Chapter 6 - ELEVEN MISSING CHILDRENThe story went public before breakfast.
NURSE LINKED TO INFANT TRAFFICKING NETWORK.
Teresa Moretti's photograph appeared across every television station in New York.
Reporters surrounded Damian's building.
Elena sat in the kitchen staring at a headline on her phone.
“Turn it off,” Damian said.
“They're calling my mother a monster.”
“They don't know anything.”
“Neither do we.”
Damian poured coffee.
“You believe her.”
Elena looked toward Sofia eating cereal across the room.
“I want to.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
“No.”
Damian sat opposite her.
“Lang is lying.”
“How do you know?”
“Because people who tell the truth don't usually disappear for two years and return exactly when somebody needs a scapegoat.”
Elena looked at him.
“You really think like this all the time?”
“Yes.”
“Must be exhausting.”
“It keeps me alive.”
Julian entered.
“Teresa's bail was denied.”
“Charges?” Damian asked.
“Kidnapping, conspiracy, falsification of medical records. Prosecutors say more may follow.”
“Elena can visit?”
“Tomorrow.”
Marco appeared behind him holding a laptop.
“We found the key.”
Damian stood.
“You found what it opens?”
“A private storage vault at Grand Central Terminal.”
Thirty minutes later, Damian, Elena, Marco, and Julian entered a secured underground storage facility used by high-net-worth clients.
The brass key opened Box 317.
Inside was a black ledger.
Eleven birth certificates.
Eleven photographs.
Eleven handwritten names.
Elena felt sick.
“Those are the children Lang mentioned.”
Julian examined the documents.
“Maybe.”
Damian opened the ledger.
It contained dates, payments, hospital rooms, aliases.
But beside every child's entry Teresa had written another note.
RECOVERED.
RETURNED TO MOTHER.
PLACED WITH MATERNAL AUNT.
FBI CONTACTED.
Elena looked up.
“She wasn't stealing them.”
“No,” Damian said.
“She was finding them.”
Julian turned another page.
Teresa had been helping Victoria investigate the trafficking network.
They had recovered eleven children.
Sofia was number twelve.
Then Damian found a photograph.
Victoria standing beside Dr. Peter Lang.
On the back:
LANG KNOWS EVERYTHING. DO NOT TRUST HIM.
Marco exhaled.
“Well, that answers that.”
“No,” Damian said.
“It creates ten more questions.”
A phone lay at the bottom of the box.
Old.
Damian powered it on.
One video file.
Victoria appeared.
Damian stopped breathing.
She looked tired.
Afraid.
“Damian,” she began.
“If you're watching this, I'm probably dead.”
Elena looked at him.
His expression didn't change.
Victoria continued.
“I lied to you about Sofia.”
Damian's jaw tightened.
“She wasn't born to me. She was stolen from Elena Moretti at St. Agnes.”
Elena gripped the table.
“I planned to return her when Adrian Vale was arrested. Then I learned something I never expected.”
Victoria smiled sadly.
“Damian, you're her father.”
His eyes closed for half a second.
“I know you hate being lied to.”
He almost laughed.
“But if I told you everything before we had enough evidence, you would've gone after Adrian yourself.”
Damian murmured, “Correct.”
“And Sofia would've grown up visiting you in prison.”
Elena glanced at him.
Victoria continued.
“Teresa helped me save children. She is innocent.”
Julian immediately copied the video.
“Enough to destroy the prosecution.”
Victoria's face became more serious.
“Peter Lang runs the network now.”
Damian froze.
“Adrian answers to him.”
“What?” Elena whispered.
Victoria continued.
“Lang isn't a doctor. His real name is Peter Vale.”
Elena stared.
Vale.
“Robert's brother.”
Victoria nodded as if she could hear.
“He built the network with Robert decades ago.”
Damian understood instantly.
Family inheritance war.
Illegal adoption network.
Adrian wasn't the mastermind.
He was the weapon.
Victoria leaned closer.
“The evidence capable of bringing them down is hidden where Lang cannot reach it.”
She gave an address.
Then the video ended.
They went immediately.
The address led to an abandoned church in Queens.
Inside the old rectory, behind a loose brick, Damian found a flash drive.
Thousands of files.
Client names.
Bank transfers.
Birth records.
Judges.
Lawyers.
Doctors.
Politicians.
Julian stared at the screen.
“This could bring down people in three states.”
Elena whispered, “Then why didn't Victoria give it to the FBI?”
Damian noticed one final file.
CARUSO.
He opened it.
Photographs of his father.
Uncles.
Shipments.
Money transfers.
Elena looked at Damian.
His expression went cold.
Victoria hadn't only been investigating Lang.
She had been investigating him.
The file contained evidence potentially connecting older Caruso businesses to organized crime.
Elena stepped back.
“Is it true?”
Damian didn't answer immediately.
“Some of it.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
She stared.
“And you expect me to trust you with Sofia?”
“That has nothing to do with her.”
“It has everything to do with her.”
Damian's voice became sharp.
“I have never put Sofia in danger.”
“You're surrounded by armed men!”
“To prevent danger.”
“You're a criminal.”
His expression hardened.
“I've done things I'm not proud of.”
“Things that could get you killed?”
“Yes.”
“Imprisoned?”
“Yes.”
She looked toward the files.
“And this evidence proves it?”
“Some.”
Elena's eyes filled.
“So after everything, I find my daughter and discover her father could disappear into prison.”
Damian didn't defend himself.
That hurt her more.
Then an alarm began sounding outside.
Marco ran to the window.
“Fire.”
Smoke poured beneath the church door.
Someone had locked it from outside.
Flames climbed the curtains.
Julian grabbed the flash drive.
Damian shoved Elena toward the rear hallway.
“Move!”
They reached the back door.
Locked.
Smoke thickened.
Elena coughed.
“Damian!”
He kicked the door.
Nothing.
Again.
Wood cracked.
Marco fired twice at the lock.
The door opened.
They stumbled into the alley.
A black sedan waited.
Window lowered.
Adrian Vale sat behind the wheel.
Elena froze.
He looked almost exactly as she remembered.
Except for the scar running across his jaw.
“Hello, Elena.”
Damian moved in front of her.
Adrian smiled.
“Caruso.”
Then he looked toward the flash drive in Julian's hand.
“You should've burned that.”
Damian's expression became deadly.
“You should've stayed dead.”
Adrian laughed.
“You don't understand.”
He started the engine.
“Lang isn't coming for the evidence anymore.”
Elena shouted, “What does he want?”
Adrian looked directly at her.
“Sofia.”
The car accelerated.
Damian stepped into the street but stopped.
Elena grabbed him.
“Why Sofia?”
Damian already knew.
The estate.
The inheritance.
But Julian looked at the ledger again.
“No.”
They turned.
Julian's face had gone pale.
“There's something bigger.”
“What?”
He showed them Robert Vale's trust documents.
The money wasn't four hundred fifty million.
That was only the liquid estate.
The controlling shares of Vale Medical Group were worth nearly three billion dollars.
May you like
And ownership passed on Sofia's third birthday.
In nine days.
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