Chapter 4 - Isabella's Real MotherThe secret was buried in a locked cabinet inside Matteo DeLuca's private office.
Barely.
By sunrise, Nora should have been home.
Instead, she was standing in a private corridor at Massachusetts General Hospital beside the man who had accused her of murder six hours earlier.
She wasn't entirely sure why.
Matteo's attorney had arranged her release after detectives confirmed the pharmacy footage cleared her of involvement in Isabella's abduction.
Nora had planned to walk out, catch a bus, shower for forty minutes, and never see another DeLuca again.
Then a nurse had appeared in the station lobby.
Isabella wouldn't stop crying.
Doctors believed the baby was reacting to trauma.
Matteo had tried holding her.
So had three nurses.
Nothing worked.
Then someone remembered that Isabella had stopped crying in Nora's arms.
Nora told herself she went to the hospital for the baby.
Only the baby.
She found Isabella in a dim pediatric room under heated blankets.
The moment Nora spoke, the child turned her head.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
The crying slowed.
Nora moved closer.
Isabella reached toward her.
That broke something inside Nora.
She lifted the baby carefully.
Within seconds, Isabella pressed her cheek against Nora's collarbone and fell asleep.
Matteo watched from the doorway.
He looked devastated.
“You can come closer,” Nora whispered.
“This is your daughter.”
“She cries when I touch her.”
“She was terrified.”
“Of me?”
“Of everything.”
He approached slowly.
Nora shifted Isabella until one tiny hand rested against Matteo's chest.
The baby stirred.
Matteo froze.
Then her fingers curled around his shirt.
His eyes closed.
For a few seconds, he was no longer the man newspapers called ruthless or the criminal king prosecutors could never convict.
He was simply a father who had almost lost his child.
Nora looked away.
An hour later Isabella was sleeping peacefully, and Matteo's security chief entered.
“Luca's awake.”
Matteo stood.
Nora remained beside the crib.
“You should go.”
He hesitated.
“Stay with Isabella.”
It sounded less like an order than a request.
“I will.”
Matteo left.
Nora watched him through the glass wall as he entered the ICU.
Luca looked younger than his brother.
Maybe thirty.
His face was bruised beyond recognition. Bandages covered his chest. Tubes ran into both arms.
Matteo stood beside him.
Luca tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Doctors had explained that swelling and damage around his throat made speech nearly impossible.
A nurse handed him a marker and a whiteboard.
Luca's hand shook.
He wrote one word.
MARA.
Matteo stared at it.
Luca wrote again.
TRUST.
Then the marker fell from his fingers.
An alarm sounded.
Medical staff rushed in.
Matteo backed into the hall.
“Mara,” he whispered.
His security chief, Dominic Russo, frowned.
“There is no Mara in the organization.”
Nora heard them from twenty feet away.
She didn't intend to interrupt.
But the name had struck something.
“Mara?”
Both men turned.
Nora approached.
“What?”
She looked at Matteo.
“Did he write Mara?”
“Yes.”
“I knew someone named Mara.”
Dominic's hand moved subtly toward his jacket.
Matteo noticed.
“Relax.”
Nora continued.
“She worked at the Hawthorne.”
“When?”
“About a year ago. Maybe longer.”
“Last name?”
“Vale. Mara Vale.”
Matteo and Dominic exchanged a look.
“What?”
Dominic pulled out his phone.
After several seconds he turned the screen toward Matteo.
A woman stared back from an old employee photograph.
Dark blond hair.
Green eyes.
Small scar above her eyebrow.
Matteo's expression changed.
“You know her,” Nora said.
“No.”
“But you've seen her.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Matteo took the phone.
“At my daughter's christening.”
Nora stared.
“Why would a hotel housekeeper be at your daughter's christening?”
“She wasn't a guest.”
“Then what was she?”
Matteo enlarged the photograph.
“She was catering staff.”
Dominic made a call.
“Find everything on Mara Vale. Employment, addresses, relatives, financials. Everything.”
Nora shook her head.
“This doesn't make sense.”
Matteo looked at her.
“Nothing about last night makes sense.”
A voice came from Isabella's room.
Not crying.
A small choking cough.
Nora spun around.
Isabella's monitor began screaming.
Nurses rushed in.
“What happened?”
One nurse grabbed the bottle from beside the crib.
“She was just fed.”
Matteo moved toward the door.
Nora looked at the bottle.
Something white clung to the inside of the nipple.
“Stop!”
Everyone froze.
Nora grabbed the nurse's wrist before she could move the bottle.
“What is that?”
The nurse stared.
“I don't know.”
Matteo's face went cold.
Security flooded the room.
Doctors took Isabella.
Within minutes, the floor was locked down.
Preliminary testing found traces of a sedative in the bottle.
A dangerous dose.
Someone had tried to drug Isabella inside one of the most secure hospitals in Boston.
Again.
Matteo stood in the hallway with murder in his eyes.
“This ends tonight.”
Nora stepped into his path.
“No.”
“Move.”
“You go hunting whoever you think did this, and you'll probably kill the wrong person.”
“My daughter was poisoned.”
“And whoever did it wants you angry.”
His jaw tightened.
“They're controlling you.”
That stopped him.
Nora lowered her voice.
“They knew you'd blame your brother. They knew you'd react. They knew Isabella would come here.”
Matteo stared through the glass at his child.
“So what do you suggest?”
“We stop doing what they expect.”
Dominic approached.
“Boss.”
He held out a tablet.
“We found Mara Vale.”
“Where?”
“That's the problem.”
Dominic turned the screen.
Mara Vale had died fourteen months earlier.
Official cause: accidental drug overdose.
But beneath the death record was something else.
A birth certificate.
Mara Vale had given birth to a daughter one year before her death.
Father unknown.
Child's name:
Isabella Vale.
Nora looked at Matteo.
Matteo looked at the hospital room where his daughter slept.
Neither of them spoke.
Then Dominic opened the next file.
Two months after Mara's death, the child's surname had legally changed.
May you like
From Vale.
To DeLuca.
Related Stories
