Chapter 3 - THE SECOND BABY
“What do you mean, which baby?”
Luca's voice was so quiet that Hannah almost didn't hear him.
Vanessa stood near the fireplace, trembling.
Richard Hale reached for her arm.
“Vanessa, enough.”
She pulled away.
“No. You don't get to tell me what to say anymore.”
Luca stepped between them.
“You have ten seconds to explain why my daughter was frightened, why you searched my grandmother's safe, and why there are two birth certificates.”
Vanessa stared at Lily.
Then something unexpected happened.
She began to cry.
Not the carefully controlled tears Hannah had seen Vanessa use during charity events.
These were frightened, exhausted tears.
“I didn't know who you were when we met,” Vanessa whispered.
Luca said nothing.
“I swear to you, Luca. I didn't know.”
Richard cleared his throat.
“She's telling the truth about that.”
Luca turned toward him.
“You don't get to defend anyone until you explain what you've done.”
Richard's jaw tightened.
For a moment, Hannah saw a man who had spent decades controlling every conversation in the room suddenly realize he'd lost that power.
“There were two male infants born within forty minutes of each other,” Richard said.
“Where?”
“St. Catherine's Hospital in Boston.”
“On October twelfth?”
“Yes.”
Luca glanced at the photograph.
Margaret Whitmore.
The dark-haired woman.
The cream-colored blanket.
Richard continued.
“One child was born to Margaret Whitmore. The other was registered under Elizabeth Moretti's name.”
Hannah frowned.
“Registered?”
Richard looked irritated.
“This is a private family matter, Miss Bennett.”
Luca didn't raise his voice.
“Answer her.”
Richard hesitated.
“Elizabeth's pregnancy had complications. The hospital records were not straightforward.”
“Was Elizabeth pregnant?” Luca asked.
“Yes.”
“Did she give birth?”
Richard looked toward Vanessa.
“That question requires an explanation.”
Luca laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“My daughter was afraid someone would take her because she saw you stealing records from my grandmother's safe. My fiancée may be related to me. And you want to give me an explanation?”
Lily began signing.
Hannah watched her carefully.
Daddy, angry?
Hannah knelt.
Yes. But not at you.
Lily looked at Luca.
He caught the movement and crouched beside her.
His signing was slower than Hannah's, but clear enough.
Daddy loves Lily. Always.
She wrapped her arms around him.
For a brief moment, he closed his eyes.
Then he stood.
“Marcus, take Mr. Hale's access card. Until this is resolved, he doesn't enter another Moretti property without permission.”
Richard straightened.
“You can't simply remove me.”
“I just did.”
“And your grandmother's legal instructions?”
Luca frowned.
“What instructions?”
Richard reached into his jacket.
Marcus immediately moved closer.
But Richard withdrew only a cream-colored envelope.
It was sealed with dark green wax.
Luca recognized the impression.
A small olive branch.
His grandmother's personal seal.
“She gave me this before she went to rehabilitation,” Richard said. “It was to be delivered if questions about your birth were raised.”
Luca reached for it.
Richard held it back.
“There are conditions.”
Luca's expression darkened.
“Give it to me.”
Richard lowered the envelope.
“I was supposed to protect you.”
“From what?”
“From learning how much your father sacrificed to keep you.”
Luca took the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
His grandmother's handwriting was unmistakable.
My dearest Luca,
There is a truth about your birth that your father should have told you. I waited too long, believing silence was kindness.
If Richard gives you this letter, ask him about the blue hospital bracelet.
He knows which child wore it.
And he knows why it was removed.
Luca read the letter twice.
Then he looked up.
“Where's the bracelet?”
Richard's face hardened.
“I don't have it.”
Vanessa whispered, “That's another lie.”
Richard spun toward her.
“Think carefully.”
She looked at Luca.
“You deserve to know something.”
Luca waited.
“Three months ago, Richard came to my office at the Whitmore Foundation.”
The foundation.
