Chapter 3 - The Man in the Photograph
Teresa screamed first.
“Adrian?”
Dr. Vale looked at the photograph.
Then at Lorenzo.
“I can explain.”
Lorenzo raised the pistol.
“Elena. Bathroom.”
This time she obeyed.
She moved toward the adjoining bathroom with Matteo against her chest.
But Dr. Vale lifted both hands.
“If you lock her away, you may lose the only person who can explain why your son is sick.”
Lorenzo stopped.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing to Matteo.”
“That was not my question.”
Dr. Vale looked at the photograph.
“I knew Isabel.”
Elena turned.
“How?”
“She worked with me at Saint Catherine’s.”
“My mother was a nurse.”
“She was more than that.”
Elena’s expression hardened.
“What does that mean?”
“She helped expose a medical fraud investigation.”
Lorenzo lowered the pistol by an inch.
“What fraud?”
Dr. Vale looked toward the hallway.
“Close the door.”
Teresa locked it.
The doctor took a breath.
“Twenty-two years ago, Saint Catherine’s had a private maternal-health research program funded by several wealthy families.”
Lorenzo’s face tightened.
“Which families?”
“Yours was one.”
“I was nineteen.”
“Your father controlled the foundation.”
Lorenzo went still.
His father, Vittorio Rossi, had been dead eight years.
Feared even more than Lorenzo.
“There were allegations that patient samples were being used without proper consent,” Dr. Vale continued.
“Isabel discovered it.”
Elena stared.
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“She threatened to go public.”
“What happened?”
“The program closed.”
“That’s it?”
“No.”
Dr. Vale’s eyes dropped.
“She was threatened.”
Elena felt something cold move through her.
“By Vittorio Rossi?”
Dr. Vale hesitated.
Lorenzo’s voice became steel.
“Answer her.”
“Yes.”
Elena looked at Lorenzo.
His face had gone blank.
“I was not involved.”
She believed him.
That surprised her.
Not because Lorenzo seemed innocent.
But because the pain on his face was too immediate to fake.
Dr. Vale continued.
“Years later Sofia found references to the old program while researching pregnancy complications. She contacted Isabel.”
“Why?”
“Because Sofia discovered her own medical samples had been accessed by the same network.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“The program was closed.”
“Officially.”
The room became quiet.
Dr. Vale glanced at Matteo.
“Someone kept it alive.”
Elena whispered, “Who?”
“I never found out.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“You expect me to believe you spent twenty years not knowing?”
“I knew enough to be afraid.”
“And yet you became my family physician.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To watch.”
“For whom?”
“For Sofia.”
Lorenzo stared.
Dr. Vale’s voice cracked.
“She asked me to.”
That answer hurt more than betrayal.
Lorenzo lowered the pistol.
“My wife built an entire system around me because she thought I could not be trusted with the truth.”
“She thought you would start a war.”
“She was right.”
“That’s why she hid it.”
Elena shifted Matteo.
The baby made a small sleepy sound.
Everyone paused.
Lorenzo looked at him.
His anger visibly changed shape.
Less explosive.
More focused.
“Who sent the photograph?”
Dr. Vale shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Who has access to this floor?”
“Security,” Teresa said. “Domestic staff. Family.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“Family.”
She understood.
The Rossi family did not begin and end with Lorenzo.
There was his uncle Carlo.
His cousin Marco.
His older aunt Bianca.
And dozens of men who used blood as permission.
Lorenzo pulled out his phone.
No signal.
His eyes narrowed.
“Phones are blocked.”
Dr. Vale checked his.
Nothing.
Someone had isolated the nursery.
Elena whispered, “Why would they do that?”
Lorenzo walked to the window.
Down below, the front courtyard looked peaceful.
Too peaceful.
“No guards.”
Teresa hurried over.
“What?”
“The west post is empty.”
Lorenzo’s voice was calm.
“That never happens.”
Elena’s pulse jumped.
“Are we in danger?”
“Yes.”
He said it without drama.
Then he walked to her.
“Give Matteo to Teresa.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
His eyes sharpened.
“He’s settled with me.”
“I need you able to move.”
“So does he.”
