Chapter 4 - THE MONEY
Luca did not confront Elena immediately.
Twelve years earlier, he would have.
Twelve years earlier, anger had always believed itself urgent.
Now he understood that urgency and truth were not the same thing.
He spent forty minutes staring at the transfer record.
Twenty thousand dollars.
A fortune to a struggling young woman.
Nothing to Luca.
Enough to disappear.
Enough to start over.
Enough to make betrayal look plausible.
Marco sat across from him.
“You want me to verify the account?”
“Yes.”
“Already did.”
Luca looked up.
“It belonged to Elena.”
His face hardened.
“Was the money withdrawn?”
“Three days after deposit.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Cashier’s check.”
“To whom?”
Marco hesitated.
“St. Catherine Women’s Hospital.”
Luca froze.
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
Marco nodded and left.
Luca remained in the study.
His anger changed shape.
Hospital.
Pregnant.
Twenty thousand dollars.
He looked again at Dominic’s notation.
Settlement for departure.
Dominic had wanted someone reading the file to believe Elena had been bought.
Maybe Luca.
Maybe his own conscience.
The study door opened.
Elena entered carrying two cups of coffee.
“Rachel says you’re not allowed caffeine after six.”
“I own the coffee.”
“I’m beginning to understand why she dislikes you.”
She placed one cup in front of him.
Then she saw his face.
“What happened?”
Luca slid the transfer paper across the desk.
Elena looked down.
Her entire body went still.
There was his answer.
She knew.
“Tell me.”
Elena did not sit.
“Where did you get this?”
“Dominic kept records.”
Her eyes closed briefly.
“Of course he did.”
“You received twenty thousand dollars from him.”
“Yes.”
“Three weeks after I collapsed.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She pulled out the chair.
For the first time since Luca had known her again, she looked old.
Not physically.
Tired in a place age couldn’t explain.
“I was eight weeks pregnant when you stopped answering.”
Luca said nothing.
“I called your apartment. Disconnected. I went there. Empty.”
“Dominic had my things moved.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“I know.”
“I went to the restaurant where we met. Nobody knew where you were. Then one night Dominic came to my building.”
Luca’s hand tightened.
“What did he say?”
“That you were married.”
Luca stared at her.
“He said you had a wife in Europe. That I had been…” She looked away. “Entertainment.”
“I wasn’t married.”
“I know that now.”
“What else?”
“He said you had gone back to your family. He knew I was pregnant.”
Luca’s voice became quiet.
“How?”
“He had photographs.”
The anger inside Luca stopped being heat.
It became ice.
“He told me that if I contacted you again, your family would make sure I regretted it.”
“Threatened you.”
“Yes.”
“And the money?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“I threw it at him.”
Luca blinked.
“What?”
“He brought twenty thousand in cash. Said it was from you. Said it was to take care of the problem.”
Luca felt sick.
“I told him to get out.”
“But you took money later.”
“No.”
“The transfer says—”
“He deposited it anyway.”
Luca went silent.
“My account information was on a rent application he somehow obtained. I woke up one morning and the money was there.”
“And you used it.”
“Yes.”
The word broke.
“For Maya?”
Elena nodded.
“The pregnancy became complicated. Placental bleeding. I had no insurance. The emergency room stabilized me, but the specialist said I needed surgery.”
She wiped at her cheek angrily.
“I had eleven hundred dollars.”
Luca’s chest tightened.
“The hospital wanted a deposit.”
“Twenty thousand?”
“Eighteen thousand six hundred.”
He looked down.
“I used almost all of it.”
“You saved her.”
“Yes.”
“You used his money to save Maya.”
“I used what I believed was your money.”
Luca looked at her sharply.
“Dominic said it was from you?”
“Yes.”
“And that I wanted you gone.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that earlier?”
Elena laughed once, without humor.
“When? Between finding out you were poisoned and telling my daughter that the man she’s been eating crackers with is her father?”
He had no answer.
“I didn’t know what mattered yet,” she said. “And I didn’t know whether the money was actually from you.”
“It wasn’t.”
