Chapter 7 - Dr. Vale's Confession
Evan Vale did not enter Pine Valley like a fugitive.
He entered like he owned the building.
Which, in some ways, he did.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Hospital identification clipped to his jacket.
He greeted two nurses in the lobby.
He shook hands with a donor.
He smiled at a security guard.
Then Detective Morrison arrested him beside the bronze statue bearing his name.
By nine that night, every television in the hospital lobby was carrying the story.
PINE VALLEY CHAIRMAN QUESTIONED IN SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD INFANT DISAPPEARANCE CASE
Nobody mentioned Sebastian publicly.
Yet.
Vale refused to speak for nearly three hours.
Then he asked for one person.
Not an attorney.
Not Morrison.
Sebastian.
Morrison said no.
Vale refused to talk.
Sebastian smiled.
“I told you he wanted me.”
Morrison looked as if he would rather swallow glass.
Eventually a compromise was reached.
Sebastian could observe from behind one-way glass.
He couldn't enter the interview room.
Vale wasn't told.
I had no legal reason to be there.
I also had no intention of leaving.
Morrison sat across from Vale.
“Tell me about June eighteenth, seventeen years ago.”
Vale adjusted his cuff.
“I delivered many infants that year.”
“One named Isabella Moretti.”
Silence.
“You remember her?”
“Yes.”
“Did she die?”
Vale looked directly toward the one-way glass.
He couldn't see Sebastian.
But somehow it felt as if he could.
“No.”
Sebastian's hand tightened at his side.
Morrison remained calm.
“What happened to her?”
“She was removed from Pine Valley.”
“By whom?”
“Margaret Miller.”
“On whose orders?”
Vale smiled sadly.
“You already know.”
“Say it.”
“Vittoria Moretti.”
Sebastian looked down.
Morrison continued.
“Why?”
“To save the child.”
“From whom?”
Vale's expression changed.
“Sebastian.”
Behind the glass, Sebastian stared.
Morrison leaned forward.
“Sebastian Moretti wanted his own daughter killed?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
Vale looked tired.
“You people have spent twenty years treating organized crime like family trees on a whiteboard. Moretti. Caruso. Bellini. DeLuca.”
He shook his head.
“You forget that the wives and children become targets too.”
“Who threatened Isabella?”
“Dominic Caruso.”
Sebastian whispered a curse.
I looked at him.
“You know him?”
“My father killed his brother.”
“When?”
“Before Isabella was born.”
Vale continued through the speaker.
“Caruso learned Elena was pregnant. He told Vittoria that if the child was born, Moretti blood would end in a hospital crib.”
Morrison's face remained still.
“Why didn't Vittoria go to police?”
Vale laughed bitterly.
“Because people in that world didn't call police.”
Sebastian looked away.
“Vittoria came to me,” Vale said. “I was thirty-six. Ambitious. Stupid. She offered money.”
“For what?”
“To make Isabella Moretti disappear.”
Sebastian's eyes became ice.
Morrison asked, “You sold a baby?”
“No.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I falsified her death.”
The words sat heavily in the room.
“We staged the blackout,” Vale continued. “Margaret moved Isabella. A funeral director sealed an empty casket. Vittoria arranged a new identity.”
“What was the plan?”
“Six weeks. Maybe two months. Until Caruso believed the child was dead and left the city.”
“What went wrong?”
“Elena.”
Sebastian stepped closer to the glass.
“What about her?” Morrison asked.
“She found a medication record I failed to destroy.”
The same one we had found.
“She confronted me.”
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“She begged to see Isabella,” Vale said. “I refused.”
“Why?”
“Vittoria ordered me to.”
“Did Elena tell Sebastian?”
“No.”
Sebastian whispered, “Why?”
Vale answered as if he heard him.
“She was afraid.”
Morrison waited.
“Of Sebastian?”
“No.”
Vale's face changed.
“Of what Sebastian would do.”
