Chapter 6 - The Night Matteo Stopped Breathing
For three seconds, nobody moved.
Then Luca's voice tore through the hallway.
“Lock every gate!”
Marco came running.
“The system is down.”
“Manual locks.”
“Already happening.”
“My son is somewhere in this house.”
“We don't know that.”
“He cannot be outside. Every gate has been monitored.”
“Someone disabled the network.”
“Then use people.”
Marco ran.
I picked up the card.
BRING THE TEST.
“Who wants the paternity result?”
Luca stared at me.
“The fake one or the real one?”
That mattered.
He opened the back.
Nothing.
Damien arrived carrying a laptop.
“I found the breach.”
“Where?”
“Basement server room.”
“Who accessed it?”
“Bell's credentials.”
Luca's eyes went cold.
“He is here.”
Detective Monroe and two officers entered.
She looked at the empty crib.
“Search protocol. Nobody moves alone.”
“I am not waiting.”
“You will if you want your son found alive.”
Luca stared at her.
Then forced himself to nod.
We split into teams.
I was told to remain upstairs.
I ignored that after thirty seconds.
Not because I wanted to be brave.
Because I knew something they did not.
Matteo's sounds.
When he was frightened, he made a tiny clicking noise before crying.
I had heard it several times.
I moved through the east hallway listening.
Nothing.
Library.
Nothing.
Guest rooms.
Nothing.
Then near the service stairs, I heard it.
Click.
Pause.
Click.
My heart jumped.
“Matteo?”
No answer.
I descended one flight.
Click.
Below me.
The basement.
I should have called police immediately.
I did.
Then kept moving.
“I'm at the east service stairs,” I whispered into the phone. “I hear the baby.”
Detective Monroe ordered me to stop.
I did not.
At the basement door, I heard a man speaking.
“You ruined everything.”
Bell.
Another voice answered.
Genevieve.
“You told me he was dying anyway.”
I froze.
“You were supposed to keep Luca calm.”
“You used me.”
“You wanted to believe me.”
“You poisoned that baby.”
“You helped.”
“I gave him a sedative because you told me he was suffering.”
“And that made everything easier.”
My stomach turned.
Genevieve was with him.
Had she joined him?
Or confronted him?
I looked through the narrow opening.
Bell stood beside a utility table.
Matteo lay in a portable carrier.
Genevieve stood across from him.
Her hands were shaking.
Bell held a syringe.
I whispered into the phone.
“He has a syringe.”
Monroe told me officers were thirty seconds away.
Thirty seconds.
Bell moved toward Matteo.
I pushed the door open.
“Stop.”
Both turned.
Genevieve gasped.
Bell stared at me.
“You.”
I kept my hands visible.
“The police are coming.”
“No, they aren't.”
“They are.”
“You think I didn't plan for that?”
He reached for Matteo.
I moved forward.
He lifted the syringe.
“Stay back.”
“What is that?”
“Nothing you understand.”
“Then explain it.”
His mouth twisted.
“You think holding a sick baby makes you a doctor?”
“No.”
“Then stop pretending.”
“I know he improved when your drugs left his body.”
His eyes changed.
That hit him.
“You ruined months of work.”
“Two weeks.”
He laughed once.
“You think this started two weeks ago?”
Genevieve looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Bell ignored her.
I kept him talking.
“What started before?”
“Matteo's medical file.”
“What about it?”
“He was perfect.”
He said it like an accusation.
“Healthy heart. Healthy brain. Healthy development.”
Genevieve's face drained.
“You told me he had an inherited cardiac disorder.”
“He needed a diagnosis.”
“You invented it?”
“I created a possibility.”
“You lied.”
“I created evidence people would believe.”
Genevieve began crying.
“I trusted you.”
“Yes.”
Bell's voice was almost bored.
“That was useful.”
He turned back toward Matteo.
I stepped closer.
“Don't.”
He raised the syringe.
“Stay there.”
Then Luca's voice came from behind me.
“Put it down.”
Bell froze.
Luca stood at the top of the basement corridor with Detective Monroe.
His gun was not in his hand.
That surprised me.
He had learned something since the night before.
Police weapons were already trained.
Bell looked at Matteo.
Then at us.
“You won't shoot.”
Monroe said, “Don't test that.”
“You'll hit the baby.”
“No one wants that.”
Bell grabbed the carrier handle.
Genevieve moved suddenly.
She shoved his arm.
The syringe fell.
Bell struck her across the face.
Luca lunged.
Everything happened at once.
Police shouted.
Bell grabbed Matteo.
I screamed.
Luca stopped instantly.
Bell backed toward a second door with the baby pressed awkwardly against his chest.
