Chapter 2 - THE NUMBER THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
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Rocco had the baby carried into his private medical suite, a room usually reserved for treating wounded members of his organization without involving a hospital.
He ordered the family physician, Dr. Samuel Reed, to arrive immediately.
“No unnecessary procedures,” Rocco said over the phone. “I want a full examination, temperature, hydration, and identification. If that child has been exposed to anything dangerous, you tell me before you tell anyone else.”
Then he turned toward Dominic.
“Find every camera covering the kitchen, the service entrance, and the trash area.”
“Already working on it.”
“And nobody touches the original recordings.”
Dominic nodded. “You think someone inside arranged this?”
“I think someone expected me to find an empty trash bin tomorrow morning.”
Rocco returned to the dining room, where Valentina waited beside the fireplace. She had changed into a dark dress and restored her familiar expression of concern.
“You're frightening the staff,” she said.
“Good. Fear makes careless people reveal themselves.”
“Rocco, listen to yourself. You're treating your wife like a suspect because a child made an accusation.”
“No. I'm treating you like someone who recognized a hospital bracelet before looking at a newborn.”
Her expression hardened.
“You're grieving over a son who never survived his first night. Sometimes grief makes people see patterns that aren't there.”
Rocco stepped closer.
“Don't tell me what I remember.”
For years, the Moretti family had been told that Rocco's first child, Matteo, had died shortly after birth. Valentina had suffered a complicated delivery, and Rocco had been kept outside the operating room while doctors fought to save both mother and baby.
He remembered the physician's solemn expression.
He remembered signing documents with shaking hands.
Most of all, he remembered the tiny white coffin.
There had been no open viewing.
Valentina had explained that the hospital recommended a closed burial because of the child's condition. Rocco had accepted the explanation, burying his grief beneath business and violence.
Now a baby had appeared inside his mansion wearing a bracelet linked to that same night.
Dr. Reed arrived twenty minutes later. He examined the infant and reported that the child was cold, hungry, and dehydrated, but appeared stable.
“Approximately several weeks old,” the doctor said. “Possibly older. I need proper testing to establish an accurate age.”
“Can you identify him from the bracelet?”
“Not without hospital records.”
Rocco handed him a photograph of the engraved number.
Dr. Reed stared at it.
“Where did you get this?”
“Does it mean something?”
The doctor hesitated.
“Some identification numbers are connected to archived patient records. But this one appears unusual.”
“Unusual how?”
“It has an additional digit used in certain confidential neonatal cases.”
Rocco's jaw tightened.
“Which cases?”
“Twins, sometimes. Or cases involving a corrected identity.”
Rocco looked toward Dominic.
“Find out whether Matteo had a twin.”
Valentina, standing in the doorway, went pale.
Only briefly.
But Rocco saw it.
Later that night, Sophia sat beside the medical suite, refusing to leave until she knew the baby was safe. Elena finally brought her a blanket and a cup of warm milk.
“You shouldn't have spoken to Mr. Moretti like that,” Elena whispered.
“Why?”
“Because powerful people don't like being questioned.”
Sophia looked at the sleeping infant.
“Then why does everyone let powerful people do bad things?”
Elena had no answer.
Across the hallway, Rocco reviewed the first recovered security footage. The kitchen camera showed Sophia entering the service corridor at 8:41 p.m.
Three minutes earlier, a figure carrying a large laundry bag had crossed the same corridor.
The camera image was blurred, but Rocco recognized the woman's bracelet.
Valentina wore it every evening.
He replayed the footage.
Then the screen went black.
Someone had remotely erased the remaining recordings.
Rocco slowly rose from his chair.
“Dominic.”
“Yes, boss?”
“Find out who has access to my security system.”
May you like
He paused, looking at the frozen image of the woman carrying the bag.
“And find out why my wife was near the kitchen three minutes before a baby appeared in the trash.”
