Chapter 6 - The Son I Chose
I don’t remember falling.
I remember Alessandro catching Logan.
I remember Marco grabbing my arm.
I remember the floor rushing toward me.
Then nothing.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying on a couch.
For one beautiful second, I thought I had dreamed everything.
Then I saw Alessandro holding Logan.
The mafia boss sat in an armchair near the window, three bullet wounds beneath his shirt, with my sleeping three-year-old sprawled across his chest.
Again.
Captain Bear rested between them.
Somehow that image hurt more than anything else.
I sat up.
Alessandro immediately looked at me.
“Easy.”
“Give him to me.”
He stood despite obvious pain and carefully transferred Logan into my arms.
My son sighed but didn’t wake.
I looked at his face.
My baby.
The boy whose first fever kept me awake forty hours.
The boy who called cereal “sear-sear.”
The boy who wanted the same bedtime story every night.
Blood didn’t matter.
It shouldn’t matter.
But betrayal did.
“David said he isn’t ours.”
Alessandro sat opposite me.
“I heard.”
“Then whose is he?”
“We don’t know.”
“Yes, we do.”
I looked at him.
“Gabriel’s.”
“Possibly.”
“And my son?”
The question broke me.
“My biological son.”
Alessandro said nothing.
I wiped my face angrily.
“Where is he?”
“We’ll find out.”
“How?”
“David.”
I laughed bitterly.
“He’s spent two years hiding.”
“He won’t keep hiding now.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because you know the truth.”
Alessandro leaned forward.
“That changes everything.”
My phone lay on the table.
I picked it up.
No missed calls.
I called David.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
I typed:
WHERE IS MY SON?
No response.
Then:
IF YOU EVER LOVED ME, YOU WILL ANSWER.
Nothing.
I threw the phone.
It hit the wall.
Logan stirred.
I immediately softened.
“Shh.”
His eyes opened.
“Mommy?”
“I’m here.”
“Home?”
I fought tears.
“Not yet.”
He looked at Alessandro.
“You died.”
Alessandro’s mouth twitched.
“Apparently I’m bad at it.”
Logan considered that.
“Captain helped.”
“He did.”
My child smiled.
My child.
Whatever David had done, Logan was mine.
I kissed his forehead.
“You hungry?”
“Pancakes.”
Of course.
The safest answer in the world.
An hour later, we sat in Alessandro Romano’s enormous kitchen while a mafia boss made pancakes.
Badly.
I stared.
“You own five houses and can’t flip a pancake?”
“I have employees.”
“That is the saddest thing you’ve said tonight.”
He tried again.
The pancake folded in half.
Logan giggled.
For ten seconds, the world became normal.
Then Marco entered.
His expression killed the moment.
“We found Mercy’s records.”
I stood.
“Tell me.”
“The maternity ward breach occurred at 4:12 a.m. Two security cameras were disabled.”
“And the babies?”
“There were two male infants in adjacent recovery rooms.”
My heart pounded.
“One was Logan.”
“Yes.”
“The other?”
“Registered under the mother’s name. Elena Marquez.”
Alessandro dropped the spatula.
I looked at him.
“You know her.”
“My brother’s fiancée.”
Silence.
“She was pregnant when Gabriel died?”
“I never knew.”
Marco continued.
“Elena was admitted under an alias. She disappeared from the hospital that morning.”
“With which baby?”
“We don’t know.”
I grabbed the counter.
“What about DNA?”
“Records were altered.”
“David.”
“Probably.”
Logan held up his pancake.
“Mine looks like a shoe.”
Nobody answered.
I sat beside him.
“Eat, sweetheart.”
Marco looked at Alessandro.
“There’s more.”
“Say it.”
“Elena Marquez died seven months later.”
Alessandro’s face went still.
“How?”
“Supposed overdose.”
“Supposed?”
“She had no history of drug use.”
“Halcyon.”
“Likely.”
I looked between them.
“If Elena died, where is the other child?”
Marco hesitated.
“Her sister took custody.”
My heart stopped.
“Name.”
“Sofia Marquez.”
“Where is she?”
“She moved three times in two years.”
“Where?”
“Last known address is Richmond.”
Virginia.
A little over two hours away.
“We go now.”
Alessandro shook his head.
“No.”
I turned.
“You don’t decide that.”
“Halcyon found your apartment. They likely know the records have been accessed.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Why?”
His eyes moved to Logan.
“Because if that child is your biological son, Halcyon will be watching anyone connected to him.”
I stepped close.