Hannah's stomach tightened.
It was the same organization helping pay for her widowed mother's medical care.
Vanessa continued.
“He told me your grandmother had discovered something that could invalidate old family agreements. He needed access to her private records.”
“And you agreed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he said the foundation would collapse if I didn't.”
Richard shook his head.
“That's a gross exaggeration.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You showed me accounts containing money my grandfather had no right to keep. You told me the Moretti estate could demand repayment.”
Luca studied her.
“So you decided to steal from my grandmother.”
“I decided to find out whether Richard was telling the truth.”
“You could have told me.”
She looked ashamed.
“Would you have believed me?”
Luca didn't answer.
Vanessa looked toward Lily.
“And then your daughter saw us.”
Hannah stood.
“She tried to tell you what happened.”
“I know.”
“You grabbed her wrists.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“I panicked.”
“That doesn't excuse it.”
“No,” Vanessa whispered. “It doesn't.”
Luca looked at Richard.
“Why did you ask for Lily?”
Richard adjusted his cuffs.
“Because I needed to know precisely what she witnessed.”
“You scared her.”
“I didn't speak to her.”
“You told Marcus you wanted her brought to you.”
Richard looked away.
Luca's voice sharpened.
“You don't summon my daughter like she's evidence you can lock in a cabinet.”
Hannah saw Lily watching his expression.
She signed quietly.
He is protecting you.
Lily nodded.
Then she tugged Hannah's sleeve.
Her fingers moved.
Blue bracelet.
Hannah froze.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
Lily pointed toward the locket.
Grandma showed me.
Hannah looked at Luca.
“She knows something about the bracelet.”
Luca crouched again.
Lily signed slowly.
Grandma has a wooden box. Yellow flowers on top.
Luca knew the box.
It had sat on his grandmother's dressing table for decades.
He had played with it as a child.
Its lid was decorated with tiny painted yellow roses.
“Where is it now?” he asked.
Lily pointed upstairs.
Grandma's room.
Luca looked at Marcus.
“Stay with Richard.”
Richard stepped forward.
“Luca, I strongly advise against opening that box.”
Luca stopped.
“Why?”
“Because your grandmother entrusted certain things to me.”
“She entrusted her life to you,” Luca said. “And somehow, you decided that meant you could take her choices away.”
He took Lily's hand.
Hannah followed them upstairs.
Vanessa remained in the library.
For the first time since Hannah had known her, she didn't try to give an order.
Inside the grandmother's suite, Luca opened the dressing-table drawer.
The wooden box wasn't there.
Neither were the silver hairbrush or the porcelain dish that usually sat beside it.
Hannah noticed pale rectangles in the dust.
Someone had removed several objects recently.
Luca called Marcus.
“Search Richard's car.”
Then Lily tapped Hannah's arm.
Not drawer.
She pointed toward the window seat.
Grandma moved it.
Luca lifted the cushion.
Beneath it was a narrow compartment.
Inside sat the wooden box.
He opened it.
A tiny blue hospital bracelet rested on a folded cream-colored blanket.
Beside it was a yellowed newspaper clipping about a fire at St. Catherine's Hospital in 1987.
Luca picked up the bracelet.
Printed on the plastic was:
BABY MORETTI — MALE — 10/12/87.
Hannah unfolded the blanket.
Something slipped onto her lap.
A second hospital bracelet.
Pink.
Its lettering was faded but still readable.
BABY WHITMORE — FEMALE — 10/12/87.
Luca stared at it.
“A girl?”
Hannah looked toward the newspaper clipping.
A photograph showed three nurses outside the hospital's maternity ward after the fire.
One of them was holding a baby.
And standing beside her was a young Salvatore Moretti.
Under the photograph, the caption identified the infant.
Baby girl rescued from the east maternity wing.
Luca looked at the pink bracelet again.
Then he noticed a folded note beneath it.
His grandmother had written:
May you like
Richard will tell you there were two babies.
There were three.
