By sunrise, nobody in the Rossi mansion had slept.
Neither had I.
I sat beside Leo's crib while Dr. Romano ran more tests.
Leo had eaten from me twice more.
Each time, he seemed a little stronger.
Lorenzo remained in the nursery for most of the morning.
He didn't pace.
He didn't make threats.
He simply sat across the room watching his son breathe.
I began to understand why people feared him.
It wasn't because he shouted.
It was because he could sit completely still while everyone around him moved.
At seven, he received a call.
"I have something."
He looked at me.
"Come."
We went to the security room.
Dozens of screens covered one wall.
A man named Marco worked at a computer.
"Hospital traffic cameras," Marco said. "We tracked the medical transport vehicle."
He played the footage.
A black van left the hospital at 3:18 a.m.
My hands clenched.
"Where did it go?"
"Brooklyn."
The next camera showed the van on an expressway.
Then another.
Then another.
Finally it stopped outside a private clinic.
I recognized the name.
St. Gabriel Women's Center.
I stared.
"That's a fertility clinic."
Marco nodded.
"It closed temporarily two days after the bombing."
"Why?"
"Ownership changed."
Lorenzo leaned forward.
"Who owned it?"
Marco looked uncomfortable.
"Shell company."
"Whose?"
"Carlo's."
The room fell silent.
Lorenzo walked away from the screens.
His own uncle.
His father's brother.
A man who had reportedly stood beside the Rossi family for decades.
"Why would Carlo steal my daughter?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"Was he trying to hurt you?"
"Maybe."
"Then why take Lily?"
Lorenzo didn't answer.
Marco clicked another file.
"We found one more thing."
A photograph appeared.
Carlo Rossi entering the clinic.
Beside him was a woman carrying an infant seat.
My knees weakened.
"When?"
"Three weeks ago."
"Can you see the baby?"
"No."
"Where did they go after?"
"We're still tracking."
I stared at the blurry infant seat.
"That could be anyone."
"It could."
I turned toward Lorenzo.
"I need more than could."
"You'll get it."
"Don't promise me something you can't control."
His expression softened unexpectedly.
"You're right."
The feared Lorenzo Rossi had just admitted I was right.
That scared me almost as much as everything else.
By afternoon, another problem emerged.
Leo developed a fever.
My panic returned immediately.
Dr. Romano ordered everyone except essential staff out.
Lorenzo refused to leave.
So did I.
The doctor looked between us.
"You're both making my job harder."
Lorenzo folded his arms.
"I'm staying."
"So am I."
Romano sighed.
"Fine. Stay out of my way."
For three hours, Leo's temperature climbed.
The mansion became silent again.
I stood near the crib whispering to him.
"Come on, little man."
Lorenzo stared at me.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're staring."
"You talk to him like he's yours."
The words stung.
I looked away.
"I'm sorry."
"Why?"
"Because he's not."
"I know that."
"I shouldn't—"
"Hunter."
I looked at him.
"Don't apologize for loving my son."
Something inside me cracked open.
I turned away so he wouldn't see the tears.
"I don't know if it's love."
"What is it?"
"I hear him cry and my body thinks I can fix something."
Lorenzo's face changed.
"And then I remember the one baby I couldn't save."
He walked closer.
"You didn't fail Lily."
"We don't know that."
"You gave birth in a hospital."
"I should have demanded to see her."
"You were drugged and grieving."
"I should have fought."
"You had just delivered a baby."
I looked directly at him.
"You don't understand."
His eyes darkened.
"Don't I?"
I immediately regretted the words.
Sophia had died while giving birth to Leo.
Lorenzo looked toward his son.
"I spent two months asking myself why I wasn't in that car."
My anger disappeared.
"If I'd been beside Sophia, maybe—"
"You would have died too."
"Maybe."
"Then Leo would have lost both parents."
He said nothing.
We stood beside the crib, two people haunted by different versions of the same question.
What if I had done something differently?
That evening, Leo's fever finally dropped.
Dr. Romano nearly smiled.
"He's stronger than yesterday."
Lorenzo exhaled slowly.
"Because of Hunter?"
"Partly."
Dr. Romano looked at me.
"Your milk is unusually well tolerated by his system. The tests show no obvious allergy trigger. It's not magic, but for now it's working."
For now.
Two words that became everything.
I agreed to remain near Leo.
Not as a maid.
Lorenzo insisted I be paid as a private caregiver.
I argued.
He doubled the amount.
I argued again.
He said, "If you're going to keep arguing, I'll triple it."
I stopped.
That night Marco entered the nursery holding a tablet.
"We found the transport van."
"Where?" Lorenzo asked.
"Abandoned near Montauk."
My pulse accelerated.
"Anything inside?"
"Medical packaging. Infant formula. One blanket."
"What kind of blanket?"
Marco handed me the tablet.
I stopped breathing.
White cotton.
Small embroidered lily in one corner.
My mother had sewn it.
I had packed it in my hospital bag.
"That's hers."
Lorenzo moved beside me.
"You're certain?"
"My mother made it before she died."
I touched the image.
"Lily was wrapped in that blanket?"
"No. They told me she was taken straight to neonatal care."
Meaning whoever took her had gone through my belongings.
