Chapter 3 - THE DEAD MAN ON CAMERA
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Vincent finally touched the tablet screen and replayed the footage.
Again.
The man stepped into frame.
Older.
Thinner.
Gray at the temples.
But Vincent would have known that walk anywhere.
His father had carried his left shoulder slightly lower since taking a bullet when Vincent was fourteen.
That detail had never appeared in newspapers.
It was Antonio.
Or someone had spent years learning to move exactly like him.
“That’s impossible,” Caroline whispered.
Vincent replayed the clip.
Hannah watched his face instead of the screen.
There was no visible grief.
No obvious shock.
That worried her more than anger would have.
“Vincent?”
He turned off the tablet.
“My father died in a warehouse fire.”
“You saw him?”
“I saw what was left.”
Hannah understood immediately.
Not enough to identify with certainty.
Vincent looked at Marco.
“Who identified the body?”
Marco hesitated.
“Your uncle.”
Dominic.
Vincent closed his eyes.
Thirteen years of family history rearranged itself in silence.
His father’s death.
Sophia’s withdrawal afterward.
Her unexplained fear.
The locked bedroom.
The blue box.
Dominic’s growing influence.
And now a man resembling Antonio Romano appearing inside the estate.
Vincent looked at Hannah.
“Take Lily upstairs.”
“No.”
He stared at her.
Hannah steadied herself.
“Someone tried to take her while the house was full of your security. I’m not splitting up.”
Vincent might have argued with anyone else.
He didn’t.
“Fine.”
Caroline stood.
“What about me?”
Vincent looked at her.
“You’re staying.”
“You can’t imprison me.”
“Call the police.”
Her mouth closed.
She knew exactly what information would emerge if law enforcement began digging through her relationship with Dominic.
Vincent turned to Marco.
“Double security. Nobody alone with Lily except Hannah, Elena or me.”
“Done.”
“And get me everything on St. Matthew’s.”
“The hospital closed five years ago.”
“Buildings?”
“Most were sold.”
“Rebecca said records annex.”
Marco nodded.
“I’ll locate it.”
“No. I know where it is.”
Vincent’s mother had once taken him there.
He suddenly remembered.
He had been thirty-one.
Lily was still an infant.
Sophia told him she needed to visit an old friend.
Vincent had waited outside in the car.
For almost an hour.
When Sophia returned, she had been crying.
At the time, Vincent assumed grief over Antonio had resurfaced.
Now he wondered if she had been trying to uncover something.
Forty-five minutes later, they reached St. Matthew’s abandoned administrative annex in Queens.
Vincent brought only Marco and two trusted guards.
Hannah insisted on coming.
Lily remained at the mansion with Elena under protection.
The old hospital complex looked like something the city had forgotten.
Boarded windows.
Faded brick.
Rainwater collecting beneath broken gutters.
The annex door had already been forced.
Vincent noticed immediately.
“Someone beat us here.”
Marco drew his weapon.
Inside, dust covered the floor.
Except for several recent shoe prints.
They descended to the basement.
Locker 314 stood at the far end of a narrow records corridor.
The metal door was open.
Empty.
Hannah’s shoulders dropped.
“We’re too late.”
Vincent examined the lock.
“No.”
“What?”
“Someone searched it.”
“How do you know?”
He pointed to stacks of files scattered nearby.
“They were looking for something specific.”
Marco found blood on the floor.
Fresh.
A small trail led behind a row of filing cabinets.
One of the guards moved them.
Rebecca Shaw lay on the ground.
Alive.
Barely.
Hannah rushed to her.
Rebecca’s face was bruised.
Her wrists had been bound, but one hand was free.
She must have escaped whoever brought her there.
Vincent crouched.
“Rebecca.”
The doctor’s eyes fluttered open.
“You came.”
“Where’s the ledger?”
“They took it.”
“Dominic?”
“No.”
Vincent exchanged a glance with Hannah.
“Who?”
Rebecca’s eyes moved toward Hannah.
Tears filled them.
“I’m sorry.”
Hannah frowned.
“For what?”
“I was there.”
“The night my daughter was born?”
Rebecca nodded.
Hannah looked like she had been struck.
“You told me she died?”
“No.”
“Someone did.”
“I was assigned to another patient.”
“Then what did you do?”
Rebecca struggled to sit.
Vincent helped her against the wall.
“Your mother came looking for the baby,” Rebecca said.
“My mother?”
Hannah stared.
“Why would she—”
“She knew something was wrong. You were sedated after complications. Records said your daughter died at 2:14 a.m.”
