Chapter 3 - The Nurse Who Would Not Look at Me
I did not sleep until sunrise. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the bracelet and the black rectangle where a mother's name should have been.
Dr. Brooks returned with reassuring test results and a warning to rest. She also asked whether I had copies of the medications prescribed by my former clinic. I handed her the small paper bag from my suitcase. She said she would review each item rather than make assumptions about what I had been given.
Leonardo stood at the window, speaking quietly to Anthony. When he hung up, he told me the clinic had announced an unexpected closure. Its website was gone. Patients who called received a recorded message.
“Someone knew we were coming,” I said.
“Possibly. Anthony is seeking records through the proper channels.”
“Can we talk to the nurse?”
He looked at me. “Which nurse?”
“Her name was Rosa. She always wore a silver bird pin. Once, when Bianca stepped out, she asked if I had family who knew where I was.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought she was being kind.”
We found Rosa Delgado that afternoon, not through Leonardo's men but through a number printed on an old appointment card. She answered after the sixth ring. When I said my name, she began to cry.
“I tried to warn you,” she whispered.
“I need you to tell me what happened to Lily.”
Silence. Then: “Not on the phone.”
We met in a public café across from a police station. Rosa arrived with a worn canvas bag and the exhausted expression of someone who had rehearsed the truth for years. She told us she had worked for the clinic until three months earlier. The clinic offered discreet maternity services to women with few resources, but a second set of files tracked patients whose babies were marked for private placement.
“Adoption?” I asked.
“Some were legal. Others...” Rosa looked down. “The consent documents didn't match what the mothers told us.”
She had kept copies after she noticed the discrepancies. Lily was the name a young mother had chosen for her daughter. After delivery, staff told the mother that the baby had died. Rosa had later seen a transfer authorization with Lily's matching birth details.
“Who signed it?” Leonardo asked.
“Dr. Victor Hale. And a financial representative named Richard Romano.”
I felt cold despite the café's heat.
“Was Bianca involved?”
“She came to the clinic. She asked about you by name. She also asked whether the baby could be delivered before you reached full term.”
Leonardo's chair scraped the floor. He caught himself and sat back down. “We need that statement on record.”
“I've already spoken to a detective,” Rosa said. “I came because Emma deserved to hear it from me.”
She took a folded photograph from her bag. A young woman held a pink blanket outside the clinic. She looked no older than nineteen.
“Her name is Nora Bell,” Rosa said. “She's Lily's mother. She's been searching for six years.”
On the back was an address in Milwaukee and a handwritten message: SHE NEVER STOPPED LOOKING.
I thought of Matteo, who had died believing someone was watching me. I thought of the baby kicking beneath my palm.
“We're going to help her,” I said.
May you like
Leonardo looked at me, surprised.
“Not because of the money,” I added. “Because somebody should have helped her when she was alone.”
