Chapter 1 - The Empty Nursery
A newborn baby cried from behind a locked hospital room door: "Don't let him find us!" When Gabriel Costa arrived, he discovered a torn piece of his wife's hospital bracelet hidden inside an abandoned medical bag. But three words were written on the back: "Protect my children." Gabriel suddenly realized this was not an escape.
The scent of another woman’s perfume was still trapped inside Gabriel Costa’s expensive black coat when he pushed open the front doors of his mansion.
He expected silence.
He expected anger.
He expected the familiar emptiness that had followed him for months.
He did not expect blood.
A thin trail of dark red stains crossed the white marble floor beneath his shoes.
Gabriel stopped moving.
For a moment, he thought his exhausted mind was playing tricks on him.
The night had been long.
Too long.
He had spent hours pretending he was someone else in a hotel room downtown.
Someone who did not have a pregnant wife waiting at home.
Someone who did not have responsibilities.
Someone who did not have to look into Norah’s tired eyes and see the disappointment he had caused.
But the blood on the floor was real.
Gabriel slowly removed his hand from the door handle.
“Norah?”
His voice echoed through the empty mansion.
No answer.
The silence felt wrong.
Not peaceful.
Not normal.
Wrong.
Gabriel had lived surrounded by people for years.
Security guards.
House staff.
Drivers.
Assistants.
People who watched every corner of his world.
But that morning, his home felt abandoned.
Like everyone had left at the exact same moment.
He looked toward the staircase.
Then he noticed something else.
The security monitors near the entrance were turned off.
That never happened.
Never.
Gabriel pulled his phone from his pocket and pressed the screen.
The moment it powered on, dozens of notifications appeared.
74 missed calls.
30 messages.
Most of them were from Luca.
His head of security.
Gabriel’s jaw tightened.
He had turned off his phone at midnight.
He remembered doing it.
He remembered seeing Norah’s name appear on the screen.
Three times.
He remembered ignoring it.
Because Bianca had been standing in front of him.
Because he had chosen not to answer.
Gabriel stared at the missed calls.
For the first time that morning, fear replaced irritation.
He moved upstairs.
Two steps at a time.
“Norah!”
Nothing.
The master bedroom door was open.
Inside, everything looked disturbed.
The bed sheets were gone.
The closet doors were open.
Drawers had been emptied.
But there was no sign of a struggle.
No broken furniture.
No fight.
It looked like someone had planned every second.
Gabriel walked deeper into the room.
Then he saw the bathroom.
The lights were still on.
The large bathtub was half-filled.
Medical supplies covered the counter.
Used towels were piled in the corner.
His breathing stopped.
He understood.
Not completely.
Not yet.
But enough.
Norah had not been hurt by someone breaking into the house.
Norah had been here.
She had been alone.
And something had happened while he was gone.
Gabriel stepped backward.
His eyes followed the small stains leading out of the bathroom.
They continued down the hallway.
Toward the nursery.
The nursery he had spent months avoiding.
The nursery Norah had designed herself.
The room he had promised he would finish before the babies arrived.
The room he had barely entered because work always came first.
Gabriel placed his hand on the door.
For some reason, he hesitated.
Then he pushed it open.
The room was perfect.
Soft gray walls.
White furniture.
Two matching bassinets.
Small blankets folded neatly.
Everything prepared for the children he had been waiting for.
Except there were no children.
Gabriel walked inside slowly.
The silence was unbearable.
He approached the first bassinet.
Empty.
Then the second.
Empty.
His hand touched the blanket.
Still warm.
A strange feeling moved through him.
His children had been here.
Minutes ago.
Hours ago.
And now they were gone.
Gabriel stood between the two empty bassinets, unable to move.
He imagined Norah standing here.
Alone.
In pain.
Calling him.
Waiting for him.
And he had been somewhere else.
With someone else.
His phone rang.
Gabriel answered immediately.
“Luca.”
The voice on the other end was tense.
“Boss, I’m outside the estate.”
“Get inside.”
A pause.
Then:
“Gabriel... something happened.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
The line went quiet.
Gabriel looked at the empty cribs.
“What do you mean?”
“When we arrived, the perimeter guards were unconscious. The staff was gone. Someone cleared the house before sunrise.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
The front doors opened downstairs.
Seconds later, Luca entered with several security men.
Luca was normally calm.
Nothing surprised him.
But that morning, even he looked shaken.
“Boss.”
Gabriel turned.
“Find my wife.”
Luca hesitated.
Gabriel noticed.
“What?”
“The doctor is here.”
“Why?”
Luca looked toward the kitchen.
“Because he delivered your children last night.”
The words hit harder than anything else.
Gabriel stared.
“My children?”
Luca nodded slowly.
“Twins.”
A son.
A daughter.
Gabriel looked back toward the nursery.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
“She gave birth here?”
Luca did not answer.
He did not need to.
The guilt on Gabriel’s face was enough.
Dr. Harris sat at the kitchen island when Gabriel entered.
The older man looked exhausted.
His hands shook around a cup of coffee he had not touched.
Gabriel walked toward him.
“Tell me what happened.”
The doctor looked down.
“Norah called me at ten last night.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“She said labor had started.”
His fingers tightened.
“She asked me not to call you.”
That sentence changed the entire room.
Gabriel slowly looked up.
“She what?”
“She told me you were unreachable.”
Gabriel looked away.
Because that was true.
The doctor continued.
“She was already in advanced labor when I arrived. There was no time to move her. We delivered the babies here.”
Gabriel swallowed.
“How long?”
“Hours.”
“Hours?”
“Yes.”
The doctor’s voice became softer.
“She never screamed.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“She just held onto the bed and asked me one thing.”
“What?”
The doctor looked directly at him.
“She asked me to make sure her children were safe.”
The words hurt more than anger.
Because Norah had not been thinking about revenge.
She had been thinking about their babies.
“Where did she go?”
The doctor looked toward Luca.
Then back at Gabriel.
“She had help.”
The room became silent.
Gabriel’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Someone helped my wife leave this house after she gave birth?”
The doctor nodded.
“There were tire tracks near the back entrance.”
Gabriel stepped away.
Everything he believed about Norah was changing.
He had spent years thinking she was fragile.
Quiet.
Dependent.
But now he understood something.
Norah had planned an entire disappearance.
While he was busy destroying their marriage.
She had prepared an escape.
She had protected their children.
And she had trusted someone enough to help her vanish.
Gabriel turned toward Luca.
“Search everything.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Every camera. Every road. Every hospital. Every private airport.”
Luca nodded.
“And whoever helped her?”
Gabriel looked toward the empty hallway.
His voice became quiet.
“Find them.”
A few hours later, Gabriel stood alone in Norah’s bedroom.
He opened every drawer.
Every cabinet.
Every place she had hidden pieces of herself.
Then he found something strange.
A small wooden box behind the back panel of her closet.
Gabriel frowned.
Norah had never mentioned it.
He pulled it out.
Inside was a single envelope.
His name was written across the front.
Gabriel Costa.
The handwriting was hers.
His fingers tightened.
He opened it.
Inside was only one photograph.
A photograph of Norah holding the twins.
Taken after birth.
But Gabriel was not looking at the babies.
He was looking at the person standing behind her.
Someone he recognized.
Someone who should not have been there.
And beneath the photograph was a handwritten message:
"Ask him why I had to run."
Gabriel slowly turned the picture over.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman’s voice whispered:
“Gabriel... you finally found the first clue.”
His blood went cold.
May you like
Because the voice belonged to someone he had buried five years earlier.
And before he could respond, the line disconnected.
