Chapter 4 - Seven Months of Silence
Calvin Reese was brought upstairs under guard.
His shirt was torn.
Blood dried beside his ear.
Luciano stood between him and Kate.
“Talk.”
Calvin looked toward the bed.
“I need protection.”
“You need to talk.”
“Vittorio will kill me.”
Luciano leaned closer.
“Then decide which Aruri frightens you more.”
Calvin swallowed.
“I didn't know about the medication.”
Kate stared.
“But you knew about my letters.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Vittorio told me the separation was necessary.”
“For what?”
“The trust.”
Luciano's voice hardened.
“You betrayed me for money.”
“No. For my daughter.”
Silence.
Calvin reached into his coat.
Two guards immediately drew weapons.
“Easy.”
He slowly produced a photograph.
A teenage girl.
“She disappeared six months ago. Vittorio sent me this photograph and told me she would come home if I followed instructions.”
Luciano studied him.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
Kate looked at Calvin differently.
“You intercepted my letters because he had your child.”
Calvin nodded.
“I told myself I was protecting mine.”
“And almost killed mine.”
His face collapsed.
“I didn't know.”
Luciano asked about the other birth.
Calvin looked toward the guards.
“Send them out.”
“No.”
“Then I say nothing.”
Luciano considered.
Marco searched Calvin, then dismissed everyone except himself.
Calvin lowered his voice.
“Your mother had another baby.”
Luciano stared.
“My mother died giving birth to me.”
“That is what Vittorio told you.”
Luciano's entire body went still.
Calvin produced an old photocopy.
Hospital record.
Elena Aruri.
Twin delivery.
Luciano read it twice.
Twin.
He had a sibling.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Boy or girl?”
“Second infant listed as male.”
Luciano looked at Marco.
Marco appeared equally stunned.
“Why does this matter now?”
Calvin shook his head.
“I only know Vittorio started asking about bloodlines when he discovered Kate was pregnant.”
A cry from Kate interrupted them.
Margaret rushed over.
Luciano dropped the document.
Kate was bleeding again.
Everything else disappeared.
For the next hour, the bedroom became a controlled emergency.
A neonatal physician finally arrived with two nurses.
Dr. Bennett remained missing.
Medication slowed Kate’s contractions.
The bleeding eased.
The baby's heartbeat remained steady.
Only then did Luciano breathe normally.
Kate opened her eyes.
He was sitting beside her.
“You're still here.”
“Yes.”
“You were always stubborn.”
“So were you.”
She looked at him.
“You believed I wanted the divorce.”
“Yes.”
“I believed you hated me.”
“I tried.”
Her lips almost moved into a smile.
“Were you successful?”
“No.”
That honesty hurt more than anger.
She looked away.
“Luciano, finding out someone manipulated us doesn't erase everything that was wrong.”
“I know.”
“You kept secrets.”
“Yes.”
“You made decisions without me.”
“Yes.”
“You brought violence into our lives.”
His silence confirmed that one too.
“I won't raise a child inside that.”
“You won't.”
She looked back.
“What does that mean?”
“It means if I want you, I change it.”
“People like you don't change.”
“I did once.”
“When?”
“When I married you.”
She closed her eyes.
“That wasn't enough.”
“No.”
He touched the edge of the blanket, not her hand.
“This time it has to be.”
Marco entered.
“Luciano.”
Something in his tone ended the moment.
“What?”
“Vittorio's gone.”
“Gone where?”
“His Manhattan residence is empty. Staff dismissed yesterday.”
“He knew I was coming here.”
“Looks like it.”
Luciano stood.
“Find him.”
Marco nodded.
Then gave Kate an uneasy look.
“What?”
“We found Dr. Bennett.”
Kate sat up.
“Where?”
“He's alive.”
Relief washed over her.
“Where is he?”
“County road. He was drugged and left in his car.”
“Can he talk?”
“He already did.”
Luciano saw where this was going.
“What did he say?”
Marco looked at Kate.
“Someone paid him to alter the estimated conception date in your medical record.”
Kate stared.
“What?”
“He refused.”
Luciano's expression darkened.
“Who paid him?”
“He never saw the person. Everything came through an intermediary.”
“Name.”
Marco handed him a photograph.
A woman.
Kate recognized her immediately.
“That's impossible.”
Luciano looked at her.
“You know her?”
Kate’s face had gone white.
“That woman was my mother's nurse.”
“Your mother died twelve years ago.”
“I know.”
“Name?”
“Celia Ward.”
Marco said, “She currently works for Vittorio.”
Kate looked between them.
Her mother's death had always been described as natural.
Cancer.
Months of decline.
Celia had been there at the end.
“What does my mother have to do with the Aruris?”
No one answered.
Then Calvin, still seated across the room, whispered:
“Everything.”
Luciano turned.
Calvin looked at Kate.
“Your mother knew Elena Aruri.”
Kate stared.
“My mother knew Luciano's mother?”
“She did more than know her.”
“What?”
Calvin hesitated.
“She helped deliver the twins.”
Kate's breath caught.
Luciano stepped closer.
“You said my mother delivered twins.”
“Yes.”
“And Kate's mother was there?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Calvin looked toward the old hospital record.
“Because one of those babies disappeared before sunrise.”
A knock sounded.
Three slow taps.
Marco reached for his weapon.
Nobody at Hawthorne Ridge used that door.
It connected to an old private corridor that had been sealed for years.
Another knock.
Then a man's voice came through the wood.
“Luciano.”
Luciano stared at the door.
May you like
The voice belonged to someone he had heard only in childhood recordings.
His dead father.