Hannah’s eyes filled.
“That’s what they told me.”
“But I saw the nursery log. There was no death.”
Vincent asked, “Where did the baby go?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Your mother followed one of the nurses.”
“And?”
“She saw the child transferred to a private wing.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
Hannah shook her head.
“My family didn’t have money.”
“No. The buyer did.”
The word buyer made Vincent’s jaw tighten.
Rebecca continued.
“Your daughter was supposed to disappear into a private adoption network.”
Hannah stopped breathing.
Vincent’s voice went flat.
“Who ran it?”
“St. Matthew’s administrator. Victor Hale.”
Marco cursed under his breath.
Vincent knew the name.
Victor Hale had been one of Antonio Romano’s financial advisers.
“Keep talking.”
Rebecca nodded weakly.
“That same night, another woman delivered a baby girl in the private wing. No public record. No insurance. Cash only.”
“Who?”
“I never saw her name.”
“Antonio’s child?”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“But there were three bracelets.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Vincent.
“One marked Lily Romano. One marked Emma. And one had no surname.”
Hannah whispered, “Which baby disappeared from my room?”
“Emma.”
“And where did Emma go?”
Rebecca’s eyes moved between Hannah and Vincent.
“That’s the part Sophia spent years trying to prove.”
“Tell us.”
“The baby called Emma was taken upstairs.”
“And?”
“She never left the hospital through normal discharge.”
Hannah’s voice cracked.
“Then she died?”
“No.”
Rebecca reached for Hannah’s hand.
“I saw her alive two days later.”
“Where?”
“With Sophia.”
Everyone went silent.
Hannah stared at her.
“Sophia had my baby?”
“She was trying to protect her.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“Where did my mother take her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Rebecca.”
“I swear.”
Vincent’s restraint finally cracked around the edges.
“My daughter was almost kidnapped tonight. My dead father walked across my security camera. My uncle is threatening me. If you know something, tell me.”
Rebecca nodded quickly.
“I know.”
“Then start with Lily.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Lily Romano—the child you raised—was born that night.”
“Is she mine?”
“Yes.”
Relief hit Vincent so hard it was almost painful.
Hannah looked at him.
“Then why all this?”
Rebecca opened her eyes.
“Because Lily’s mother wasn’t who you were told.”
Vincent froze.
His wife, Maria, had died during childbirth.
Or that was what he had believed for nine years.
“What are you saying?”
“Maria Romano gave birth.”
“To Lily?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“No.”
The basement became very still.
Vincent felt every instinct inside him sharpening.
“What happened to Maria’s child?”
“Her child was the third baby.”
“The unnamed bracelet?”
“Yes.”
“Then whose daughter is Lily?”
Rebecca began to answer.
A gunshot exploded above them.
Marco shoved Vincent against the shelves.
Another shot struck concrete.
“Move!”
The guards returned fire.
Hannah crouched beside Rebecca.
Vincent dragged both women behind a steel cabinet.
Footsteps thundered overhead.
Then tires squealed outside.
Marco ran toward the stairwell.
Vincent stopped him.
“They want us chasing.”
“What are they after?”
Vincent looked at Rebecca.
“The ledger.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“They already have it.”
“Then what?”
Her face changed.
“My bag.”
Hannah looked beside her.
A battered leather handbag lay several feet away.
One guard retrieved it.
Rebecca opened a hidden seam inside the lining.
She pulled out a small flash drive.
“They took the paper copy.”
Vincent stared.
“But Sophia made me photograph every page.”
Hannah exhaled.
Rebecca handed him the drive.
“This has the entire birth ledger.”
Vincent closed his fingers around it.
“And the names?”
“Yes.”
“All three babies?”
“Yes.”
Vincent looked down at the tiny object capable of rewriting his entire life.
Rebecca caught his wrist.
“But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“I saw Antonio after his supposed death.”
Vincent’s eyes lifted.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
“Why?”
“He came looking for the same files.”
Vincent’s stomach tightened.
“Did he say why?”
Rebecca nodded.
“He said Sophia had finally figured out who ordered the switch.”
“Who?”
Rebecca looked directly at Hannah.
“Your mother.”
Hannah recoiled.
“No.”
Rebecca’s fingers tightened.
“I’m sorry.”
“My mother tried to find my baby.”
“Yes.”
“Then why would she order a switch?”
“She didn’t.”
Hannah stared.
Rebecca swallowed.
“I didn’t mean your mother, Hannah.”
May you like
She looked at Vincent.
“I meant Lily’s biological mother.”
