Chapter 5 - TWO BOYS, ONE DEATH CERTIFICATE
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Rocco spent the following morning in his private library, surrounded by documents he had once believed settled the most painful chapter of his life.
The original birth records were missing. The hospital's archived system contained only a single entry for Matteo Moretti, male infant, born April 17, 2026. The death certificate listed the cause as severe respiratory complications.
But a handwritten notation on the back of an old medical transfer form changed everything.
Twin A transferred to neonatal intensive care. Twin B transferred separately.
Rocco read the note again.
Twin A.
Twin B.
He had been a father to two sons and had buried one without knowing the other existed.
“Dominic,” he said, his voice almost too quiet to hear.
His consigliere closed the study door.
“Boss?”
“Find the physician who signed this form.”
“We already have a name. Dr. Peter Lang. He retired six years ago and lives in Wisconsin.”
“Bring him here.”
“Alive and willing?”
Rocco looked up.
“Alive. Willing is negotiable.”
Dominic understood the distinction and left.
Meanwhile, the baby began crying in the medical suite. Sophia rushed to his side before the nurse could lift him.
“He's hungry,” she said.
The nurse smiled. “You seem to know him well.”
“I know what his cry sounds like when he's scared.”
Sophia had spent enough nights in cheap apartments and crowded shelters to recognize distress. She knew the difference between a hungry cry and the desperate cry of a child who needed someone to stay.
She had never met the baby before that rainy evening, yet she felt responsible for him.
When Rocco entered, he found her gently rocking the infant.
“What should we call him?” Sophia asked.
“We don't know his name yet.”
“Can I call him Leo until we find out?”
Rocco almost smiled.
“Leo?”
“Because he looks brave.”
“He's three weeks old.”
“Brave babies can still be small.”
Rocco looked at the infant. For the first time since the discovery, the tightness in his chest loosened slightly.
“Leo, then. For now.”
That afternoon, Dr. Lang arrived under guard. He was seventy-two, thin, and visibly frightened.
Rocco placed the birth record on the table.
“Explain it.”
Dr. Lang stared at the document.
“I thought these records had been destroyed.”
“That's not an explanation.”
The physician rubbed his face.
“Your wife gave birth to identical twin boys. One was stronger than the other. There were complications, and we moved both infants to separate units.”
“Why was I told only one child survived?”
“Mrs. Moretti said you had authorized the arrangement.”
“I never authorized anything.”
“I know that now.”
Rocco leaned forward.
“What happened to the second child?”
Dr. Lang swallowed.
“He was transferred to a private facility under a different identity. I was told it was temporary, that the family wanted to protect him from a threat.”
“Whose threat?”
“I never knew.”
“Who signed the transfer?”
The doctor hesitated.
“Your wife. And a woman named Eleanor Voss.”
Rocco felt something cold settle inside him.
“Did the child die?”
“No.”
“Then where is he?”
Dr. Lang looked toward the door.
“I don't know. But three months later, someone contacted me and said the boy had been adopted.”
“By whom?”
“I was never told.”
Rocco stood so quickly that the chair struck the wall.
“You helped erase my son.”
“I was threatened.”
“So was every person who ever worked for me. Most of them chose honesty.”
Dr. Lang lowered his head.
“I kept one thing. A photograph taken before the transfer.”
He removed an envelope from his coat.
Inside was a photograph of two newborn boys lying side by side.
One wore a bracelet marked A.
The other wore a bracelet marked B.
May you like
On the reverse, someone had written a name.
Gabriel.