For half a second they stared at each other.
Lorenzo nodded.
“Fine.”
He removed his jacket.
Elena thought he meant to give it to her.
Instead, he draped it over Matteo.
“Keep his head covered if the lights go out.”
Her fear intensified.
“You sound like you expect them to.”
“I expect anything.”
Dr. Vale said, “There may be another way out.”
Lorenzo turned.
“Service stairwell?”
“Behind the linen room.”
Teresa shook her head.
“It was sealed during renovations.”
“No,” Elena said.
Everyone looked at her.
“I used it last week.”
Teresa frowned.
“You did?”
“The door sticks, but it opens.”
Lorenzo almost smiled.
“The maid knows my house better than I do.”
“Because the maid actually walks through it.”
Under any other circumstances, the answer might have annoyed him.
Now he said, “Lead.”
They moved.
Lorenzo opened the nursery door slowly.
The hallway was empty.
No guards.
No staff.
No sound.
They crossed to the linen room.
Elena found the narrow door behind a shelving unit.
She pulled.
Nothing.
“It sticks.”
Lorenzo stepped around her and yanked.
The door opened.
Dark stairs disappeared downward.
Teresa whispered, “Where does it lead?”
“Kitchen corridor,” Elena said.
Lorenzo looked impressed despite himself.
Then a sound came from the main hallway.
An elevator bell.
Lorenzo pushed Elena into the stairwell.
“Go.”
Teresa followed.
Dr. Vale stepped in.
Lorenzo remained outside.
“Elena.”
She looked back.
“If I tell you to run, you run.”
“With your son?”
“Especially with my son.”
Something in his voice struck her.
This man who had aimed a gun at her less than an hour earlier was now asking her to take the most valuable thing in his world and disappear if necessary.
She nodded.
Lorenzo pulled the door almost shut.
Footsteps approached.
Slow.
Unhurried.
A male voice called from the hall.
“Lorenzo?”
Lorenzo froze.
Elena saw his face change.
He knew the voice.
“Come out,” the man called.
Lorenzo whispered one word.
“Marco.”
His cousin.
Marco Rossi had attended Sofia’s funeral.
He had carried Matteo’s tiny car seat from the church.
He had hugged Lorenzo beside the grave.
Lorenzo stepped into the hallway and closed the linen door behind him.
Elena could hear through the wood.
“Where are the guards?” Lorenzo asked.
Marco laughed.
“Always business.”
“What do you want?”
“To see my godson.”
“He’s asleep.”
“Then I’ll be quiet.”
“You’re not coming in.”
Silence.
Then Marco said, “You found Sofia’s letter.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
Lorenzo’s voice changed.
“How do you know?”
“I know everything she found.”
A pause.
Then Marco added, “I also know why the baby stopped eating.”
Elena covered Matteo’s ear instinctively.
Lorenzo said nothing.
Marco’s next words came clearly through the door.
“It wasn’t an illness.”
Elena looked at Dr. Vale.
His face went pale.
Marco continued.
“Someone changed the formula.”
Teresa clutched the stair rail.
Dr. Vale whispered, “No.”
Lorenzo’s voice outside was terrifyingly calm.
“Who?”
Marco chuckled.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
“Then give me the right one.”
“Ask who wanted the maid to discover the donor milk.”
Elena stopped breathing.
The room seemed to tilt.
Her finding the folder.
The number.
The hospital call.
Her mother’s name.
What if none of it had been accidental?
Outside, Lorenzo said, “Why Elena?”
Marco answered.
“Because Sofia left more than a letter.”
Elena looked down at Matteo.
Dr. Vale stared at her.
Teresa whispered, “What did Sofia leave?”
Marco answered from the hallway as if he had heard her.
“Proof.”
A pause.
“And Elena Marlowe is the only person alive who knows where it is.”
Elena nearly laughed from shock.
She knew nothing.
Then Matteo shifted against her chest.
Something hard pressed through the lining of Lorenzo’s jacket.
Elena frowned.
She reached inside.
Her fingers closed around a small brass key sewn into the inner seam.
Attached to it was a paper tag.
May you like
One word was written on it.
ISABEL.
