Chapter 4 - The Secret in the Hospital RecordsFederal investigators became involved.
The Rossi house was searched.
The hospital was searched.
Dr. Gallagher turned over every file.
Hunter gave them Lily's records.
But one question remained.
Why would anyone use the blood of a dead infant?
The answer came from a geneticist.
Leo's mother had been listed as deceased.
But the genetic profile attached to the mother was wrong.
It matched Lily.
Hunter stared at the report.
“My daughter?”
“Yes.”
“That means…”
The geneticist hesitated.
“Someone used Lily's biological material to create a false genetic link.”
Lorenzo looked horrified.
“For what?”
“To establish that Leo's mother was someone else.”
Hunter's face went pale.
“Who was his mother?”
Lorenzo couldn't answer.
The truth had been hidden.
The woman who died after Leo's birth had not been the biological mother.
She had been a surrogate.
Leo had been born through an embryo created from another woman.
That woman had disappeared.
Who?
Lorenzo's wife.
Sofia Rossi.
His late wife was alive in the records.
Dead in public.
Missing in reality.
Hunter stared.
“What does that mean?”
Lorenzo looked like he'd been struck.
“Sofia didn't die in the explosion.”
“What?”
“She disappeared.”
“Then who died?”
“A woman using her identity.”
Hunter's heart raced.
“So Leo's mother is alive.”
“Possibly.”
The house was suddenly more dangerous.
If Sofia was alive, someone had been hiding her.
The investigation discovered a private medical facility.
Sofia had been there.
Alive.
Severely injured.
She had escaped two months earlier.
She left behind one note.
Do not trust Victoria.
Lorenzo's face went blank.
His mother.
Hunter stared at him.
“Could she have done this?”
“I don't know.”
They searched Victoria's private records.
They found payments.
Doctors.
Security contractors.
Hospital employees.
And one name.
Dr. Nathan Briggs.
He had signed Hunter's daughter's death certificate.
Hunter froze.
“He told me Lily was dead.”
Lorenzo looked at the document.
“Briggs works for my mother.”
Hunter's knees weakened.
She understood.
Lily may never have died.
Someone might have taken her.
She looked at the genetic report again.
“No.”
Lorenzo turned.
“What?”
“If Lily survived the fall…”
He went still.
“Where is she?”
Hunter began crying.
“I don't know.”
But then a child laughed in the hallway.
They both turned.
A little girl stood outside the library.
Maybe three years old.
Brown curls.
Gray eyes.
Holding a red toy.
Hunter stared at her.
The resemblance struck like lightning.
Not Lily.
Older.
But the same eyes.
The same smile.
Sofia's eyes.
Lorenzo whispered,
“That's impossible.”
The child looked at him.
“Daddy?”
He froze.
She ran into his arms.
Hunter stared.
Then the truth became unbearable.
May you like
The child was Sofia's.
And she had been hidden in Lorenzo's house for years.
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