Chapter 2 - THE DOCTOR WHO DISAPPEARED|
Luca didn't sleep that night.
Neither did I.
The medical folder lay open on his desk while rain crawled down the windows of his study. I sat opposite him, wrapped in one of his dark sweaters, watching him examine documents that had apparently haunted him for more than a decade.
He looked different without the confidence he wore like armor.
Not weaker.
More dangerous.
Because the man who could intimidate an entire room now seemed terrified of a few sheets of paper.
“Who gave you this diagnosis?” I asked.
“Dr. Adrian Vale.”
“Where is he now?”
“Dead.”
The answer came too quickly.
Luca turned another page. His finger stopped beside a handwritten note.
“According to the official report, he died in a car accident six years ago.”
“Did you ever see his body?”
Luca looked up.
“No.”
“Did anyone in your family?”
“My father arranged the funeral.”
A cold feeling settled in my stomach.
“Your father?”
“Augusto Varenna.”
I knew the name. Everyone in Boston knew it. Luca's father had built the family business from a collection of warehouses into a financial empire. He was retired now, officially, but people still treated him like the most powerful man in the city.
“Does he know about the pregnancy?”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
“Not until I know what happened.”
Luca closed the folder.
Then he looked at me.
“Evelyn, I need you to answer something honestly. Did you ever doubt the paternity of this child?”
His question hurt more than I expected.
“No.”
“I have to ask.”
“I understand. But you were my husband before I knew I was pregnant. I haven't been with anyone else.”
His expression softened.
He came around the desk and crouched in front of me.
“I believe you.”
Those three words made my eyes burn.
He placed one hand over mine.
“If this child is mine, nobody will ever use him or her against you.”
“Luca, I don't want our baby growing up surrounded by fear.”
“Neither do I.”
“Then we need the truth. Not another secret.”
He stared at me for a long moment before nodding.
The next morning, Luca called his private physician, Dr. Sofia Bennett. She arrived at the estate before breakfast, carrying a medical case and an expression that suggested she had already been warned this would not be an ordinary appointment.
She confirmed the pregnancy with a blood test and scheduled an ultrasound.
Then Luca gave her the old medical folder.
Sofia read the report twice.
“Whoever wrote this diagnosis didn't follow standard documentation procedures.”
Luca's face hardened.
“Explain.”
“The report refers to laboratory results, but the original laboratory records aren't attached. There is no independent specialist review. And this signature…”
She tapped the page.
“It doesn't match the signature on the doctor's other records.”
Luca stood.
“Are you telling me the report was forged?”
“I'm telling you I can't authenticate it.”
He called his security chief, Marco Bellini, and ordered him to find every surviving record from the hospital where Luca had been treated twelve years earlier.
Before Marco left, Sofia asked to speak with me privately.
“Mrs. Varenna, I need to tell you something.”
Luca immediately turned.
“Whatever you need to say, say it in front of me.”
Sofia hesitated.
Then she looked at him.
“Your wife should avoid unnecessary stress. And until we understand your medical history, I would prefer that you don't make assumptions about the pregnancy.”
Luca nodded.
But when Sofia examined the folder again, she noticed something tucked into its back pocket.
A small photograph.
It showed a younger Luca in a hospital bed, his face bruised and his arm wrapped in bandages.
On the back, someone had written a date.
And beneath it were five words:
DO NOT LET HIM REMEMBER THE SECOND OPERATION.
Luca read the sentence.
His face went white.
“What second operation?” I whispered.
He looked at the photograph as if it belonged to another man's life.
Then his phone rang.
Marco was calling.
Luca answered.
“Tell me you found something.”
Marco's voice came through the speaker, low and urgent.
“I found the hospital archive. But there's a problem.”
“What problem?”
“The records show you were transferred to another facility twelve years ago.”
“Which facility?”
A pause.
May you like
Then Marco said something that made Luca grip the desk.
“Your father's private medical center. And the transfer authorization carries your mother's signature.”
