Chapter 3 - THE SECOND ULTRASOUND
The inside of the SUV felt like a vacuum.
I stared at the black-and-white ultrasound photo resting in my lap. Patient: Evelyn Brooks. The date was twenty-seven years ago. The year I was born.
But as I looked closer at the grainy image, my heart began to hammer erratically against my ribs.
There wasn't one shape in the dark screen.
There were two.
"Twins," I breathed, the word sounding foreign on my tongue. "My mother was pregnant with twins."
Luca watched my face, his dark eyes filled with a quiet, tragic understanding. "Did you know?"
"No," I whispered, my hands shaking so badly the paper rattled. "She never told me. She never even hinted at it. My father died when I was fourteen... neither of them ever said a word."
I looked up at Luca, panic rising in my chest. "Why is this in Vanessa's file? Why does she have my mother's medical records?"
Luca took the folder gently from my hands and closed it. "Vanessa’s family, the Bellinis, have owned a controlling interest in St. Catherine's for three decades. Before Vanessa took over the board, her father ran it."
"What does that have to do with my mother?" I asked, my voice cracking.
"Your mother was a nursing assistant there for thirty-one years," Luca said softly. "But twenty-seven years ago, she wasn't just working there. She delivered you there."
He started the car. The engine purred, but the sound felt deafening in the silence.
"I'm taking you back to the estate, Natalie," Luca said, pulling onto the street. "It's not safe for you to go home right now. If Vanessa left this file on my desk, she wanted me to see it. She wanted me to know she's holding a card I didn't see coming."
"I have to talk to my mother," I pleaded, reaching for the door handle. "I have to ask her what happened to the other baby."
"You can't," Luca said firmly, locking the doors from the driver's side. "Not tonight. If Vanessa terminated your mother's pension and blocked your hiring, she has been tracking your family for a long time. Asking questions over an unsecured phone line might trigger her to act."
"Act how?" I cried. "She's just a rich woman who got dumped!"
Luca stopped at a red light and turned to me. The softness he had shown earlier was gone, replaced by the hardened edge of a man who ran a syndicate.
"Vanessa isn't just a rich woman, Natalie. She is the daughter of a rival family. Our engagement was a truce. A business arrangement to stop a turf war that has been bleeding this city for years."
My breath hitched. "A turf war?"
"The Bellinis don't just own hospitals," Luca said grimly. "They use them. For money laundering. For treating their own men off the books. And twenty-seven years ago, they used them for something else."
The light turned green. Luca hit the gas.
When we arrived back at the estate, the massive iron gates were closed. Armed guards paced the perimeter, assault rifles slung across their chests. The quiet elegance of the engagement dinner had been replaced by the stark reality of a mafia fortress preparing for a siege.
Luca led me inside. The mansion was silent.
He bypassed the grand staircase and walked down a narrow hallway toward his private office. He unlocked the heavy oak door and ushered me inside.
Sitting in a leather wingback chair near the fireplace was Teresa Moretti. She looked exhausted, holding a cup of tea, but her eyes were sharp.
"You found it," Teresa said as Luca tossed the manila folder onto the mahogany desk.
"She left it right on top of my keyboard," Luca said, pouring himself a glass of amber liquid from a crystal decanter. He didn't drink it. He just held the glass, his knuckles white.
Teresa looked at me. Her expression softened with pity. "Sit down, sweetheart. You look like you're going to faint."
I sank into the chair opposite her, still wearing my graduation gown. "You know about this? You know about the ultrasound?"
Teresa nodded slowly. "I knew Vanessa's father, Carlo Bellini. He was a monster. He ran the hospital board like a cartel. If doctors or nurses found out about his illegal activities, he didn't just fire them. He ruined them."
"My mother worked there for thirty-one years," I said. "She never talked about anything illegal."
"Because she was terrified," Luca said, turning to face me. "Look at the date on the email terminating her pension, Natalie. Four years ago. What else happened four years ago?"
I thought back. Four years ago. I was twenty-three. I had just started working at the estate. I had just enrolled in nursing school.
"I started working here," I realized aloud.
Luca nodded. "Vanessa forced your mother into retirement the exact same month you took a job in my house."
"Why?" I asked, desperation creeping into my voice.
"Leverage," Teresa said quietly. "Vanessa knew Luca was looking for an alliance to end the war. She wanted to marry him to gain access to our family's assets. But she needed an insurance policy. A way to control the board if the truce fell apart."
"I don't understand," I cried. "How am I an insurance policy? I'm just a maid!"
Luca walked around the desk and crouched in front of my chair. He looked me directly in the eyes.
"Because twenty-seven years ago, a nurse at St. Catherine's discovered Carlo Bellini was running an illegal adoption ring out of the maternity ward," Luca said softly. "Selling babies to wealthy, connected families."
The room spun.
"The nurse was going to blow the whistle," Luca continued. "But before she could, she went into early labor. She had twins."
I covered my mouth with my hands, a sob tearing from my throat.
"When she woke up," Teresa finished gently, "Carlo Bellini told her one of the twins had died during delivery. He told her if she ever went to the police about his operation, he would make sure the surviving twin had an 'accident' too."
Tears streamed down my face. My mother. She had stayed quiet for twenty-seven years to keep me alive. She had worked twelve-hour shifts in the same hospital run by the man who had stolen her other child, swallowing the pain every single day just so I could grow up safe.
"Vanessa kept the ultrasound," Luca said. "To prove she knows exactly who you are. And to prove she knows what happened to your twin."
I gripped the arms of the chair, my sorrow instantly replaced by a blinding, white-hot fury.
"Where is my sibling?" I demanded, my voice shaking. "Where did they take the other baby?"
Luca stood up, his jaw set. "I don't know yet. But Vanessa does."
Suddenly, the heavy oak door of the office swung open.
Daniel, the head of security, stepped in. He looked pale.
"Boss," Daniel said urgently. "We have a problem at the front gate."
"Did the Bellinis send armed men?" Luca asked, reaching into his jacket for his weapon.
"No, sir," Daniel said, shaking his head. "It's a woman. She drove her car straight into the iron gate. She's demanding to see Natalie."
I stood up so fast my chair tipped backward. "My mother?"
May you like
Daniel hesitated. He looked at me, then back at Luca.
"No," Daniel said. "It's not her mother. But she looks exactly like her."
