Chapter 4 - Someone Inside Mercy General
Elena ripped the bracelet from Mateo’s wrist.
“Get it away from him.”
Adrien took it immediately.
Miriam stared at the red letters.
“That wasn’t printed by the hospital.”
“How do you know?” Elena asked.
“Because I checked his bracelet myself.”
Adrien looked up.
“When?”
“Immediately after delivery.”
“Then somebody replaced it.”
Marcus walked to the doorway.
“Nobody leaves.”
Adrien stopped him.
“No.”
Marcus turned.
“You want whoever did this walking around?”
“I want Elena to decide what happens in her room.”
Elena stared at Adrien.
Then nodded.
“Call hospital security. Nobody touches Mateo without me seeing them.”
Adrien obeyed.
Miriam watched him with faint surprise.
“You’ve changed.”
Adrien did not look at her.
“I had to lose something worth more than power first.”
Elena heard him.
She said nothing.
Security reviewed access logs.
Seven employees had entered the room or handled Mateo.
Six were quickly verified.
The seventh badge belonged to a neonatal technician named Rachel Dean.
There was one problem.
Rachel Dean had called in sick twelve hours earlier.
Someone had used her badge.
Camera footage showed a woman in scrubs entering the nursery corridor.
Her face remained turned away.
Then she disappeared into a stairwell without cameras.
Adrien studied the still image.
Elena looked over his shoulder.
“Zoom in.”
On the woman’s wrist was a thin silver bracelet.
A small charm hung from it.
A bird.
Miriam dropped the file.
“No.”
Adrien turned.
“You recognize it?”
Miriam’s voice trembled.
“Isabella wore one.”
“Isabella would be nearly sixty.”
“She would.”
The woman in the image could have been that age.
Elena whispered, “You told us she was my grandmother.”
“No. I said she gave birth to Adrien.”
“Is she alive?”
Miriam did not answer.
Marcus did.
“We thought she died.”
“When?”
“Seven years ago.”
Again.
Everything led back seven years.
The year Vittorio died.
The year Lucian contacted Miriam.
The year Isabella supposedly died.
Adrien looked at Marcus.
“What happened seven years ago?”
Marcus’s silence answered before his words did.
“Your father called me the night he died.”
“You told me you found him after his heart attack.”
“I lied.”
Adrien stepped closer.
“About what?”
“He was conscious.”
“And?”
“He gave me three instructions.”
Marcus counted them.
“Protect you. Destroy Lucian’s file. Never allow MRL 27B to reopen.”
“You failed at two.”
“I may have failed at all three.”
Adrien’s eyes hardened.
Elena spoke before he could.
“Why did Vittorio fear 27B?”
Marcus looked at her.
“Because it contained proof.”
“Of what?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena’s frustration broke.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
Mateo began crying.
The sound stopped the room.
Elena took him.
Her anger softened instantly.
Adrien watched her rock their son.
This was why she had run.
Not because she hated him.
Because she refused to let a child grow up in rooms where every answer required fear.
Adrien made a decision.
“Marcus.”
“Yes?”
“Every Moretti operation connected to violence shuts down tonight.”
Marcus stared.
“Adrien.”
“You heard me.”
“You cannot dismantle thirty years in an hour.”
“I can start.”
“This is not the moment.”
“It’s exactly the moment.”
Elena looked at him.
Adrien continued.
“Legitimate freight stays. Construction stays. Property stays. Anything dependent on intimidation, illegal collection, or men carrying weapons for profit ends.”
Marcus stared as if he no longer recognized him.
“Your enemies will see weakness.”
Adrien looked at Mateo.
“Then they’ll misunderstand me.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Adrien answered on speaker.
A woman spoke.
“You finally sound like Lucian.”
Miriam stood abruptly.
“Isabella?”
Silence.
Then:
“Miriam.”
Miriam covered her mouth.
Adrien leaned toward the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Close.”
“Did you put the bracelet on my son?”
“No.”
“Did you send the packages?”
“Yes.”
Elena’s face hardened.
“You terrified me.”
“I know.”
“You followed me.”
“No.”
“The packages found every address.”
“Because you carried the tracker yourself.”
Elena froze.
“What tracker?”
“The necklace your mother gave you.”
Elena’s hand moved to her throat.
A thin chain disappeared beneath her hospital gown.
She had worn it for years.
Adrien had never known its origin.
Elena pulled it free.
A tiny oval pendant rested against her palm.
“My mother gave this to me when I was sixteen.”
“Open the back.”
“There is no opening.”
“Press the edge.”
Elena did.
The pendant clicked.
Inside was a wafer-thin electronic tag.
Adrien stared.
Elena’s eyes filled with anger.
“You tracked me.”
Isabella answered, “I used it three times. The other deliveries were not mine.”
“How many?”
“I sent the blankets in Baltimore. The vitamins in Delaware. And one empty box to the post office.”
Elena counted.
“There were eight.”
Silence.
Adrien understood.
Someone else had discovered Isabella’s method.
Someone had copied MRL 27B.
“Who?” he asked.
“That is why I brought you to Mercy.”
“You manipulated Elena into coming here.”
“I redirected her because this hospital has something your father hid.”
“Where?”
“Sublevel B.”
The same place from the message.
Adrien’s jaw tightened.
“You sent that message?”
“No.”
Silence.
The implication landed.
Someone was listening.
Isabella’s voice became urgent.
“Do not go downstairs.”
A loud sound came through the phone.
A door.
Then Isabella whispered, “They found me.”
The connection ended.
Miriam called her name.
Nothing.
Adrien immediately traced the call through his security team.
A location appeared.
Mercy General.
Inside the building.
Elena stared toward the hallway.
“She's here.”
Adrien nodded.
A security guard rushed in.
“Mr. Moretti, we found something.”
“What?”
“The service elevator opened on Sublevel B.”
“So?”
“That level has been sealed for twenty years.”
Adrien looked at Elena.
May you like
The guard continued.
“And according to the camera, someone just wheeled a woman down there.”
