Chapter 2 - The First Baby
The words hung over the dining room like smoke after a fire.
The first baby.
I stared at Bianca, waiting for her to laugh and tell us she had said something foolish. She didn't. Her lipstick had worn away at one corner, and she kept pressing her thumb against the empty place where her engagement ring had been.
Leonardo turned to Anthony. “Call the police. And call a doctor Emma chooses herself.”
Richard Romano stepped between him and the door. “You don't understand what you're inviting into your home.”
“Move,” Leonardo said.
It was one word, spoken softly. Richard moved.
I wanted to stand, but another tightening sensation crossed my stomach. It was brief, and perhaps it was fear, but Leonardo noticed. He crouched beside my chair, careful not to touch me without permission.
“Tell me what you need.”
“A hospital that isn't on Bianca's list.”
His face changed. “You have my word.”
Anthony arranged for an ambulance while the guards kept the Romanos in the drawing room. No one was locked in; Leonardo had made that clear. He wanted their statements preserved, not another secret that could be used against us.
At the hospital, Dr. Helen Brooks listened as I explained the stress, the back pain, and the private clinic. She checked the baby's heartbeat and ordered monitoring. When she told me the heartbeat was strong, I cried so hard I could barely hear the rest of her explanation.
Leonardo waited outside until I asked the nurse to bring him in. He entered carrying my old suitcase, the one with the torn lining. He had brought it himself.
“Anthony has the originals secured,” he said. “The police have copies of Matteo's letter.”
I rubbed my wedding ring. “Did they arrest Bianca?”
“Not yet. They are interviewing her and Richard separately.”
“Then what did she mean?”
He pulled a chair closer. “Anthony found a reference in the payment records. A patient identified only as Patient One. A newborn marked as transferred, but no receiving hospital.”
I looked at him. “Transferred where?”
“We don't know.”
That answer frightened me more than a threat would have. I had lived in Bianca's house for five months, swallowed vitamins her doctor prescribed, and believed every reassuring smile. I suddenly remembered a nurse at the clinic who never met my eyes. I remembered being asked to sign blank forms while dizzy from a blood draw. I remembered Bianca insisting that my delivery date be scheduled in advance.
“I signed things,” I whispered.
Leonardo didn't interrupt.
“I don't know what they were.”
“Then we find out. You are not responsible for what someone concealed from you.”
I wanted to believe him, but he was a Moretti, and I had learned how easily powerful people could promise safety. He seemed to understand that trust was something he would have to earn.
A nurse brought me a sealed envelope recovered from the belongings Bianca had left at the mansion. It was addressed to me in a handwriting I didn't recognize. Inside was a photocopy of an infant's hospital bracelet. The date was from six years earlier. The mother's name had been blacked out.
On the back, someone had written: ASK WHAT HAPPENED TO LILY.
I showed Leonardo. He read the words twice, then called Anthony.
May you like
“Find Lily,” he said.
And for the first time that night, I understood that my baby's danger had begun long before my marriage.
