Chapter 5
I stopped hearing everything after Lily’s name.
“What do you mean?”
Detective Brooks hesitated.
That made me panic more.
“What photographs?”
“Surveillance photographs.”
My arms wrapped around Lily automatically.
She was sitting beside Mom, coloring on a scrap of paper an officer had given her.
She had no idea that a man she had never met had apparently been watching her.
“How many?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Where?”
“Outside preschool. Parks. Your house.”
My stomach turned.
Marcello’s face hardened.
“Why Lily?”
Dad answered before Elena could.
“The trust.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
He closed his eyes.
“Lily controls the first voting block.”
“She’s three.”
“Legally, you control it for her.”
Marcello understood.
“If something happened to my sister…”
Dad looked sick.
“Depending on the circumstances, temporary control could revert to the corporate trustees.”
I felt cold.
“And Adrian?”
“He has allies.”
I stood.
“We’re leaving.”
Marcello nodded.
“You’re coming to my place.”
“No.”
He stared at me.
“My house is secure.”
“So is this one, apparently.”
That silenced everyone.
Detective Brooks approached me.
“I’m placing an officer with you tonight.”
“One?”
“Two.”
“Make it four.”
She didn’t argue.
By midnight, Victor was formally arrested.
Isabella was arrested shortly afterward on charges related to fraud, kidnapping, and conspiracy.
When officers brought her through the hallway, she saw Marcello.
“Please.”
He turned away.
She began sobbing.
“I loved you.”
Marcello finally faced her.
“You studied me.”
“That isn’t true.”
“You knew my dead wife’s favorite restaurant.”
Isabella froze.
“You told me you discovered it by accident.”
Tears ran down her face.
“Marcello—”
“You knew what music she liked. You knew where I proposed to her. You knew what she called me.”
His voice broke.
“Those weren’t coincidences.”
Isabella looked down.
He stepped closer.
“You turned my grief into instructions.”
She whispered, “At first.”
Marcello froze.
“At first what?”
“At first I was pretending.”
Her tears came faster.
“But then I fell in love with you.”
He stared at her.
I saw a tiny piece of him wanting to believe it.
Then he looked toward the room where the fake bellies remained.
“No.”
She sobbed.
“You did.”
“If you loved me, you would have stopped.”
“I couldn’t.”
“You could have told me.”
“Adrian would have killed me.”
Dad’s head snapped up.
Detective Brooks immediately approached.
“What did you say?”
Isabella looked terrified.
“Nothing.”
“You just claimed Adrian threatened your life.”
Her lawyer arrived moments later and ended the conversation.
But the words stayed with me.
Maybe Isabella was a victim too.
Not innocent.
Never innocent.
But possibly trapped inside something she helped create.
The next morning, I went to the hospital to see Sofia.
Detective Brooks came with me.
Sofia looked younger than twenty-two.
She was tiny beneath the hospital blankets.
Her dark hair framed a bruised, exhausted face.
Her hands trembled when I entered.
“I’m Elena’s witness,” I said gently. “My name is Gabriella.”
She stared at me.
“Marcello’s sister.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
I sat beside her.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“I agreed at first.”
“To what?”
She swallowed.
“Giving up my baby.”
Tears rolled toward her ears.
“I was homeless.”
My chest hurt.
“The father disappeared. My mother and I weren’t speaking. I had no job.”
She looked toward the window.
“A woman approached me outside a clinic.”
“Isabella?”
“No.”
That surprised me.
“Who?”
“An older woman named Celeste.”
Elena wrote it down.
“She said she represented a private adoption agency.”
Sofia had been promised medical care, housing, and thirty thousand dollars after giving birth.
At first, she thought she was helping a wealthy couple desperate for a child.
Then she met Isabella.
“She wanted me hidden.”
Sofia’s voice shook.
“They moved me between apartments.”
“When did you realize something was wrong?”
“When they asked about my blood type.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“They needed it to match Marcello’s.”
Elena looked up.
Sofia continued.
“They wanted the hospital record to make it look like Isabella gave birth.”
I felt sick.
“They chose you because your blood type matched hers?”
“And because my baby might look enough like Marcello.”
My stomach twisted.
Sofia had dark hair.
Olive skin.
Marcello had similar coloring.
With a newborn, it might have worked.
“At least for a while,” Elena said quietly.
Sofia nodded.
“When I told them I wanted out, they stopped letting me leave.”
“Did Isabella hurt you?”
Sofia hesitated.
“She brought me food.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“She kept saying she was sorry.”
I remembered Isabella claiming Adrian would kill her.
“Did she ever help you?”
Sofia looked at me.
“She left the phone.”
“What?”
“The phone I called Marcello from.”
Elena leaned closer.
“You think Isabella left it intentionally?”
Sofia nodded.
“She came to the warehouse. Adrian was angry because Victor had been arrested.”
My heart pounded.
“Adrian was there?”
“Yes.”
“She slipped a phone beneath my blanket while he wasn’t looking.”
I stared at Elena.
This changed something.
Not everything.
But something.
“Why would she do that?”
Sofia whispered, “Because Adrian said he didn’t need either of us anymore.”
A chill went through me.
“What did that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Sofia looked at me.
“He kept talking about Lily.”
My blood froze.
“What did he say?”
Sofia began crying.
“He said the little girl was the real problem.”
I stood so quickly the chair scraped the floor.
Detective Brooks was already calling officers.
I grabbed my phone.
Mom had Lily at Marcello’s house.
Police were outside.
It should have been safe.
Mom answered immediately.
“Gabriella?”
“Where’s Lily?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Put her on.”
Mom paused.
“What’s wrong?”
“Mom.”
Silence.
Then footsteps.
A door opening.
Mom’s voice changed.
“Oh my God.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Gabriella…”
I could hear panic.
“Mom, where is Lily?”
“She was right here.”
I started running.
“Mom!”
May you like
Then I heard her scream.
“The back door is open.”
