Chapter 5 - The Doctor’s Second Ledger
Carlo staggered backward.
“Gabriel?”
The man laughed softly.
The infant who had supposedly died forty years earlier had survived.
He had been raised under another name.
Dr. Adrian Vale.
Founder of a private medical investment group.
And architect of the modern trafficking network.
Dante understood the cruelty immediately.
Carlo had spent his life hunting the organization that stole his brother.
He had never realized his stolen brother had eventually taken control of it.
Gabriel looked at Carlo.
“You spent forty years trying to rescue me.”
Carlo whispered, “I thought you were dead.”
“I was better than dead. I was chosen.”
Evelyn’s expression changed.
Dante noticed.
She hadn't known.
“You told me Carlo built the network,” she said.
Gabriel smiled.
“I told you what you needed to hear.”
Her gun lowered slightly.
Sofia moved.
Dante lunged.
He pulled Sofia and the baby behind him as Luca’s men closed around Evelyn.
Nobody fired.
Gabriel disappeared into the warehouse.
Dante wanted to chase him.
Then his son cried.
Everything else vanished.
He turned.
Sofia stood before him.
Alive.
He touched her face.
She leaned into his hand.
Neither spoke.
Then Dante looked down.
Their son.
His son.
Sofia carefully placed the baby in his arms.
Dante had held weapons, fortunes, funerals, and men’s lives in his hands.
Nothing had ever frightened him like those four pounds.
“His name?” Sofia whispered.
“We never decided.”
“You wanted Matteo.”
“You hated Matteo.”
“I hated your uncle Matteo.”
Dante almost laughed.
Almost.
The baby opened his eyes.
Dante whispered, “Leo.”
Sofia smiled through tears.
“Leo Valenti.”
Behind them, police sirens approached.
Evelyn surrendered.
But Gabriel escaped.
Back at St. Catherine’s, Leo was admitted under Mara’s supervision.
DNA confirmed his identity.
The unidentified baby in the original incubator stabilized after the incorrect medication stopped.
His real identity remained unknown.
Reeves agreed to cooperate.
Then he told Mara something important.
Gabriel kept a second ledger.
Not children taken.
Children returned.
“What does that mean?” Dante asked.
“Insurance,” Reeves said. “Gabriel tracked every child’s real identity.”
“Where?”
Reeves hesitated.
“In his private clinic.”
Dante wanted the records.
Not for revenge.
For the baby sleeping down the hall.
For every parent represented by a number in Carlo’s black notebook.
Sofia sat beside Leo’s incubator.
Dante approached.
“We need to talk.”
She nodded.
He sat.
“Did you marry me because of my father?”
Sofia looked at him.
“I met you because of your father.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
“No.”
She took his hand.
“I married you because I loved you.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because you would have protected me.”
“That’s usually what husbands do.”
“You would have burned everything between me and the danger.”
“Yes.”
“And then Gabriel would have disappeared.”
Dante looked away.
Sofia touched his face.
“I was wrong.”
He looked back.
“I thought keeping you ignorant kept you safe. Instead I made you bury me.”
Her voice broke.
“I heard about the funeral.”
Dante’s eyes filled.
“I stood beside an empty coffin.”
“I know.”
“I told you goodbye.”
“I know.”
He couldn't forgive nineteen days in one conversation.
But he could see the woman he loved sitting beside their living son.
That was enough for tonight.
“We'll fix us later.”
Sofia nodded.
“Later.”
Mara entered.
“The other baby is awake.”
They went together.
Patient 614 lay inside another incubator.
Stronger now.
Mara had removed the false bracelet.
“He deserves a name while we search,” she said.
Dante looked at Sofia.
She smiled faintly.
“Hope.”
Mara smiled.
“For a boy?”
Dante looked at the child.
“Hope isn't a boy’s name.”
“No.”
“But until we know his real one, he’s Hope.”
The search for Gabriel began.
Luca located his private clinic in Manhattan.
Abandoned.
But the basement contained servers.
Most had been destroyed.
One remained.
Password protected.
Sofia examined it.
“I know his system.”
Hours passed.
At 3:16 a.m., she broke the encryption.
Hundreds of records appeared.
Original birth names.
Adoptive identities.
Biological parents.
Hospitals.
Payments.
Mara covered her mouth.
Carlo sat down and cried.
Forty years of missing children.
Some were adults now.
Some had children of their own.
Dante looked at his father.
“Gabriel?”
Sofia searched.
A file appeared.
GABRIEL VALENTI.
Carlo leaned closer.
But something was wrong.
The DNA record didn't match Carlo’s family.
Dante frowned.
“He isn't your brother.”
Carlo stared.
Sofia opened the original infant record.
The real Gabriel Valenti had died three days after being stolen.
The man calling himself Gabriel had assumed his identity decades later.
“Who is he?” Dante asked.
Sofia searched deeper.
A hidden file opened.
No name.
Only a photograph.
Mara recognized him first.
“Oh my God.”
Dante turned.
“What?”
She pointed at the image.
The man was younger, but unmistakable.
“He worked at St. Catherine’s.”
“When?”
“Twenty-five years ago.”
“As what?”
Mara stared at Dante.
“Director of neonatal services.”
A sound came from the server room door.
Click.
They turned.
The handle moved.
Someone had entered the clinic.
Luca reached for his weapon.
The door slowly opened.
And Dr. Malcolm Reeves stepped inside carrying another black ledger.
He looked at Dante.
“You found the wrong records.”
May you like
Then he placed the ledger on the table.
“Your son wasn't the first Valenti baby they switched.”
