Chapter 5 - THE BLOOD TEST“Doctor!”
Not copies.
Everything.
I didn’t ask how he managed to get sealed hospital records delivered that quickly.
There were some questions you did not ask a man like Lorenzo Rossi.
Dr. Hayes spent nearly two hours reviewing the files.
The longer he read, the quieter he became.
Finally, he closed the binder.
“This is bad.”
Lorenzo stood across the study.
“How bad?”
“Sofia did develop cardiac complications. But that wasn’t the initial emergency.”
“What was?”
“Uncontrolled bleeding.”
Isabella covered her mouth.
Lorenzo’s voice was dangerously steady.
“I know she bled.”
“You were told it was a normal surgical complication?”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t.”
Hayes slid a report across the desk.
“Her coagulation values became abnormal very quickly. Doctors stabilized her, then they deteriorated again.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means something interfered with her blood’s ability to clot.”
Lorenzo’s hands curled into fists.
“Poison?”
“I’m not saying that.”
“Could it be?”
“Yes.”
Isabella lowered herself into a chair.
“My God.”
Hayes continued.
“There are legitimate medical explanations. But combined with what we are seeing with Leo, I think the hospital needs to reexamine preserved samples if any remain.”
Lorenzo called Marco.
“Find out.”
Marco nodded and left.
I stood near the fireplace holding Leo.
His color looked slightly better.
That alone felt miraculous.
Then Bianca Rossi arrived.
I knew immediately she was Lorenzo’s sister.
Same dark eyes.
Same straight posture.
Same dangerous calm.
But Bianca’s was sharpened by elegance rather than intimidation.
She was thirty-five, perhaps thirty-six, wearing a cream wool coat and boots.
She looked around the room.
“Why was I stopped by six armed guards at my own brother’s house?”
Lorenzo did not answer.
Bianca noticed me.
Then Leo.
Her annoyance vanished.
“He’s awake.”
She rushed toward us.
Lorenzo blocked her.
“Don’t touch him.”
Bianca stared at him.
“What?”
“Your code accessed the nursery cameras.”
Her face changed.
“My code?”
“Yes.”
“I haven’t used the nursery system in weeks.”
“When was the last time?”
“The night before Christmas.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to check Leo without waking him.”
“Who knows your code?”
“No one.”
“Think.”
Bianca’s eyes narrowed.
“Evelyn might.”
“Why?”
“She set up my account.”
Lorenzo turned toward Marco’s empty chair.
I said, “She may know everybody’s codes.”
Bianca looked at me.
“And you are?”
“Anna Bennett.”
“The maid.”
“Not today, apparently.”
Bianca almost smiled.
Then she looked at Leo again.
“What happened?”
Lorenzo explained.
Her face slowly drained.
When he mentioned Sofia’s warning about Evelyn, Bianca began shaking her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“I remember something.”
“Say it.”
“After Sofia died, I went through her personal things with Mother.”
Isabella nodded.
“She had a second phone.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“No, she didn’t.”
“Yes, she did.”
Bianca’s voice became quieter.
“A cheap prepaid phone. It was inside the lining of her hospital bag.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it to you.”
“You did not.”
“I put it inside the black box with her jewelry.”
Lorenzo turned toward Marco just as he returned.
“The black memorial box,” Lorenzo said.
Marco nodded.
“In the vault.”
“Bring it.”
Ten minutes later, a rectangular black box was placed on the desk.
Lorenzo unlocked it himself.
Inside were Sofia’s wedding earrings.
Her hospital bracelet.
A gold necklace.
A folded letter.
And beneath a velvet panel, a small phone.
Lorenzo stared at it.
He picked it up with shaking fingers.
Battery dead.
Marco brought a universal charger.
The phone powered on.
There was no passcode.
Only seven contacts.
And three saved recordings.
Lorenzo pressed the first.
Sofia’s voice filled the room.
Weak.
Breathless.
Alive.
I watched Lorenzo’s face collapse.
“If something happens to me,” Sofia said, “please don’t let Evelyn take Leo.”
Isabella started crying.
The recording continued.
“I know how this sounds. I know everybody thinks I’m confused from the medication. But Leo drinks normally when I feed him or when Nathan feeds him. After Evelyn takes him, he vomits.”
Dr. Hayes looked stunned.
Sofia continued.
“I saw her put something in his bottle yesterday. She said it was medicine for reflux, but the chart showed no medication scheduled.”
The recording ended.
Nobody moved.
Lorenzo pressed the second.
Sofia’s voice again.
“I told Bianca I wanted Evelyn removed. Lorenzo is downstairs talking to the surgeon. Evelyn came in and told me I was becoming unstable. She said grief can make mothers imagine dangerous things.”
Bianca whispered, “I never heard this.”
The recording continued.
“I’m not imagining it. Something is wrong.”
Then a noise.
The hospital door opening.
Sofia whispered, “She’s here.”
The recording ended.
Lorenzo pressed the final file.
Static.
Then Sofia’s breathing.
A woman’s voice in the background.
Evelyn.
“You should rest.”
“I don’t want that.”
“It will help you sleep.”
“I said no.”
A pause.
Then Sofia cried out.
“Why did you—”
The recording became muffled.
Evelyn said something too quiet to understand.
Then another voice entered.
A man.
“Is it done?”
Every person in the study froze.
The voice was distorted by distance.
But Lorenzo clearly recognized it.
His face went white.
“No.”
Bianca looked at him.
“What?”
Lorenzo replayed the final five seconds.
“Is it done?”
His expression changed from shock to fury.
I said, “You know that voice.”
He didn’t answer.
“Lorenzo.”
Bianca stood.
“Who is it?”
He slowly looked toward his sister.
“My uncle.”
Isabella gasped.
“Vittorio?”
Lorenzo nodded.
Vittorio Rossi.
The older brother of Lorenzo’s late father.
A man who had helped build the Rossi empire.
A man Lorenzo reportedly trusted more than almost anyone alive.
And according to Sofia’s hidden recording, he had been inside her hospital room shortly before she died.
Before anyone could speak again, Marco’s phone buzzed.
He checked the message.
Then looked up sharply.
“What?”
Lorenzo demanded.
Marco’s face tightened.
“Evelyn Price is gone.”
Lorenzo stood.
“What do you mean gone?”
“The guard watching her was found unconscious.”
“How?”
“Injection mark in his neck.”
“And Evelyn?”
“Security cameras show a laundry truck leaving through the service gate eleven minutes ago.”
Lorenzo grabbed his coat.
I tightened my arms around Leo.
Then Marco added one more detail.
“The truck belongs to a company owned by Vittorio Rossi.”
Lorenzo stopped at the door.
His face became frighteningly empty.
Family betrayal hurts differently.
I knew that much.
And as Lorenzo Rossi prepared to hunt the man who may have helped murder his wife, Leo woke against my chest and began crying again.
Not from hunger.
This cry was different.
Sharp.
Painful.
I looked down.
May you like
A red rash was spreading across his stomach.
And suddenly every person in the room realized the danger might already be inside him.
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