Chapter 2 - The Empty Coffin
I answered the phone.
Dominic shook his head once, but it was too late.
“Romano.”
There was silence on the other end.
Then Dr. Romano’s familiar voice.
“Luca.”
He sounded calm.
Too calm.
“You haven’t called me Luca in three years.”
Another pause.
“I heard there was a disturbance at the estate.”
My eyes moved to Elena.
Her face went pale.
Nobody outside this office should have known anything had happened.
“What disturbance?”
“I may have been misinformed.”
“By whom?”
No answer.
I looked at Dominic.
He understood immediately.
Find the leak.
He motioned silently to two guards, who disappeared into the hallway.
Romano cleared his throat.
“You sound upset.”
“Do I?”
“Luca, perhaps we should meet.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Perhaps.”
“I can come tomorrow.”
“No.”
“Then—”
“Tonight.”
The doctor hesitated.
“I’m not sure that’s wise.”
“Neither am I.”
I ended the call.
For several seconds, the room remained silent.
Mateo rested against my shoulder.
My son.
I still could not think the sentence without feeling dizzy.
I looked at Elena.
“Start talking.”
She swallowed.
“I wasn’t part of the original plan.”
“What plan?”
“The plan to make you believe Mateo died.”
Her voice trembled, but she continued.
“I worked as a pediatric nurse before I became a housekeeper.”
That surprised me.
“You never mentioned that.”
“I was told not to.”
“By whom?”
“Dr. Romano.”
Dominic muttered a curse.
Elena continued.
“The night of the accident, I was working at St. Gabriel’s private clinic.”
I knew the clinic.
It had closed two years earlier after financial trouble.
“Mateo was brought there?”
“Yes.”
“Why not the city hospital?”
“Because Romano was on call at St. Gabriel’s, and someone had already arranged everything.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know then.”
“And now?”
She looked away.
“Elena.”
“I have suspicions.”
“I don’t want suspicions.”
I stepped closer.
“I want names.”
Mateo stirred.
I immediately lowered my voice.
The change did not escape Dominic.
Something in his expression softened for half a second.
Elena took a breath.
“The accident was severe, but Mateo was alive. He had a broken arm, a concussion, cuts, bruises. Nothing that should have killed him.”
My stomach twisted.
I imagined my child injured and crying while I was somewhere being told he was dead.
“They sedated him,” Elena continued. “Romano ordered everyone except three staff members out of the room.”
“You were one of them.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“A woman arrived.”
“Who?”
Elena hesitated.
“I never saw her face clearly. She wore a scarf and sunglasses.”
“At night?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“That Mateo needed to disappear for his own safety.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“My son was stolen for his safety?”
“That’s what she said.”
“And you believed her?”
“No.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“I argued. Romano threatened me. He said dangerous people were coming and if Mateo remained connected to you, he would be killed.”
“And instead of calling me, you helped kidnap him.”
“I was terrified.”
“You should be terrified now.”
Dominic shifted subtly.
Not to restrain me.
To remind me Mateo was still in my arms.
I looked down.
The baby had fallen asleep.
My rage cooled by a degree.
Only one.
“What happened next?”
“They altered the records. Romano prepared a death certificate. The hospital administrator signed documents. Another employee moved Mateo through a service entrance.”
“Where?”
“A safe house outside the city.”
“And the coffin?”
“Empty.”
The words landed differently hearing them again.
I had stood beside an empty coffin.
I had placed my hand on polished walnut and told my son goodbye.
I had watched dirt fall onto nothing.
“Who paid for the funeral arrangement?”
Elena looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
Dominic spoke.
“We can find out.”
I nodded.
“Do it.”
He pulled out his phone.
I turned back to Elena.
“How did Mateo end up with you?”
Her face changed.
Pain.
Guilt.
Love.
“Three months after the funeral, the people keeping him wanted to move him again.”
“Why?”
“Someone was searching.”
“Me?”
“No.”
That stopped me.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena’s hands trembled.
“I overheard Romano arguing with a man. The man said the boy couldn’t stay in one place because ‘she’ was getting nervous.”
“She?”
“Yes.”
“Same woman from the hospital?”
“I assumed so.”
“What happened?”
“Mateo had become attached to me because I was one of the few familiar people who visited him. When they decided to move him, Romano ordered me to take him temporarily.”
“And then?”
“I ran.”
Dominic stopped typing.
“You ran from Romano?”
“Yes.”
“With the Boss’s son?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Elena looked at Mateo.