That hurt more.
“She knew he would start a war with Caruso. She believed dozens of people might die.”
Sebastian backed away from the glass.
“So Elena planned to leave?” Morrison asked.
“Yes. She arranged with Margaret to take Isabella and disappear.”
“Did Vittoria know?”
“Eventually.”
“And?”
“She tried to stop her.”
“What happened the night Elena died?”
Vale's hands folded tightly together.
“She was driving to meet Margaret.”
Sebastian's face crumpled.
“Was the bomb meant for her?”
Vale hesitated.
“Yes.”
Sebastian closed his eyes.
“Who planted it?” Morrison asked.
Vale looked toward the mirror again.
“I didn't know for years.”
“And now?”
“Dominic Caruso.”
Sebastian stepped away.
Morrison leaned forward.
“Where is Caruso?”
Vale didn't answer.
“Dead?”
“No.”
Sebastian turned sharply.
That surprised him.
Morrison noticed the silence.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
Vale smiled without humor.
“Because he knows Isabella survived.”
My stomach tightened.
“How?” Morrison asked.
“Someone accessed archived DNA records at Pine Valley eight months ago.”
“Whose?”
“Isabella's neonatal blood sample.”
Sebastian whispered, “Eight months.”
Isabella would have been pregnant.
Vale continued.
“I discovered the access. I started investigating.”
“So the transfer order for Luca was yours?”
“Yes.”
Behind the glass, Sebastian moved.
I caught his arm.
“Don't.”
He looked at me.
“He tried to take my grandson.”
“Listen.”
Morrison asked the same question.
“Why did you order Luca transferred before he was born?”
“To protect him.”
“Without the mother's consent?”
“I knew the pattern.”
“What pattern?”
“Caruso doesn't attack adults first.”
Vale's voice lowered.
“He takes what they love.”
Sebastian stared.
Morrison sat back.
“So you were trying to save Luca.”
“Yes.”
“Then why forge the order?”
“Because if I went through normal channels, someone would know where he was being sent.”
“Who?”
Vale didn't answer.
Morrison's eyes narrowed.
“Someone inside Pine Valley?”
Vale nodded.
I felt cold.
Morrison leaned forward.
“Name them.”
“I don't know.”
“That isn't good enough.”
“I know someone has been accessing records. Security schedules. Patient transfers.”
“Why didn't you contact police?”
Vale laughed softly.
“Seventeen years ago I falsified the death of a child. How exactly did you imagine that conversation beginning?”
“Better than this one.”
Vale lowered his gaze.
Behind the glass, Sebastian finally spoke.
“He's telling the truth.”
I looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because he's ashamed.”
“That doesn't make him truthful.”
“No.”
Sebastian's eyes remained on Vale.
“But I recognize the difference between a man hiding guilt and a man hiding a plan.”
Morrison left the interrogation room a few minutes later.
He came behind the glass.
“Well?”
Sebastian folded his arms.
“Caruso.”
“You believe Vale?”
“About that.”
“Where is Dominic Caruso?”
“I haven't seen him in twenty-one years.”
“Is he alive?”
“Apparently.”
Morrison studied him.
“What aren't you telling me?”
Sebastian looked toward the hospital corridor.
“My father believed Caruso fled to Argentina.”
“Believed?”
“There was never a body.”
Morrison gave him a look.
“Of course there wasn't.”
Then my phone rang.
Nurse Jenkins.
I answered immediately.
“Rachel?”
Her voice was low.
“Where are you?”
“Administrative wing. Why?”
“Come back.”
“What happened?”
“Luca's grandmother is here.”
I frowned.
“Sebastian's mother?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Margaret Miller.”
Isabella had gone upstairs to see Luca fifteen minutes earlier.
We ran.
By the time we reached bed nine, Margaret Miller was standing beside the incubator.
She looked fragile.
A bandage covered one hand.