“I know.”
Luca pushed the paper aside.
Elena studied him.
“You thought I left because he paid me.”
“For several minutes.”
“And?”
“I was angry.”
“At me?”
“Yes.”
Her face hardened.
Luca continued before she could speak.
“Then Marco said the money went to a hospital.”
The hardness changed.
“You checked.”
“Yes.”
“Of course you did.”
“That sounds like criticism.”
“It is.”
Luca nodded.
“Fair.”
Elena walked toward the window.
For a while neither spoke.
“Maya almost died,” Elena said.
Luca looked up.
“She was born seven weeks early.”
He hadn’t known.
“She weighed three pounds, nine ounces. She was so small the first time I held her that I thought breathing too hard might hurt her.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“I sat beside an incubator for twenty-three days,” Elena continued. “Every machine beep made me think I was losing her.”
Luca’s eyes opened.
“And you were alone.”
“Yes.”
The truth cut more effectively than accusation.
“I’m sorry.”
Elena turned.
“That’s the first thing you’ve said today that matters.”
He accepted it.
She returned to the desk.
“Dominic didn’t just steal twelve years from you.”
“No.”
“He stole them from her.”
“Yes.”
“And me.”
“Yes.”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
“So stop acting like you’re the only one allowed to be angry.”
Luca stared at her.
Then nodded.
“You’re right.”
Her shoulders lowered slightly.
The door opened.
Marco entered without knocking.
“I found the hospital record.”
Elena looked at him.
“You told him?”
“Not details,” Luca said.
Marco placed the folder down.
“The transfer went directly to surgery and neonatal care.”
Luca glanced at Elena.
Confirmed.
Marco continued.
“Something else. Dominic made a second payment two weeks later.”
Elena frowned.
“I never received another payment.”
“You weren’t the recipient.”
“To whom?”
“The obstetrician who treated you.”
Elena’s face changed.
“Dr. Patterson?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand.”
Luca leaned forward.
“For what?”
Marco placed another document on the desk.
“A confidentiality agreement.”
Elena stared at it.
“About me?”
“About Maya.”
Luca felt his heartbeat slow.
“What did Dominic want hidden?”
Marco looked at him.
“The birth certificate.”
Elena went still.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“Your copy lists father as unknown,” Marco said.
“Yes.”
“The hospital archive has an amended version.”
“What?”
Elena took the paper.
Her hands began trembling.
On the archived certificate, someone had added a father’s name.
Not Luca Costello.
Not Luca anything.
Dominic Salerno.
Elena looked up in horror.
“No.”
Luca’s voice was almost inaudible.
“He tried to make himself her father.”
“Why?”
Marco answered.
“Legal leverage.”
Luca understood immediately.
If Dominic ever needed control of the child, documents existed that could be used.
Maybe not enough to win in court.
Enough to create confusion.
Enough to delay.
Enough to threaten Elena.
Enough to manufacture a story.
“He planned for this,” Luca said.
“Twelve years ago,” Marco replied.
Elena sank into the chair.
“He knew she mattered.”
“Yes.”
“He knew before she was born.”
“Yes.”
“And he kept track of her?”
Nobody answered.
That answer was worse.
Elena stood.
“I want every record you have.”
“You’ll have them.”
“I want copies outside this house.”
“You’ll have them.”
“I want a lawyer who doesn’t work for you.”
Luca nodded.
“I’ll give you names. You choose.”
“I want Maya’s school changed.”
“Done.”
“I want somewhere safe that isn’t a Costello property.”
“Done.”
Elena stared at him.
“You’re not going to argue?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re her mother.”
The words surprised both of them.
Luca continued.
“You have been making decisions for her since before she could breathe on her own. I am not arriving twelve years late and pretending a blood test gives me seniority.”
Elena looked at him for a long time.
Then she sat down again.
“All right.”
Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His face became grim.
“What?” Luca asked.
“We found Dr. Patterson.”
Elena leaned forward.
“Where?”
“Milwaukee.”
“Can he talk?”
Marco looked at her.
“She.”
Elena blinked.