Matteo began crying.
“Give him to me,” I said.
Bell looked at me.
“Why?”
“Because you're holding him wrong.”
That seemed to confuse him.
“His neck.”
Bell adjusted instinctively.
I stepped closer.
“Elena,” Luca warned.
I ignored him.
“Matteo knows my voice.”
Bell laughed nervously.
“He doesn't know anything.”
“Then why did he wake for me?”
Bell's expression changed.
He did not have an answer.
“Give him to me.”
“No.”
“He needs oxygen.”
“He's fine.”
The monitor wasn't attached.
Bell could not know.
Then Matteo stopped crying.
That was worse.
I saw his body go limp.
“Give him to me now.”
Bell looked down.
Fear finally appeared.
“What happened?”
I moved.
He hesitated one second.
That was enough.
I took Matteo.
His face was pale.
Too pale.
“He isn't breathing.”
Luca made a sound I never want to hear from another human being.
I laid Matteo on the floor.
Checked.
Nothing.
Dr. Keller was not there.
No time.
I started infant CPR.
“Call Keller!”
Someone already had.
Luca dropped beside me.
“Tell me what to do.”
“Stay back.”
“Elena—”
“Stay back!”
I gave compressions.
Breaths.
Compressions.
Matteo remained still.
The world disappeared.
No police.
No Bell being handcuffed.
No Genevieve crying.
Only the tiny chest beneath my fingers.
I remembered my nephew.
Another baby.
Another room.
Another moment when adults had begged a body too small to understand death.
Not again.
“Come on.”
Compression.
“Come on.”
Breath.
“Matteo.”
Luca was praying in Italian.
I had never heard him pray.
Then the baby coughed.
I froze.
He coughed again.
A tiny gasp followed.
“Turn him.”
I rolled him slightly.
He cried.
Weak.
Beautiful.
Luca covered his face.
The officers relaxed.
Someone shouted that paramedics were coming.
I held Matteo against my chest.
His breathing was uneven.
But present.
Luca reached for him.
Then stopped.
He looked at me.
“Can I?”
That question again.
I handed him his son.
Luca held Matteo with both arms and pressed his face against the baby's hair.
“I've got you.”
His voice shook.
“I've got you.”
Bell sat handcuffed against the wall.
He watched.
There was no remorse in his face.
Only defeat.
Detective Monroe found the fallen syringe.
Later we learned it contained enough potassium chloride to stop Matteo's heart.
Bell had been seconds away.
Paramedics rushed Matteo to the hospital.
Luca rode with him.
I followed with Genevieve and Detective Monroe.
At the emergency department, doctors stabilized him.
His oxygen improved.
His heart rhythm normalized.
His bloodwork began clearing.
By dawn, Keller gave us the sentence everyone had been afraid to hope for.
“If there is no hidden damage, I believe Matteo can recover.”
Luca sat down.
He did not say anything.
He simply cried.
Quietly.
No shame.
No attempt to hide it.
Genevieve sat twenty feet away with an officer.
She looked destroyed.
Luca eventually walked to her.
I could not hear everything.
Only pieces.
“I didn't know.”
“I know.”
“I should have.”
“Yes.”
“Can you forgive me?”
Silence.
Then Luca said something I heard clearly.
“Not tonight.”
Genevieve nodded.
She understood.
She would face charges for administering unauthorized medication and concealing information.
Bell would face far worse.
Natalie was still missing.
That mattered.
At 8:12 a.m., Detective Monroe received a call.
They had located her vehicle near Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Empty.
A terminal camera showed a woman matching Natalie's description entering the airport.
No footage showed her boarding.
Police searched.
At the hospital, Matteo slept in a pediatric ICU crib.
Luca sat beside him.
I stood in the doorway.
“You should go home,” he said.
“I thought you were going to stop saying that.”
“You haven't slept properly in two days.”
“Neither have you.”
“I own the hospital wing.”
“That does not make you immune to exhaustion.”
He almost smiled.
Then his phone rang.
Damien.
Luca answered.
Listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
I stepped closer.
He put the phone on speaker.
Damien sounded breathless.
“Natalie didn't go to the airport to leave.”
“Then why?”
“To retrieve someone.”
“Who?”
“I found passenger records linked to one of Bell's shell companies.”
Luca stood.
“Damien.”
“The flight landed thirty minutes ago.”
“Who was on it?”
A pause.
Then Damien said a name.
Luca dropped the phone.
I caught it before it hit the floor.
“What?”
His face had gone completely white.
“That person is dead.”
“Who?”
He looked toward Matteo.
May you like
Then back at me.
“My wife.”
