Chapter 4 - The Woman Luca Trusted With His Son
Marco reached for his weapon.
Detective Monroe stopped him.
“No.”
“He's a suspect.”
“And he walked back into a house full of police.”
Luca looked at the door.
“Open it.”
Monroe nodded to an officer.
Damien entered slowly.
He looked terrible.
Mud stained his trousers.
There was dried blood near his hairline.
His expensive shirt had been torn at the shoulder.
He raised both hands.
“I didn't hurt Matteo.”
Luca crossed the room.
“You supplied Genevieve with unauthorized sedatives.”
“Yes.”
“You disabled the camera.”
“No.”
“You authorized Rebecca to leave.”
“No.”
“My credentials say you did.”
“Then your credentials are lying.”
Luca grabbed Damien by the shirt.
Detective Monroe stepped forward.
“Mr. Rossi.”
Luca released him.
Barely.
“Talk.”
Damien looked around the room.
“Rebecca isn't a nurse.”
“We know.”
“She isn't Rebecca Sloan either.”
“We know that too.”
Damien swallowed.
“Her real name is Natalie Crane.”
Dr. Keller frowned.
“I know that name.”
Everyone turned.
“From where?” Luca asked.
“Mercy Children's.”
Keller's expression darkened.
“She worked in pediatric research.”
“Doing what?”
“Medication trials. Dosage monitoring.”
“What happened?”
“She was fired.”
“Why?”
Keller hesitated.
“Data manipulation.”
Luca's voice became flat.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“Criminal charges?”
“None.”
“Why not?”
“Hospital settled quietly.”
“Of course they did.”
Damien leaned against the table.
“I discovered her identity last night.”
“How?”
“She accessed a restricted financial file using Luca's credentials.”
“What file?” Monroe asked.
“The Matteo Rossi Family Trust.”
Luca stared.
“My son's trust?”
“Yes.”
“What does that have to do with medication?”
“I don't know.”
Damien pulled a small flash drive from his pocket.
“But she downloaded this.”
Marco took it.
Monroe stopped him.
“Evidence protocol.”
She bagged it.
“Continue.”
Damien explained.
At 8:46 p.m., he had received a security alert showing Luca's credentials accessing trust documents.
He knew Luca was upstairs with Dr. Keller.
So he went to investigate.
He saw Natalie—Rebecca—leaving the office.
He followed her.
She entered the medical hallway.
Then Genevieve appeared.
“I gave Genevieve the sedative,” Damien admitted.
Luca's face hardened again.
“Why?”
“Natalie told me Keller had approved it.”
“You didn't verify?”
“I tried. Your assistant medical portal showed an authorization.”
“I am your assistant.”
“Exactly. I trusted the system because I built half the access workflow.”
“That was your mistake.”
“I know.”
“What happened next?”
“Natalie went into the nursery. I realized the authorization file had been created under your credentials while you were physically upstairs.”
“So?”
“So I knew someone had compromised the system.”
“Then why didn't you call security?”
“I did.”
Marco frowned.
“I got no call.”
“I called your direct line.”
“My phone never rang.”
Damien looked at him.
“Check your blocked logs.”
Marco did.
His expression darkened.
Three calls had been diverted.
Someone had manipulated the internal network.
Damien continued.
“I went after Natalie. She left through the service entrance.”
“Why was your car abandoned?”
“She hit me with something when I caught up to her.”
“You expect us to believe she overpowered you?”
“I didn't expect her to have a stun gun.”
He lifted his shirt slightly.
Two small burn marks showed near his ribs.
“I woke up beside the road. My car was gone.”
“Then how did it end up three miles away?”
“She must have abandoned it.”
“The cooler?”
“It wasn't mine.”
“But it was seen with you.”
“I took it from the nursery corridor because I realized something was wrong.”
Luca stared.
“You removed potential evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Brilliant.”
“I was trying to get it to Keller.”
“Instead you chased a woman through the woods.”
“I panicked.”
“You don't panic.”
“Your son was being poisoned.”
The room fell silent.
Damien looked at Luca.
“I love that kid too.”
Something passed between them.
Years of loyalty.
Maybe friendship.
But trust had become dangerous.
Luca looked away first.
Detective Monroe asked, “Why return instead of going to police?”
“I did go.”
Her eyebrows rose.
“Which station?”
“Matthews precinct.”
She called.
Verified.
Damien had indeed arrived at a precinct just after sunrise and reported an assault.
His story matched.
That did not clear him.
But it changed the room.
The flash drive changed it more.
Forensics reviewed the files.
Financial records.
Medical insurance documents.
Trust agreements.
And one document titled CONTINGENT BENEFICIARY.
Luca read it.
Then read it again.
“What is this?”
Damien stood behind him.
“I've never seen it.”
“It says if Matteo dies before his first birthday, forty million dollars from the trust transfers to the Rossi Children's Medical Foundation.”
Monroe frowned.
“Who controls the foundation?”
Luca answered slowly.
“I do.”
“Anyone else?”
“Two trustees.”
“Names?”
He looked sick before he said them.
“Genevieve Vale.”
“And?”
“Dr. Stephen Bell.”
