Sir, I Found Your Son in the Trash Bin by the Kitchen, the Maid's Little Girl Said, Mafia Boss Was Stunned Who left my son in the trash?

The first real break came from the mansion's laundry supervisor, Mrs. Carter, who had worked for the Morettis for twenty-two years.

She recognized the silver-bird button Sophia had found.

“It belongs to the uniforms worn by the private security team at the Bellmont Foundation,” she said. “Not our household staff.”

Rocco called Dominic into the room.

“Who worked security at Bellmont on the night the baby was abandoned?”

Dominic produced a list of names.

One belonged to a woman named Marissa Cole, a former hospital orderly who had disappeared six months earlier.

Her employment records showed a connection to Victor Sterling, Valentina's father.

The next morning, a surveillance team located Marissa at a roadside motel outside Chicago.

She tried to escape through the back exit, but Dominic's men intercepted her before she reached the parking lot.

Rocco insisted on questioning her personally.

Marissa sat across from him in a bare room, twisting a paper napkin between her fingers.

“I didn't hurt the baby,” she said.

“You left him in a trash bin.”

“I thought someone would find him.”

“An eight-year-old girl found him in the rain.”

Marissa began to cry.

“I was told the container was empty. I was supposed to leave the blanket and the bracelet. Nothing else.”

“Who told you?”

“Mrs. Moretti's father.”

“Victor Sterling?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

“He said the baby was evidence. His mother had threatened to expose the hospital records, and he wanted both of them gone.”

Rocco leaned forward.

“Who is the mother?”

Marissa shook her head.

“I never met her. I only delivered a package.”

“What package?”

“A second envelope.”

Sophia's words echoed through Rocco's mind.

“What was inside?”

“I don't know. Victor told me the envelope contained proof that the baby belonged to a woman who had died.”

Rocco stared at her.

“Which woman?”

Marissa hesitated.

“Isabella Hart.”

The name meant nothing to Rocco until Dominic placed a photograph on the table.

Isabella Hart had been a nurse at St. Helena. She had died in a car accident three weeks earlier.

Her employment record showed that she had worked in the neonatal unit on the night Matteo was born.

Marissa continued.

“Isabella discovered that two babies had been assigned the same medical identity. She copied the original records. She said someone had taken a child from the hospital and replaced his bracelet.”

“Who was the child?”

“I don't know.”

Rocco stood and walked to the window.

For years, he had believed the people closest to him were protecting his family. Now he understood that some of them had been protecting a secret from him.

Marissa gave him one final detail.

“The woman at the service gate wasn't Mrs. Moretti. It was someone wearing her coat.”

Rocco turned.

“Who?”

“Her personal assistant. A woman named Claire Donovan.”

Dominic immediately checked the staff records.

Claire had left the mansion the morning after the baby was discovered.

Her apartment was empty, and her phone had been disconnected.

But her employment file contained an emergency contact.

Victor Sterling.

Rocco smiled without humor.

“Now we're getting somewhere.”