The alarm transformed the mansion in seconds.
Doors locked.
Footsteps thundered through hallways.
Men spoke urgently into radios.
The night nurse scooped medical supplies from a cabinet while one of Lorenzo's guards stepped in front of the nursery entrance.
I held Leo against my chest and stared at Lorenzo.
"What did you just say?"
Lorenzo ignored the alarm.
"Sit down."
"No."
"Hunter."
"You don't get to say something like that and tell me to sit down."
Leo stirred.
I immediately lowered my voice.
Lorenzo saw it.
That was the strange thing about grief.
Even while my entire world was threatening to split apart, I automatically protected the baby in my arms from my anger.
"What happened to Lily?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"You said her death might not have happened the way I was told."
"I said may."
"Why?"
The guard near the door touched his earpiece.
"Boss."
Lorenzo turned.
"What?"
"South service entrance. Someone tried to leave."
"Who?"
"Dr. Hayes."
The name meant nothing to me.
It meant something to Lorenzo.
"Stop him."
"Already done."
"Bring him to the library."
Lorenzo faced me again.
"We need to move Leo."
The nurse stepped forward.
"His readings are stable, but I'd like Dr. Romano to examine him before—"
"Do whatever you need."
Then Lorenzo looked at me.
"Will you stay with him?"
The question stunned me.
"You're asking me?"
"He's calm with you."
"But I'm not medical staff."
"I know."
"I'm the maid."
His expression tightened.
"Right now you're the only person who has gotten my son to eat."
That silenced me.
The nurse checked Leo while I held him.
His color seemed a fraction better.
Not healthy.
Not yet.
But less ghostlike.
I couldn't stop staring at him.
Somewhere beneath my panic, a strange tenderness had already begun growing.
I knew it was dangerous.
Leo wasn't Lily.
No child could replace another.
But grief had left my arms empty for three weeks, and suddenly they weren't.
Dr. Romano arrived twenty minutes later.
He was older than the other specialists, with silver hair and exhausted eyes.
He examined Leo carefully.
Then he looked at me.
"You breastfed him?"
I nodded.
"Any medications?"
"No."
"Alcohol? Smoking?"
"No."
"Recent infections?"
"No."
"When did you deliver?"
"Three weeks ago."
Lorenzo's gaze sharpened.
The doctor asked quietly, "Your baby?"
I stared at the floor.
"She didn't survive."
"I'm sorry."
I nodded once.
After examining Leo, Dr. Romano turned toward Lorenzo.
"This doesn't prove we've solved the feeding problem."
"But?"
"But he tolerated it."
"Why?"
"We'd have to test Hunter's milk. There could be differences in proteins, antibodies, fat composition—many things."
"Do it."
The doctor raised a hand.
"With her consent."
For the first time that night, someone remembered that I had a choice.
I appreciated him for it.
I looked down at Leo.
"Do whatever tests you need."
Lorenzo nodded.
Then the nursery door opened.
A guard entered.
"We have Hayes."
Lorenzo's face changed.
"Stay here."
I stepped forward.
"No."
He turned.
"If this concerns my daughter, I'm coming."
"It's not a conversation you need to hear."
"I buried my baby."
My voice trembled.
"You don't get to decide what I need to hear."
The guard looked uncomfortable.
Lorenzo studied me.
Finally, he nodded.
"Fine."
I handed Leo to the nurse carefully.
The emptiness in my arms returned instantly.
I hated it.
The library was two floors below.
Dr. Hayes sat in a leather chair when we entered.
I'd seen him at the mansion twice.
Middle-aged.
Expensive suit.
Calm voice.
One of the specialists involved in Leo's care.
Now his forehead was sweating.
Lorenzo closed the door.
"Why were you leaving?"
Hayes forced a laugh.
"Your security alarm went off. I assumed there was danger."
"You went through the service entrance."
"I got turned around."
"You've been here twelve times."
Hayes said nothing.
Lorenzo placed both hands on the table.
"I'll ask one question."
His voice was frightening because it remained so calm.
"Why does Hunter Lane have a maternity bracelet from the same restricted hospital wing where Sophia died?"
Hayes looked at me.
Recognition flickered across his face.
I saw it.
So did Lorenzo.
"You know me," I whispered.
"No."
"You're lying."
"I've treated hundreds of patients."
"You weren't my doctor."
Hayes looked away.
Lorenzo leaned closer.
"What happened that night?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Then why did you try to leave?"
No answer.
Lorenzo's phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
"Romano."
He answered.
We heard only his side.
"Yes."
Pause.
"You're certain?"
Longer pause.
"What does that mean?"
Another pause.
Then Lorenzo looked directly at me.
Something terrifying settled over his face.
"Send me the report."
He hung up.
"What?" I asked.
He didn't answer immediately.
"Lorenzo."
It was the first time I used his first name.
He seemed to notice.
"The hospital records."
"What about them?"
"My people pulled archived access logs."
Hayes suddenly stood.
"This is insane."
A guard pushed him back into the chair.
Lorenzo continued looking at me.
"Your chart was accessed seventeen times after Lily was declared dead."
I felt dizzy.
"By who?"