“I buried my husband. I just learned he’s alive. Then I learned my son may not be my biological child. Somewhere there may be another little boy who was taken from me the day he was born.”
My voice trembled.
“You can point every gun in Baltimore at me and I’m still going.”
Alessandro stared at me for a moment.
Then nodded.
“We leave in twenty minutes.”
Marco sighed.
“I knew you were going to say that.”
“You’re welcome to stay.”
“No, I’m not.”
Before we left, Dr. Chen insisted on changing Alessandro’s dressings.
I packed snacks for Logan.
It felt absurd.
Juice boxes.
Crackers.
Extra socks.
While armed men loaded rifles into SUVs.
Motherhood was strange.
We left before sunrise.
The sky over Baltimore turned pale gray.
Logan slept beside me.
Alessandro sat across from us.
“You should sleep.”
“So should you.”
“I don’t sleep in vehicles.”
“Why?”
“I like waking up alive.”
I looked at him.
“That’s depressing.”
“It’s practical.”
For several miles, silence.
Then I asked the question that had been bothering me.
“If Logan is Gabriel’s son…”
Alessandro looked at me.
“That would make you his uncle.”
“Yes.”
“How does that make you feel?”
He looked out the window.
“Terrified.”
Not happy.
Not excited.
Terrified.
“Why?”
“Because everyone I love becomes a target.”
I understood that more than I wanted to.
“You loved Gabriel.”
“He was better than me.”
“Most brothers say that after someone dies.”
“He was better before.”
Alessandro smiled faintly.
“He believed people could change.”
“Can they?”
His eyes met mine.
“I haven’t decided.”
We reached Richmond just after eight.
Sofia Marquez lived in a quiet neighborhood of small brick houses.
Children’s bicycles sat on lawns.
Normal.
Peaceful.
Marco drove past once.
Then again.
“Something’s wrong.”
“What?”
“No movement.”
“It’s eight in the morning.”
“Exactly.”
A school bus stopped two houses away.
Parents stood outside.
Sofia’s house remained dark.
Alessandro touched his earpiece.
“Rear team?”
“Back door open.”
My blood went cold.
I unbuckled.
Marco grabbed my shoulder.
“No.”
“My son could be in there.”
“So could the people who burned your apartment.”
I looked at Alessandro.
“Please.”
He held my gaze.
Then nodded to Marco.
“Stay behind me.”
The front door was unlocked.
That was the first bad sign.
The second was the broken lamp.
The third was blood on the hallway floor.
“Sofia?” I called.
Marco raised his weapon.
We moved room by room.
Kitchen.
Empty.
Living room.
Empty.
Then I heard a child crying upstairs.
I ran.
Marco swore behind me.
“Catherine!”
The crying came from a bedroom.
I pushed open the door.
A little boy sat inside a closet.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
Three years old.
My heart stopped.
He looked exactly like David.
Not similar.
Exactly.
I dropped to my knees.
“Oh my God.”
The boy hugged his knees.
“Who are you?”
I couldn’t speak.
Behind me, Alessandro whispered something in Italian.
I crawled closer.
“My name is Catherine.”
The boy stared at me.
“My aunt said not to talk to strangers.”
“That’s good advice.”
“Where is Aunt Sofia?”
I looked at the blood in the hallway.
“I don’t know yet.”
He studied my face.
Then noticed Logan standing behind Marco.
The two boys stared at each other.
Almost the same age.
Almost the same height.
Different eyes.
Different faces.
Two babies whose lives had been exchanged before either could remember.
“What’s your name?” I whispered.
The boy looked at me.
“Daniel.”
My father’s name.
David had always wanted to name our son Daniel.
I began crying.
The little boy frowned.
“Why are you sad?”
Before I could answer, a phone rang downstairs.
Not mine.
Not Alessandro’s.
Sofia’s landline.
Marco moved toward the stairs.
Alessandro stopped him.
“I’ll get it.”
He answered on speaker.
“Hello?”
David’s voice filled the house.
“Catherine found him.”
I ran downstairs.
“David!”
“Take both boys and leave immediately.”
“Where is Sofia?”
Silence.
“David, where is she?”
“They took her.”
“Who?”
“Halcyon.”
I gripped the phone.
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
A gunshot exploded outside.
The front window shattered.
Alessandro pulled me down.
Men shouted.
Then David spoke one final sentence through the phone.
“Cat, if Alessandro gets Daniel, he owns the one thing Halcyon fears more than Lazarus.”
May you like
The line died.
And Alessandro slowly turned toward the little boy behind me.
