Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WITHOUT A NAME
They left St. Matthew’s before police arrived.
Vincent had no interest in explaining gunfire inside an abandoned medical building while Rebecca Shaw was barely conscious.
More importantly, someone knew they had the drive.
That meant they needed to move before their enemies did.
Back at the mansion, Lily was asleep in Hannah’s room under guard.
Vincent stood outside the doorway for a long time.
The house was quiet now.
The engagement party was gone.
Champagne glasses remained abandoned on tables.
Flowers Caroline had chosen filled the ballroom.
A giant photograph of Vincent and Caroline still stood beside the staircase.
Vincent looked at it once.
Then ordered a guard to remove it.
Hannah joined him.
“Rebecca’s resting.”
“And Caroline?”
“Still in the library.”
Vincent nodded.
Hannah studied him.
“You haven’t asked what Rebecca meant.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because once I ask, I can’t unknow it.”
Hannah understood.
She had lived nine years believing her baby was dead.
Truth could be more frightening than grief when grief had become familiar.
Vincent entered his study.
Marco connected the flash drive to an isolated computer.
The photographed ledger appeared.
Three births.
Same night.
The first:
Maria Romano.
Female infant.
Time: 1:48 a.m.
Temporary bracelet code: MR-01.
No infant name.
The second:
Hannah Brooks.
Female infant.
Time: 2:03 a.m.
Infant name handwritten later: Emma.
The third:
Patient listed only as E. Vale.
Female infant.
Time: 2:21 a.m.
Infant name: Lily.
Vincent stared.
“E. Vale.”
Hannah leaned closer.
“Could be fake.”
“It is.”
“Why?”
“Private admissions under false surnames were common for people connected to my family.”
Marco scrolled.
A discharge note had been altered.
The child listed as Lily Vale was reassigned to Maria Romano’s patient number.
Maria’s own infant vanished from the ledger after 4:10 a.m.
Hannah’s child, Emma, was marked deceased.
No death certificate number.
No morgue intake.
Three babies.
Three falsified outcomes.
Hannah whispered, “Somebody rearranged all of them.”
Vincent looked at Caroline through the glass wall separating his office from the library.
“Bring her in.”
Caroline entered ten minutes later.
Her elegant gown was wrinkled now.
Mascara shadowed her eyes.
She no longer looked like the future Mrs. Romano.
She looked like a woman realizing she had wagered everything on the wrong secret.
Vincent turned the monitor toward her.
“Who is E. Vale?”
Caroline looked.
Her reaction lasted less than a second.
Enough.
“You know.”
“No.”
“Try again.”
She sat slowly.
“Dominic called her Evelyn.”
Vincent’s pulse changed.
“Evelyn what?”
“I never heard a surname.”
“What did he say about her?”
“That she was dangerous.”
“Alive?”
Caroline hesitated.
“Yes.”
Hannah’s skin prickled.
“Is she Lily’s mother?”
Caroline looked at her.
“I think so.”
Vincent leaned against the desk.
“How does Dominic know her?”
Caroline rubbed her hands together.
“Because she worked for your father.”
“As what?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“Caroline.”
“I don’t know!”
Her voice cracked.
She took a breath.
“He said Evelyn was the reason Antonio disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
Caroline realized what she had revealed.
Vincent smiled coldly.
“So you knew my father was alive.”
“Not until six months ago.”
“You were planning to marry me while keeping that secret.”
“I was trying to survive.”
“That excuse is getting old.”
Caroline looked down.
“Dominic showed me a photograph. Antonio was alive. He said your father had betrayed the family and your mother helped hide him.”
“Why?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
“What did Dominic want from Sophia’s box?”
“Evidence.”
“Of what?”
“That Lily wasn’t Maria’s daughter.”
Hannah crossed her arms.
“And why did that matter?”
Caroline looked at Vincent.
“Because if Lily’s real mother came back, everything would fall apart.”
Vincent’s eyes narrowed.
“What would fall apart?”
Caroline whispered, “The Romano succession.”
For decades, leadership in Vincent’s family had depended on bloodline, alliances and old promises.
He hated much of it.
But he understood instantly.
