I failed to get home in time.”
I covered my mouth.
On the screen, David held up Captain Bear.
“I put the files inside Logan’s bear because no one will take it from him without showing who they are. I love you. I love our son. I did not leave you.”
Real David closed his eyes.
I did not look at him.
I could not.
The video continued.
“If Agent Cole contacts you, do not trust him. If anyone says Romano killed me, do not believe them. Alessandro Romano is dangerous, but he wants this ring exposed because his own family was touched by it.”
The word ring made me think of the wedding band.
I turned.
“Why did Alessandro have your ring?”
David reached into his shirt and pulled out a chain.
On it hung another ring.
Mine.
Not mine exactly.
The ring I buried had been a copy.
He had kept his real one.
Alessandro held the duplicate because David had used it as a key to identify himself if he died.
Everything in me hurt.
“You planned for death better than you planned for us.”
He flinched.
“Yes.”
At dawn, Alessandro summoned us.
Not asked.
Summoned.
I almost refused.
Then Luca said, “He has the names not on the card.”
So we went.
The hospital VIP wing looked different in daylight.
Too clean for what had happened there.
Alessandro lay in bed, pale but alive, tubes in his arms, guards at every corner.
His eyes moved to Logan first.
“The little doctor.”
Logan hid behind David’s leg.
Alessandro’s hard face softened for half a second.
“Thank you.”
Logan whispered, “Captain helped.”
Alessandro nodded solemnly.
“Then I thank the captain too.”
Despite everything, Logan smiled.
I hated that I liked Alessandro for that one moment.
Then he looked at me.
“Your husband is brave and foolish.”
“I know.”
David winced.
Good.
Alessandro lifted a folder.
“Vanessa Hart is not the top. Her sister is not the top. The money goes through a judge, a private adoption foundation, and a federal task force.”
David said, “Cole.”
Alessandro nodded.
“Agent Marcus Cole. He ordered your fake death. Then used it to keep you buried.”
“Why keep me alive?”
“Because dead men cannot open encrypted files. He needed you scared and useful.”
I turned to David.
“You were working for him after?”
David’s face tightened.
“He told me if I finished tracing the accounts, he would bring me home safely.”
I laughed once.
Bitter.
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
That answer was honest.
It was not enough.
Alessandro pushed the folder toward me.
“Your son reopened a war tonight.”
I looked at Logan.
He was playing with Captain Bear’s ear, unaware the whole room saw him as a miracle, a witness, a target.
“No,” I said. “Adults started this war. My son ends nothing. He goes home.”
Alessandro studied me.
“With whom?”
The question hit like a slap.
David looked at me.
I looked at him.
My husband was alive.
My son loved him.
I hated him.
I loved him.
I did not trust him.
Before I could answer, alarms rang across the wing.
A guard shouted from the hall.
“Federal agents!”
David’s face went white.
Alessandro muttered, “Cole.”
The door burst open.
Men in tactical gear poured in.
At the front stood a man with a badge around his neck.
May you like
Agent Marcus Cole smiled at David.
“After all this trouble,” he said, “you bring me the child too.”