"Someone using credentials assigned to Dr. Hayes."
I turned toward him.
He shook his head.
"Credentials get copied."
"Why would anyone access my dead baby's chart?"
Nobody answered.
My hands began trembling.
I remembered Lily's birth.
The rush of nurses.
A fire alarm.
A sudden security lockdown.
Someone telling me there had been an emergency elsewhere in the hospital.
I remembered being heavily medicated.
I remembered a nurse taking Lily away before I had truly seen her.
I remembered asking to hold my daughter.
They told me I couldn't.
That had bothered me ever since.
"Why didn't they let me hold her?"
The question came out as a whisper.
Lorenzo looked at Hayes.
Hayes swallowed.
"I don't know."
I moved toward him.
"Why didn't they let me see my baby?"
"I wasn't there."
"You knew my face."
"No."
"You looked at me and recognized me!"
Hayes stood again.
This time desperation broke through his composure.
"You don't understand what you're involved in."
Lorenzo became completely still.
"Explain it."
Hayes laughed nervously.
"You think your enemies only attacked the car?"
The room went silent.
"What does that mean?" Lorenzo asked.
Hayes stared at him.
"The explosion was phase one."
I felt cold.
"And phase two?"
Hayes looked toward me.
"Destroy the heir."
Lorenzo's face hardened.
"Leo."
Hayes nodded.
"Someone wanted Sophia dead and the baby gone."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Lorenzo grabbed his shirt.
I flinched.
"Who?"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
Leo's cry suddenly echoed faintly through the hallway above us.
My body reacted before my mind.
I turned toward the door.
Hayes saw it.
His eyes dropped to my chest.
Then to my bracelet.
Then he whispered something.
"Oh no."
I turned back.
"What?"
He looked terrified.
"Your baby wasn't part of the plan."
The entire room seemed to stop.
"What plan?"
He closed his eyes.
Lorenzo released him.
"Talk."
Hayes breathed heavily.
"The hospital was compromised."
"By whom?"
"A man named Victor Dane."
Lorenzo's expression changed.
Apparently he knew that name.
Hayes continued.
"Dane paid hospital staff. Security. Records. Nurses."
"For what?"
"To make sure Leo didn't survive."
My hand covered my mouth.
Lorenzo's voice dropped.
"And Hunter's baby?"
Hayes looked at me.
"She was born during the lockdown."
"Yes."
"Healthy?"
I shook my head.
"They told me there was a complication."
"What complication?"
"I don't know."
His face fell.
"That's because there wasn't one."
I stopped breathing.
"No."
"Hunter—"
"No."
He stood.
"Your daughter was born alive."
The room blurred.
I grabbed the table.
Lorenzo reached toward me, but I pulled away.
"Don't touch me."
Hayes spoke quickly.
"She was alive. I saw the neonatal intake records before they were altered."
"Then where is she?"
"I don't know."
"WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?"
My scream echoed through the mansion.
For once, nobody told me to lower my voice.
Hayes shook his head.
"During the lockdown, two infants were temporarily moved because the neonatal wing lost power."
"Leo and Lily?"
"Yes."
Lorenzo stared at him.
"Why?"
"I don't know everything."
"Tell us what you know."
Hayes pressed both hands over his face.
"When power returned, Leo was identified and returned to Sophia's emergency suite."
"And Lily?"
"There was confusion."
"What kind of confusion?"
"The kind someone created intentionally."
My knees nearly gave out.
Lorenzo caught my elbow.
This time I didn't pull away.
Hayes looked directly at me.
"I heard a nurse say one newborn had been transferred out under a private medical transport order."
"Where?"
"The record was deleted."
My heart pounded.
"Was it Lily?"
"I don't know."
"But she might be alive."
Hayes didn't answer.
I stepped toward him.
"Say it."
His eyes filled with shame.
"Yes."
My breath broke.
For three weeks, I had woken every morning believing my daughter was buried beneath a small white stone.
Now a man was telling me she might never have been there.
Lorenzo's phone buzzed again.
He read the message.
His face became unreadable.
"What?" I asked.
He handed me the phone.
A photograph filled the screen.
Security footage from the hospital.
Timestamped the night our children were born.
A woman in scrubs pushed a hospital bassinet toward a service elevator.
The baby's face couldn't be seen.
But hanging from the bassinet was a temporary identification tag.
LANE, H.
My name.
My child.
I couldn't breathe.
Then Lorenzo enlarged the image.
Beside the elevator stood another man.
Older.
Gray hair.
Dark coat.
I looked at Lorenzo.
"Who is that?"
His jaw tightened.
"My uncle."
"Why was he there?"
Lorenzo stared at the screen.
"That's exactly what I'm going to find out."
He turned toward his guards.
"Find Carlo Rossi."
One of them hesitated.
"Boss… Carlo disappeared after Sophia's funeral."
Lorenzo's face became terrifyingly calm.
"Then bring me the man who helped him disappear."
I looked again at the image of the bassinet.
For the first time since Lily's funeral, grief was joined by something else.
Hope.
And hope frightened me even more.
Because if my daughter was alive, someone had stolen three weeks of her life from me.
And I was going to get her back.
---