The doctor Genevieve claimed had authorized the sedative.
Detective Monroe wrote both names.
“Any financial benefit to them personally?”
“Not directly.”
Damien stepped in.
“But foundation trustees control discretionary grants.”
“How much?”
“Last year? Eighteen million.”
Monroe looked at him.
“That's a motive worth exploring.”
Luca immediately rejected it.
“Genevieve has money.”
“So do most people who steal money,” Monroe replied.
“She loved my mother.”
“Love and honesty aren't the same thing.”
That landed harder than she probably intended.
At 2:00 p.m., police questioned Genevieve again.
This time about Dr. Bell.
She admitted they had been speaking privately.
Why?
She said she was worried Luca was refusing to accept Matteo's prognosis.
“What prognosis?” Luca demanded.
Genevieve looked at Dr. Keller.
Keller shook his head.
“There was no terminal prognosis.”
She went pale.
Luca stood.
“What did Bell tell you?”
“That Matteo might not survive the month.”
Keller stared.
“Based on what?”
“He said the neurological decline—”
“What neurological decline?”
Genevieve's mouth opened.
Keller moved closer.
“I repeatedly documented that Matteo's neurological imaging was inconclusive because sedation and cardiac instability complicated evaluation.”
“He showed me scans.”
“Which scans?”
She described them.
Keller's face changed.
“Those weren't Matteo's.”
“What?”
“The dates you just gave were from another patient.”
Genevieve looked as if someone had struck her.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No. Stephen showed me the records.”
“He lied.”
Her hands began trembling.
Luca said nothing.
That was worse.
Genevieve looked at him.
“I believed him.”
“You believed him enough to give my son medication behind my back.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he said Matteo was suffering.”
Luca walked out.
I found him twenty minutes later in the nursery.
He sat beside the crib.
Matteo was awake.
His tiny hand rested against Luca's index finger.
“You were right,” Luca said without looking at me.
“About what?”
“Trust.”
“I didn't say anything about trust.”
“You didn't have to.”
I sat across from him.
“You are blaming yourself.”
“Yes.”
“That is convenient.”
He looked up sharply.
“Convenient?”
“If you blame yourself for everything, then you don't have to accept that other people made choices you couldn't control.”
He stared at me.
Most people probably did not speak to Luca Rossi that way.
I had already survived a gun pointed at my head.
Etiquette felt less important.
“You think I'm arrogant.”
“I think you're used to believing everything is your responsibility.”
“It usually is.”
“No. Everything you own may be your responsibility.”
I glanced at Matteo.
“People aren't property.”
His face softened.
“No.”
“No.”
For several seconds, the only sound was Matteo breathing.
Then Luca asked, “Why does he respond to you?”
“I don't know.”
“You have theories.”
“Maybe my voice.”
“Why?”
“My nephew used to calm when I hummed.”
“Do you hum to Matteo?”
“Sometimes.”
“What song?”
I smiled faintly.
“One my mother used to sing in Spanish.”
“Can you do it?”
I looked at him.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
So I hummed.
Quietly.
A simple melody.
Matteo's eyes shifted toward me.
His fingers moved.
Luca watched him.
Then looked at me.
“He knows it.”
“No.”
“He reacts every time.”
“Babies react to rhythm.”
“Not like that.”
I stopped.
Matteo made a small protesting sound.
Luca's eyes widened.
I started again.
The baby settled.
For the first time all day, Luca smiled.
A real smile.
Then Dr. Keller entered.
“Sorry.”
The smile disappeared.
“What happened?”
“We completed expanded toxicology.”
Luca stood.
“And?”
“There is something else in Matteo's blood.”
My stomach tightened.
“Another drug?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“What?”
Keller looked directly at Luca.
“A compound used to alter potassium levels.”
Luca stared.
“Why would anyone give him that?”
“They shouldn't.”
“Effect?”
“Combined with digoxin, it could trigger a fatal arrhythmia.”
The room turned cold.
Luca looked at his son.
“So this wasn't about making him sleepy.”
Keller shook his head.
“No.”
“It was meant to kill him.”
“I can't state intent medically.”
“I can.”
A detective appeared behind Keller.
“Mr. Rossi.”
Luca turned.
“We searched Dr. Bell's office.”
“And?”
“We found financial records linking him to the foundation.”
“That isn't illegal.”
“No.”
She held up an evidence bag.
Inside was a photograph.
Dr. Bell.
Genevieve.
And a third person.
Natalie Crane.
The fake nurse.
The photograph was five years old.
Long before Matteo had been born.
Luca took one look at it.
Then he whispered:
“They all knew each other.”
Detective Monroe nodded.
“And we found something else.”
She handed him a sealed envelope.
Across the front was written:
LUCA ROSSI — PATERNITY RESULTS.
Luca stared at it.
“I never ordered a paternity test.”
Monroe's expression tightened.
“Someone did.”
He opened the envelope.
His face changed as he reached the first line.
Then his eyes lifted toward Matteo.
“No.”
I stood.
“What does it say?”
Luca looked at me.
Before he could answer, Genevieve screamed from downstairs.
Not cried.
May you like
Screamed.
Then a gunshot echoed through the estate.