Marco continued.
"There's more."
A toll camera captured Carlo's SUV leaving Montauk twenty minutes after the van arrived.
"Where did he go?"
"North ferry."
Lorenzo looked at him.
"Connecticut?"
"Eventually."
"Eventually?"
"Carlo switched vehicles."
"Where did you lose him?"
"Near New Haven."
My hope began collapsing again.
Then Marco said, "But someone used one of Carlo's company cards yesterday."
"Where?"
"A pharmacy in a small town outside Hartford."
"What did they buy?"
Marco hesitated.
"Newborn formula."
I stood.
"Take me there."
Lorenzo shook his head.
"No."
"You said—"
"I'm going."
"So am I."
"Hunter, whoever is behind this killed Sophia."
"And whoever is behind this stole my daughter."
"Which is why I'm not bringing you into an unknown location."
"You don't get to hide me here while you search for my child."
"This isn't negotiable."
I stepped closer.
"Then neither is Leo."
His expression changed.
I hated using his son as leverage.
But I meant it.
"If you leave me behind without telling me where you're going, I leave this house."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me."
For several seconds we stared at each other.
Marco suddenly became fascinated by the floor.
Finally Lorenzo exhaled.
"You stay in the vehicle."
"I'll decide that when we get there."
Almost a smile touched his mouth.
"You're impossible."
"Your son seems to like me."
"He does."
The softness in his voice caught me off guard.
We left twenty minutes later.
Leo remained with Dr. Romano and two nurses.
The drive into Connecticut lasted nearly two hours.
Rain began halfway there.
I watched dark roads pass outside the armored SUV.
Lorenzo sat opposite me.
"Tell me about Lily."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because nobody should only exist as a tragedy."
I swallowed.
"I never met her long enough to know her."
"You knew her for nine months."
I looked toward the window.
"She kicked whenever I drank orange juice."
Lorenzo listened.
"She hated when I slept on my left side."
"How do you know?"
"She'd keep kicking until I moved."
A tiny smile appeared on my face.
"I bought her yellow socks because I didn't want everything pink."
"Yellow."
"With little ducks."
He nodded seriously.
"Good choice."
I laughed.
Actually laughed.
For the first time in weeks.
Then I started crying.
Lorenzo didn't try to stop me.
He simply sat there.
The pharmacy was already closed when we arrived.
Marco had gotten the address attached to the payment.
A rental house six miles outside town.
Lorenzo's men approached first.
Lights were on.
A woman opened the door.
She was in her fifties.
Terrified.
I ignored the order to stay inside the SUV.
"Hunter."
I kept walking.
Lorenzo caught up.
The woman saw me.
Her face went white.
"You're her."
Every part of me stopped.
"Who?"
She covered her mouth.
"Oh God."
I walked closer.
"Where is my daughter?"
The woman started crying.
"I'm sorry."
"WHERE IS SHE?"
Inside the house, something moved.
A tiny sound.
A baby crying.
I ran.
A guard tried to stop me.
Lorenzo shouted, "Let her go."
I pushed through the doorway.
The cry came from upstairs.
I took the steps two at a time.
Second door.
Small bedroom.
Portable crib.
A woman stood beside it holding a baby.
I couldn't breathe.
Dark hair.
Tiny face.
Yellow socks with little ducks.
My knees hit the floor.
"Lily."
The woman holding her stepped back.
"Please—"
"Give me my baby."
"Listen—"
"Give me my daughter!"
Lorenzo appeared behind me.
The woman froze.
He spoke quietly.
"You heard her."
The baby was placed into my arms.
The second Lily touched my chest, she began crying louder.
So did I.
I counted her fingers.
Ten.
I touched her nose.
Her cheeks.
Her hair.
Three weeks of grief exploded out of me.
"Mommy's here."
Lily's mouth searched against my blouse.
I laughed through tears.
"I know. I know, sweetheart."
Behind me, Lorenzo turned away for a moment.
Even he couldn't watch without emotion.
I looked at the woman.
"Why?"
She cried.
"I thought she had no mother."
"You knew my name."
"I was told you'd died."
I stared.
"Who told you that?"
"Carlo Rossi."
Lorenzo stepped forward.
"Where is he?"
The woman's face tightened.
"He left yesterday."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
The woman looked toward Lily.
"He said the baby had to disappear because she could prove what happened at the hospital."
"What could she prove?" I asked.
The woman shook her head.
"I don't know."
Then she said something that turned Lorenzo completely still.
"He kept saying they chose the wrong infant."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
"Who was supposed to be taken?"
The woman's eyes moved toward Lorenzo.
His face hardened.
"Leo."
She nodded.
Silence filled the room.
The kidnappers had intended to steal Lorenzo's son.
Instead, during the chaos, they had taken mine.
And suddenly one question became terrifying.
If Carlo had failed the first time...
Would he try again?
Lorenzo's phone rang.
He answered.
Dr. Romano was shouting loudly enough that I could hear him.
Lorenzo's face drained of color.
"What do you mean he's gone?"
My heart stopped.
He looked at me.
"Someone breached the mansion."
I clutched Lily tighter.
"Leo?"
Lorenzo whispered the words.
"They took him."
---