Chapter 6 - The Room Where the Baby Cried
Alessandro ran toward the sound.
The crying continued behind a white door painted with silver stars. Elena had chosen those stars before Emma was born, but after they returned from the hospital, she ordered the room sealed.
She had told Alessandro that it held too many painful memories.
He had respected her request.
Now he inserted the red key.
The lock opened.
The nursery contained two cribs.
One stood beside the window beneath a painted letter E.
The other stood near the wall beneath an unfinished letter.
A small speaker inside the second crib played the sound of a crying infant.
Tomas disconnected it.
Silence returned.
Alessandro stared at the two cribs.
“We prepared only one,” he said.
Rosa stood behind him.
“That is what you were told.”
He turned toward her.
“You knew about this room.”
“I knew Elena visited it.”
“You said she believed Emma was being watched. You said nothing about another crib.”
“Elena made me promise.”
“Elena is gone.”
“And I am trying to keep her daughter alive.”
“My daughter.”
Rosa’s eyes filled with anger.
“Then start asking why a dead woman’s identity is being used to create another Moretti child.”
Tomas searched the room.
Inside a cabinet, he found binders filled with pregnancy photographs, medical forms, and handwritten instructions.
They all concerned Vanessa.
One page described how she should stand to keep the pillow centered. Another listed answers for questions about morning sickness. A third contained possible dates of conception based on Alessandro’s travel schedule.
The scheme had been planned for months.
The final binder held a calendar.
The false pregnancy announcement was only the first stage.
The second stage required Alessandro to sign a declaration of paternity within seven days.
The third required him to travel to Milan for an emergency board meeting.
The fourth contained only two words.
Accident window.
Tomas read the phrase twice.
“Sir, you were scheduled to fly to Milan next week.”
Vittorio entered the nursery.
“For the annual debt review.”
Alessandro looked at him.
“You arranged that meeting.”
“It has taken place every year for fourteen years.”
“Not in Milan.”
Vittorio’s gaze moved toward the binders.
“Anyone could have written those pages.”
“The interim trustee would control my shares if I died after recognizing Vanessa’s child.”
“You think I planned to kill you?”
“I think you have not answered a single question directly since the doors were locked.”
Vittorio stepped into the room.
“I protected this family while you were still learning how to sign your name. I protected your father from bankruptcy, your brother from scandal, and you from your own mistakes.”
“Did you protect Elena?”
Something changed in Vittorio’s face.
It disappeared quickly, but Alessandro saw it.
Before he could press further, Emma entered holding Rosa’s hand.
She pointed toward the second crib.
“The other Emma slept there.”
Alessandro knelt beside her.
“Who told you that?”
“The lady with Mama’s coat.”
“Did she bring you here?”
Emma nodded.
“She showed me the movie.”
“What movie?”
Emma pointed toward the painted moon above the crib.
Tomas examined it and discovered a tiny lens hidden inside the center.
A projector was built into the wall.
The guards connected it to an independent power source.
A video appeared on the nursery wall.
Elena sat in a hospital bed, pale and exhausted, with newborn Emma in her arms.
Beside her stood Celia Hart.
The recording date was three years earlier.
The day Emma was born.
Elena looked directly into the camera.
“If Alessandro is watching this,” she said, “then they have tried to replace the child they took from us.”
The video flickered.
Someone had damaged the rest of the file.
Only a final frame remained.
May you like
A nurse was leaving the hospital room.
She carried a second newborn baby.
