Chapter 6 - TWO BABIES, ONE HOSPITAL
Dominic found Leonard at the far end of the warehouse's second floor.
An old office overlooked the loading bay through cracked glass.
Leonard stood near the emergency exit.
The gun was gone.
He had dropped it downstairs.
But Dominic didn't care.
“Stop.”
Leonard turned.
“You shouldn't have come.”
“You stole from my family.”
Leonard laughed.
“Which family?”
Dominic hit him.
One punch.
Hard enough to send Leonard against the wall.
Sabrina reached the office seconds later.
“Dominic!”
He pulled Leonard upright.
“My father is dead. Michael is dead. My biological mother disappeared. You put your daughter in my bed because of something that happened before either of us was born.”
Leonard wiped blood from his mouth.
“And Anthony still wins.”
Dominic nearly hit him again.
Sabrina stepped between them.
“Don't.”
He looked at her.
“Get out of the way.”
“No.”
“You protecting him now?”
“No.”
She turned toward Leonard.
“I'm protecting Dominic from becoming the kind of man you always told me he was.”
That stopped everyone.
Leonard stared at his daughter.
“You think he'll forgive you?”
“I don't know.”
“He never should.”
Sabrina's face tightened.
“I know.”
Frank entered behind them.
“Downstairs.”
Leonard smiled.
“Frank Moretti. Still cleaning up Anthony's mess.”
Frank ignored him.
Until Leonard said:
“Michael wasn't the hero you remember.”
Frank stopped.
Dominic looked between them.
“What does he mean?”
Leonard laughed softly.
“Ask him about the babies.”
Frank's face changed.
Sabrina whispered:
“Babies?”
Leonard looked delighted by their confusion.
“That's the thing about men like Anthony. They bury one lie beneath another until nobody remembers where the first body is.”
Frank grabbed Leonard by the jacket.
“What babies?”
Leonard looked genuinely surprised.
“You don't know.”
Frank tightened his grip.
“Know what?”
Leonard leaned closer.
“Margaret wasn't the only pregnant woman in that hospital.”
Downstairs, Helen was asking Rosa the same question.
“Whose baby was Leonard's wife carrying?”
Rosa shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“What was her name?”
“Elaine.”
Sabrina's mother.
Helen knew Elaine Cross Walsh had died from cancer twelve years earlier.
They had met only twice.
At Christmas.
Both times Elaine seemed quiet and deeply uncomfortable around Anthony.
Helen had assumed shyness.
Now she wondered if it had been fear.
Rebecca joined them.
“Marjorie's people have the exits covered.”
Helen quickly explained what Rosa had said.
Rebecca frowned.
“Elaine had Sabrina?”
“Not yet,” Rosa said.
“She was born almost five years later.”
Rebecca's eyes sharpened.
“So whose baby was Elaine carrying?”
Rosa closed her eyes.
“I saw her standing near the nursery.”
“With the baby?”
“Yes.”
“Boy or girl?”
“I don't know.”
“What happened next?”
“Mr. Anthony came out of the nursery. He saw her.”
Rosa paused.
“And?”
“They argued.”
“About what?”
“I couldn't hear everything.”
She looked ashamed.
“But I heard Elaine say, ‘You can't give him that child.’”
Helen felt cold.
Rebecca asked:
“Give whom?”
“I don't know.”
Helen did.
“Me.”
Everyone looked at her.
That day returned in fragments.
Thirty-nine years earlier.
A private room.
Anthony appearing with a newborn boy.
Helen crying because she had been told the adoption had been finalized sooner than expected.
She had suffered two miscarriages in three years.
Anthony had told her a young woman couldn't keep her baby.
Helen had signed papers.
Everything seemed legal.
Private.
Fast.
Too fast.
She had never questioned it because she wanted Dominic so badly.
“Anthony brought Dominic to me that afternoon.”
Rebecca whispered:
“Then Elaine knew.”
Helen nodded.
“She knew where he came from.”
Rosa added:
“There was something else.”
“What?”
“Elaine's baby had a blue hospital bracelet.”
“So?”
“Dominic had one too.”
Helen stared.
Rosa's voice dropped.
“The names weren't the same.”
Rebecca asked:
“What name was on Elaine's baby?”
Rosa looked frightened.
“Moretti.”
Upstairs, Frank released Leonard.
“My son's name?”
Leonard smiled.
“Michael and Margaret weren't the only people using the name Moretti that day.”
Dominic stared.
“What are you saying?”
“That there were two babies connected to Michael.”
Frank looked lost.
“Michael had one child.”
Leonard shrugged.
“Did he?”
Frank's fist slammed into his mouth.
This time Leonard hit the floor.
Sabrina screamed.
Frank stood over him.
“My son was not sleeping with two women.”
Leonard spat blood.
“I didn't say he was.”
Dominic crouched.
“What happened at St. Joseph's?”
Leonard smiled through blood.
“Ask Margaret.”
“Where is she?”
“You think I know?”
“Yes.”
“Then you're giving me too much credit.”
Frank grabbed him again.
“Elaine.”
Leonard's face changed.
For the first time, shame.
“My wife tried to stop it.”
“Stop what?”
