Chapter 9 - The Empty Incubator
Nora did not go alone.
She wanted to.
Nico refused.
The FBI refused more professionally.
Security footage showed a nurse wheeling Daniel through a service corridor.
The nurse was identified as Theresa Cole.
She had worked at the hospital for twelve years.
Her daughter had disappeared six years earlier.
Florence.
Nico recognized the name.
Theresa’s daughter had been the informant killed during his operation.
Marco had found the perfect accomplice.
A grieving mother.
Theresa called Nora.
“You know what it feels like now.”
Nora forced herself to remain calm.
“My son had nothing to do with your daughter.”
“Neither did my daughter.”
“You're right.”
Silence.
Nico looked at Nora.
She continued.
“What happened to your daughter was wrong.”
Theresa began crying.
Nora heard a baby in the background.
Daniel.
Alive.
“Please,” Nora whispered.
Not as an heiress.
Not as Daniel Ellis’s daughter.
As a mother.
“Whatever you want from Nico, take it from him. Don't punish my baby for loving his father.”
Nico closed his eyes.
Theresa gave them an address.
An abandoned church.
Federal agents surrounded it discreetly.
Nora entered first.
Theresa stood beside Daniel’s carrier.
No weapon.
Only grief.
She surrendered.
Marco was not there.
He had manipulated her too.
Daniel returned to Nora’s arms.
She sobbed against his tiny blanket.
Nico wrapped both of them in his arms.
For one minute, nothing else existed.
Then agents discovered a phone Theresa had been given.
One unsent draft message contained coordinates.
A marina.
They found Marco’s boat.
Empty.
Inside were passports and cash.
And a photograph of Viviana.
Luca immediately called his sister.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
They rushed to Viviana’s apartment.
The door stood open.
A wineglass was broken on the floor.
Blood stained the carpet.
Luca nearly collapsed.
Nico searched the bedroom.
Nora saw something taped beneath the mirror.
A note.
SHE WAS NEVER THE FIANCÉE I WANTED.
Nora frowned.
“This isn't for Viviana.”
Nico read it.
His expression changed.
“It’s for me.”
Marco was trying to force Nico to choose.
Family.
Viviana.
Nora.
The child.
Nora looked again at the note.
One letter had been written differently.
WANTED.
The W resembled two Vs.
Viviana had left a clue.
VV.
Nora remembered the wine cellar beneath Belladonna.
Vintage Vault.
They raced back to the restaurant.
The cellar door was locked.
Luca broke it open.
Inside, Viviana sat against the wall, bleeding from a cut on her forehead.
Alive.
Beside her was Vittorio.
Also alive.
But Marco stood behind them.
He held a pistol.
And another man stood beside him.
Dr. Samuel Ward.
Nora stared.
Ward removed his glasses.
“I’m sorry.”
Marco smiled.
“You wanted the man behind Meridian?”
May you like
Ward looked directly at Nora.
“You've known him your entire life.”