“Dr. Patterson was a woman?”
“The physician listed in the archive isn’t your doctor.”
Luca understood before Elena did.
“Fake identity.”
Marco nodded.
“Someone altered the hospital records.”
“Who is she?” Elena asked.
“A real physician named Dr. Evelyn Patterson. She says she’s never worked at St. Catherine.”
Silence.
“So who treated me?” Elena whispered.
Luca’s eyes hardened.
Dominic had planted someone inside the hospital.
Around Elena.
Around Maya’s birth.
A woman who might have had access to medication.
Medical records.
The newborn.
“What did the real doctor look like?” Luca asked.
Elena closed her eyes.
“Twelve years ago.”
“Try.”
“Dark hair. Maybe forty. Tall. She had…” Elena frowned. “A scar.”
“Where?”
“Right side of her neck.”
Marco stopped moving.
Luca noticed.
“You know her.”
Marco looked at him.
“I know someone with that scar.”
“Who?”
Marco hesitated.
Luca’s voice sharpened.
“Marco.”
“Teresa Salerno.”
Elena’s face went blank.
“Dominic’s wife?”
“His sister.”
Luca stared at Marco.
Teresa had disappeared from Chicago eleven years ago.
Dominic claimed she had moved to Argentina.
Before that, she had been a nurse.
Not a doctor.
But with forged credentials, hospital access would have been possible.
“Find Teresa,” Luca said.
Marco’s expression remained strange.
“What?”
“She didn’t move to Argentina.”
“Where is she?”
Marco looked at Elena.
Then at Luca.
“You’re not going to like this.”
“Where?”
Marco spoke carefully.
“For the last eight years, Teresa Salerno has been living under another name.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Where?”
“Three blocks from Maya’s elementary school.”
Elena stopped breathing.
Marco put a photograph on the desk.
A middle-aged woman leaving a small blue house.
Dark hair.
Scar on the right side of her neck.
Elena whispered, “That’s her.”
Then her expression changed again.
She leaned closer.
“No.”
“What?”
“I know that woman.”
Luca looked at her.
“How?”
Elena’s voice trembled.
“She volunteered at Maya’s school.”
The room became absolutely silent.
“She what?”
“Reading program. Twice a week.”
Marco reached for his phone.
Elena grabbed Luca’s desk.
“She knows Maya.”
“How well?”
“She gave her birthday presents.”
Luca felt rage move through him like electricity.
“What name?”
Elena whispered it.
“Mrs. Bell.”
Marco was already calling the team.
“Get units to the school.”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
“Maya is here.”
“I know,” Marco said. “I’m checking whether Teresa left anything behind.”
Elena suddenly went pale.
“What?”
Luca turned.
“Maya has a necklace.”
“What necklace?”
“Silver butterfly. Mrs. Bell gave it to her last year.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Where is it?”
“She wears it almost every day.”
Elena ran from the room.
Luca followed as quickly as the wheelchair allowed.
They found Maya in the family room.
She was sitting on the floor with Mateo and Tommy.
The silver butterfly rested against her shirt.
Elena dropped to her knees.
“Maya, honey, take that off.”
“Why?”
“Now.”
Maya pulled back.
“Mom—”
Luca saw it.
A tiny black opening beneath one wing.
Not decoration.
Lens.
“Don’t touch it,” he said.
Elena froze.
Marco arrived seconds later.
He examined the necklace without removing it.
Then looked at Luca.
“Camera.”
Maya’s face changed.
“What?”
Marco carefully unclasped it using gloves.
Inside the pendant was a miniature transmitter.
The thing Dominic had used to watch Maya.
Not from the maintenance shed alone.
From her own neck.
For months.
Maya looked at the necklace in Marco’s gloved hand.
“Mrs. Bell gave me that.”
Elena pulled her daughter close.
Luca stared at the small silver butterfly.
Dominic had not discovered Maya three weeks ago.
May you like
He had been watching her for years.
And somewhere out there, Luca realized, Dominic might know every conversation Maya had ever had about the mysterious man beyond the hedge.
