Chapter 3 - Someone Knew About the Baby
“Don’t touch it,” Elena said.
Adrien’s hand froze inches from the hidden phone.
Detective Bell stepped forward.
“No one touches anything.”
Hospital security cleared the room.
The bassinet was photographed before Luca was transferred into Elena’s arms.
Bell removed the phone using gloves.
Adrien stood by the wall.
His face had become unreadable.
Elena recognized that expression.
It was the face he wore when fear became anger.
“Adrien.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re becoming dangerous.”
His eyes met hers.
“I’m standing still.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
Bell looked between them.
“Who would connect your mother’s death with this baby?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who knew Ms. Cruz was pregnant?”
“No one from my organization.”
Elena spoke quietly.
“My obstetrician. The hospital. My landlord knew eventually.”
“Family?”
“My mother died when I was nineteen. My father isn’t in my life.”
Adrien glanced at her.
She had never told him much about her father.
Not because it was dangerous.
Because there was almost nothing worth telling.
Miguel Cruz had left when Elena was twelve.
At least that was what her mother had always said.
Detective Bell asked, “Did you tell anyone the name Luca?”
Elena shook her head.
“I wrote it down once.”
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
Adrien’s eyes sharpened.
“Where exactly?”
“In a notebook beside my bed.”
“When were you last there?”
“Yesterday morning.”
Bell made a call.
An hour later, officers reached Elena’s apartment.
The front door showed no damage.
Nothing appeared stolen.
Except the notebook.
Adrien walked to the window.
“This is my fault.”
Elena stared at him.
“How?”
“Someone connected to my family found you.”
“That doesn’t automatically make it your fault.”
“It makes Luca a target.”
“It makes Luca our responsibility.”
Adrien turned at the word our.
Elena noticed.
So did he.
Neither commented.
By afternoon, the hospital restricted visitors.
Adrien’s attorney arrived.
So did Marco Vale, Adrien’s head of security.
Marco was forty, broad-shouldered, and one of the few people Elena had ever seen disagree with Adrien without trembling.
He stopped at the doorway.
“You asked me to stay outside.”
Elena nodded.
“Thank you.”
Marco handed Adrien a tablet.
“We searched archived manifests.”
Adrien read.
“What?”
“The St. Catherine’s shipment wasn’t authorized by your father.”
Adrien frowned.
“Who signed it?”
Marco hesitated.
“Your mother.”
Adrien stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“There’s more.”
Marco opened another document.
The shipment contained laboratory equipment.
Blood collection kits.
Genetic testing supplies.
Elena felt cold.
“Why would Adrien’s mother order genetic testing?”
Nobody answered.
Luca began crying.
The sound shattered the tension.
Elena adjusted him against her shoulder.
Adrien watched helplessly.
“Take him,” she said.
“What?”
“I need the bathroom.”
“Elena, there’s a nurse—”
“You’re his father.”
The words silenced the room.
Adrien took Luca.
This time, his hands were steadier.
Elena walked slowly toward the bathroom.
Behind her, she heard Adrien whispering.
“You have terrible timing, little man.”
Luca stopped crying.
Elena smiled despite everything.
When she returned, Marco had gone.
Adrien was still holding Luca.
“He likes you.”
“He has questionable judgment.”
“He inherited that from me.”
Adrien looked up.
For a moment, they were simply two exhausted people with a newborn.
Then his phone rang.
Marco.
Adrien answered.
His expression changed almost immediately.
“When?”
He listened.
“Don’t touch anything.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
Adrien ended the call.
“Someone broke into my mother’s old house.”
“Tonight?”
“An hour ago.”
“What did they take?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why break in?”
Adrien hesitated.
“They left something.”
By evening, Detective Bell permitted Adrien to receive photographs from the scene.
His mother’s old bedroom had been untouched for years.
Someone had placed a wooden box on the bed.
Inside was a silver bracelet.
A hospital bracelet.
Adrien recognized the name.
SOFIA MORETTI.
His mother.
Elena studied the photograph.
“There’s another bracelet underneath it.”
Adrien zoomed in.
A second hospital band was partially visible.
It belonged to an infant.
BABY MALE MORETTI.
Adrien stared.
“My parents only had one child.”
Elena looked at him.
“You.”
“Yes.”
“But why would your mother have an infant bracelet from eleven years ago? You were already an adult.”
Adrien’s phone buzzed.
A photograph arrived from Marco.
The second bracelet had been turned over.
There was handwriting on the back.
Three words.
HE WAS YOURS.
Adrien went still.
Elena felt her heart accelerate.
Another message appeared.
A video file.
Adrien pressed play.
A woman appeared on-screen.
Thin.
Frightened.
Older footage.
Adrien whispered, “Mom.”
Sofia Moretti looked directly into the camera.
“If Adrien ever sees this, then I failed.”
She glanced behind her.
“There is a child. Your father must never find him.”
Adrien leaned closer.
The video flickered.
Sofia began to say the child’s name.
Then the hospital room door slowly opened behind them.
May you like
A woman stood outside.
And she was wearing Sofia Moretti’s necklace.