“The switch.”
Dominic froze.
Sabrina whispered:
“What switch?”
Leonard closed his eyes.
“It wasn't supposed to happen.”
“What wasn't?”
Leonard looked at Dominic.
“You becoming Anthony DeLuca's son.”
Downstairs, Helen sat heavily on a crate.
Rebecca paced.
“Let's separate facts from assumptions.”
Helen nodded numbly.
“Margaret gave birth to Dominic.”
“DNA confirms Michael was the father.”
“Yes.”
“Anthony brought Dominic to you.”
“Yes.”
“Elaine was seen with another newborn wearing a Moretti bracelet.”
“Yes.”
“And she told Anthony, ‘You can't give him that child.’”
Helen swallowed.
“Yes.”
Rebecca looked toward Rosa.
“Could you have misunderstood?”
“Maybe some words.”
“But not the bracelet?”
“No.”
Helen suddenly remembered something.
“Dominic had another name.”
Rebecca stopped.
“What?”
“When Anthony brought him to me.”
“What name?”
Helen searched through almost forty years.
The bassinet card.
A folded hospital sheet.
She could see one word.
“Daniel.”
Rosa gasped.
Helen looked at her.
“What?”
“Elaine's baby.”
“What about him?”
“I remember now.”
Rosa's face went pale.
“The nurse called him Daniel.”
Helen stood.
There were two infants.
Dominic.
Daniel.
Both connected somehow to Michael.
One became Anthony DeLuca's son.
What happened to the other?
Twenty minutes later, Leonard was brought downstairs in restraints.
Sabrina stood far away from him.
Dominic came beside Helen.
She touched his face.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
She nodded.
“Me neither.”
He almost smiled.
Almost.
Rebecca faced Leonard.
“Who's Daniel?”
Leonard's expression closed.
“Don't know.”
Frank stepped forward.
“Wrong answer.”
“Threatening me doesn't change my memory.”
Sabrina suddenly said:
“Daniel Walsh.”
Everyone turned.
Leonard's face changed.
She stared at her father.
“I've heard that name.”
“No, you haven't.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“At Grandma's funeral.”
Leonard shook his head.
“You were twelve.”
“You were drunk.”
He went still.
“You were fighting with Uncle Stephen.”
Sabrina walked closer.
“You said, ‘Daniel should've been mine.’”
Leonard stared at her.
Frank whispered:
“Jesus.”
Sabrina's voice shook.
“Who is Daniel?”
Leonard looked away.
“Dead.”
Helen stepped closer.
“When?”
“Long ago.”
“Proof?”
Silence.
Rebecca pulled Margaret's letter from the evidence bag.
“You spent decades looking for Margaret.”
Leonard's eyes flicked toward it.
“Why?”
Nothing.
“Because she knew about both babies.”
Nothing.
“Did Daniel belong to Elaine?”
Leonard finally spoke.
“No.”
“Margaret?”
Silence again.
Frank stepped forward.
“Was Michael his father?”
Leonard shut his eyes.
That was answer enough.
Frank backed away as though physically struck.
“Two sons.”
Leonard opened his eyes.
“Twins.”
No one moved.
Dominic whispered:
“What?”
“Margaret gave birth to twins.”
Helen covered her mouth.
Frank stared blankly.
“Michael had twins?”
“Yes.”
“Why did no one tell me?”
“Because one was supposed to disappear.”
Dominic's voice became cold.
“Which one?”
Leonard looked directly at him.
“You.”
The warehouse seemed to lose all sound.
Leonard continued.
“Margaret was told the first baby died. Anthony took him.”
Helen whispered:
“Dominic.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel?”
Leonard looked at Frank.
“Elaine was supposed to take him somewhere safe.”
“What happened?”
“Anthony stopped her.”
“Why?”
“Because Anthony discovered somebody had already altered the hospital records.”
Rebecca asked:
“Who?”
Leonard laughed bitterly.
“Victor.”
Helen shook her head.
“But Margaret said Anthony was wrong about Victor.”
“Because he was.”
Leonard stared at them.
“Victor didn't alter the records to hurt those boys.”
“Then why?”
“To save them.”
Frank looked confused.
“From whom?”
Leonard said nothing.
Dominic stepped forward.
“Who wanted us dead?”
Leonard looked at Sabrina.
Then Helen.
Then Frank.
Finally he whispered:
“Charles Cross.”
Sabrina's grandfather.
Sabrina went white.
“My grandfather?”
Leonard nodded.
“He believed Michael had copied enough evidence to destroy him. And he believed Margaret had hidden the copies with one of her children.”
Rebecca said:
“So he targeted both babies.”
“Yes.”
“Victor switched the records.”
“Yes.”
“Anthony took Dominic.”
“Yes.”
“Elaine took Daniel?”
Leonard shook his head slowly.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Leonard looked at Frank.
“Victor.”
Frank whispered:
“Where?”
“I never knew.”
Rebecca stared.
“Then Daniel Moretti could still be alive.”
Leonard's eyes moved toward her.
“He is.”
Dominic's breath stopped.
“You know that?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Leonard hesitated.
May you like
Then smiled sadly.
“You've already met him.”