If Lily’s identity connected her to someone powerful—
Someone whose existence threatened Dominic—
then this was bigger than parentage.
“Who is Evelyn?”
Caroline started crying again.
“Dominic never told me.”
Vincent’s phone buzzed.
A message from an unknown number.
One photograph.
A woman standing beside Antonio.
Recent.
Antonio older but unmistakable.
The woman had dark hair, sharp cheekbones and Lily’s green-gray eyes.
Underneath:
YOU WANT ANSWERS? COME ALONE.
An address followed.
Hannah looked over his shoulder.
“Don’t.”
Vincent turned.
“You saw it.”
“It’s a trap.”
“Obviously.”
“And you’re still thinking about going.”
“Yes.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
“The message says alone.”
“People who threaten my family don’t get to set rules.”
Thirty minutes later, Vincent left the estate in his own car.
Alone visibly.
Marco followed two blocks behind in an unmarked sedan.
Hannah remained at the mansion with Lily.
At least that was the plan.
Until Hannah noticed Lily’s bedroom empty.
The window was closed.
The guards were outside.
The bed had been carefully arranged.
And on the pillow sat a note written in Lily’s handwriting.
HANNAH, DON’T BE MAD. I HAVE TO FIND GRANDPA.
Hannah’s blood ran cold.
She ran downstairs.
“Marco!”
No answer.
Of course.
Marco was following Vincent.
Hannah found Elena in the kitchen.
“Where’s Lily?”
Elena’s face changed.
“I thought she was with you.”
Hannah called Vincent.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“Lily’s gone.”
Silence.
“What?”
“She left a note.”
Vincent slammed the brakes so hard the tires screamed.
At the same moment, Hannah noticed the mansion’s side entrance ajar.
A small muddy footprint marked the tile.
And beside it—
Another footprint.
Adult.
Someone had not taken Lily this time.
Someone had persuaded her to leave.
Hannah ran outside.
A dark sedan was turning beyond the gates.
She caught only the final digits of the license plate.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Hannah answered.
A woman said, “If you want Lily safe, tell Vincent not to go to that address.”
“Who are you?”
“You already know.”
Hannah’s heart pounded.
“Evelyn?”
Silence.
Then:
“Tell Vincent his father isn’t waiting for him.”
“Who is?”
“Dominic.”
Hannah immediately called Vincent.
He listened without interrupting.
Then said, “I’m already here.”
Hannah’s stomach dropped.
“Vincent, get out.”
He looked through his windshield at an abandoned townhouse.
A light glowed upstairs.
“Not yet.”
“Lily is missing!”
That changed everything.
Vincent turned the car around.
A figure stepped into the road.
Vincent hit the brakes.
The man stood beneath a streetlamp.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Scar across his cheek.
Vincent forgot how to breathe.
Antonio Romano stared through the windshield at his son.
Then slowly raised both empty hands.
Vincent got out.
Neither man spoke.
Thirteen years stood between them.
Finally Vincent said, “You let me bury you.”
Antonio’s face broke.
“I know.”
“You let Mom die thinking—”
“She knew.”
Vincent froze.
Antonio swallowed.
“Sophia helped me disappear.”
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
Vincent laughed bitterly.
“From whom?”
Antonio’s answer came quietly.
“From me.”
Before Vincent could respond, headlights appeared behind Antonio.
A sedan stopped.
The rear door opened.
Lily stepped out.
“Hannah said not to trust strangers,” she announced.
Then she looked at Antonio.
“But he isn’t a stranger, Daddy.”
Vincent stared.
Lily smiled nervously.
“Grandma showed me his picture.”
A woman stepped from the opposite side of the car.
Dark hair.
Green-gray eyes.
The woman from the photograph.
Evelyn.
She looked at Lily with tears in her eyes.
Then at Vincent.
“You deserve the truth.”
Vincent’s hand moved instinctively toward Lily.
“What truth?”
Evelyn glanced at Antonio.
Then said the sentence that shattered the last version of Vincent’s past.
“Maria Romano’s baby didn’t disappear.”
Vincent stopped breathing.
May you like
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“She grew up in your house.”