An IV port remained taped to her arm from the hospital where she'd apparently walked out against medical advice.
Isabella stood across from her.
Tears streamed down both their faces.
“You lied to me,” Isabella whispered.
Margaret nodded.
“Yes.”
“My whole life.”
“Yes.”
“You told me my parents were dead.”
“I thought it was safest.”
“My father was alive.”
“I know.”
“You watched him visit my grave.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Sebastian entered behind us.
Margaret looked at him.
Seventeen years passed between them in one second.
“Sebastian.”
His voice was quiet.
“Margaret.”
She began crying.
“I am sorry.”
He stood perfectly still.
“You held my daughter while I begged to see her.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury blankets.”
“I know.”
“My wife died trying to get her back.”
Margaret covered her face.
“I know.”
Sebastian took one step forward.
Isabella immediately moved between them.
“Stop.”
He froze.
She looked directly at him.
“You said I get to decide what kind of man you are now.”
His breathing slowed.
“Yes.”
“Then don't make me afraid of you.”
Sebastian looked at Margaret.
For one terrible second, I didn't know which version of him would win.
Then he stepped backward.
“Okay.”
Isabella exhaled.
Margaret lowered her hands.
“I deserve your anger.”
Sebastian's voice was rough.
“My anger has ruined enough lives.”
Margaret stared at him.
Then she reached into her coat.
Morrison immediately stepped forward.
“Hands where I can see them.”
She slowly removed a small envelope.
“It's from Elena.”
Sebastian stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She gave it to me the day she died.”
Margaret's hand shook.
“She told me to give it to you when Isabella was safe.”
Sebastian stared at the envelope.
“Seventeen years, Margaret.”
“I was afraid.”
“Seventeen years.”
“I know.”
He took it.
His name was written across the front in a woman's handwriting.
Seb.
He touched the letters.
Then Isabella whispered:
“Read it.”
His eyes lifted.
“Here?”
“She was my mother too.”
Sebastian nodded.
He opened the envelope.
Inside was one folded sheet.
He began reading silently.
Then stopped.
“What does it say?” Isabella asked.
Sebastian looked at her.
His eyes were full of tears.
“She knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I would blame myself.”
His voice cracked.
He handed the letter to Isabella.
She read aloud.
“Sebastian,
If Margaret gives you this, then something went wrong.
Bella is alive.
I know you will want revenge when you discover what your mother and Evan did.
Don't.
They were wrong to take her from us, but they believed they were saving her.
I am going to bring our daughter home.
If I fail, promise me one thing.
Do not make Bella inherit our fear.
Do not turn love into another war.”
Isabella stopped.
The room was silent.
There was one final line.
She looked at Sebastian before reading it.
“Her favorite place was always your chest.
If she ever finds her way back to you, hold her before you ask where she's been.”
Sebastian covered his face.
Isabella folded the letter.
Then she walked toward him.
He lowered his hands.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she stepped into his arms.
He held her.
Exactly as Elena had asked.
Across the room, Margaret cried.
Even Morrison looked away.
Then Luca's monitor began alarming.
We all turned.
His oxygen level dropped.
Dr. Patel rushed in.
“Move.”
Isabella released Sebastian.
“What happened?”
The baby's heart rate climbed.
I looked at the monitor.
Then the IV pump.
Something was wrong.
The medication line wasn't running at the programmed rate.
“Stop the infusion!”
I clamped the line.
Dr. Patel checked the pump.
“This was changed.”
“Changed how?”
“The dose was manually overridden.”
Sebastian's face went blank.
“By who?”
Jenkins checked the electronic log.
Her hands froze above the screen.
“Someone accessed the pump remotely.”
Morrison stepped closer.
“From where?”
Jenkins looked toward the hallway.
“Inside the hospital network.”
Margaret whispered:
“He's here.”
Sebastian turned.
“Who?”
May you like
She looked at Luca.
“Caruso.”