“Because I realized they planned to kill him.”
The room went silent again.
My voice became low.
“How?”
“I heard Romano say the safest way to end the problem was to make the original story permanent.”
My stomach turned.
“You mean murder him.”
She nodded.
“So I took Mateo and disappeared.”
“For how long?”
“Almost two years.”
“But you came here.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you bring him into my home?”
“Because I ran out of places to hide.”
She began crying again.
“I thought no one would look for him under your roof because everyone believed he was dead. I changed his name. Changed my employment history. Used forged papers.”
“And you never thought to tell me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Three times.”
I stared at her.
“The first month I worked here, I waited outside your office. You were meeting with Dominic. You were talking about killing the man who caused the accident.”
I remembered.
“I heard what you had become,” Elena whispered. “I was afraid you’d kill me before I could explain.”
Fair.
At that time, I might have.
“The second time?”
“Your father died.”
My jaw tightened.
“And the third?”
“Six months ago. I wrote everything in a letter.”
“What happened?”
“It disappeared from my room.”
Dominic and I exchanged a look.
Someone inside the estate.
Again.
“Did anyone know you wrote it?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you keep it?”
“Inside a cookbook beneath my mattress.”
Dominic swore softly.
“Only someone searching her room would find that.”
I felt Mateo breathe against my neck.
Someone had been inside my home.
Someone knew who he was.
Someone had allowed him to remain alive.
For now.
The office door opened.
One of my guards returned.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something.”
He handed Dominic a small black device.
A transmitter.
Listening equipment.
Dominic examined it.
“Where?”
“Inside the hallway lamp outside this office.”
Elena covered her mouth.
My blood went cold.
“How long has it been there?”
“We don’t know.”
Dominic walked toward the window.
He pulled the curtains shut.
Then he looked at me.
“Assume the entire estate is compromised.”
I nodded.
“Lock it down.”
“No one leaves.”
“What about Romano?”
“He’s coming here.”
Dominic smiled without warmth.
“Good.”
Elena looked frightened.
“You don’t understand. Romano isn’t the one in charge.”
“I know.”
“What if she finds out—”
“She already knows.”
My phone vibrated.
A message.
Unknown number.
I opened it.
A photograph appeared.
My father.
Taken years ago.
Standing beside Sofia.
My ex-wife.
Beneath the photograph were five words:
ASK YOUR WIFE ABOUT THE COFFIN.
For the first time since Elena’s confession, I felt something colder than rage.
Sofia.
Mateo’s mother.
The woman who had begged me not to open the casket.
The woman who had disappeared from my life one year after the funeral.
I looked at Dominic.
He read the message over my shoulder.
“No.”
Elena whispered, “What?”
I turned the screen toward her.
Her reaction was immediate.
She recognized something.
“What?”
She pointed to the corner of the photograph.
“There.”
A silver pendant hung from Sofia’s neck.
A crescent moon.
The same symbol as Mateo’s birthmark.
Elena’s face went white.
“The woman at the hospital wore that necklace.”
I stopped breathing.
“You’re certain?”
“I never saw her face.”
“But the necklace?”
“I remember it.”
My former wife had been at the hospital.
She had known Mateo survived.
Maybe more than known.
Maybe planned it.
I looked at the sleeping child in my arms and remembered Sofia at the funeral.
Her tears.
Her trembling hand.
Her whispered words.
Don’t open the coffin, Luca.
At the time, I believed she was protecting me.
Now I wondered if she had been protecting a lie.
Dominic’s phone buzzed.
He checked it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“We found Sofia.”
“Where?”
“Thirty minutes away.”
I stared.
“She’s back in the city?”
“She arrived yesterday.”
Yesterday.
The day before my son crawled into my office.
Coincidence had officially stopped existing.
“Bring the car.”
Elena grabbed my sleeve.
“Don’t.”
I looked down at her hand.
She released me immediately.
“She may not be alone.”
“Neither am I.”
I handed Mateo gently to Elena.
My arms resisted letting him go.
That surprised me.
Elena noticed.
“You believe me?”
I looked at my son.
“I believe this.”
I touched the crescent mark beneath his ear.
Then I looked at her.
“The rest, we verify.”
Dominic checked his weapon.
I put on my jacket.
As we reached the door, Elena called my name.
“Luca.”
I turned.
It was the first time she had addressed me without formality.
“There’s something else.”
I waited.
She held Mateo tighter.
“The accident that supposedly killed him?”
“Yes?”
She swallowed.
“It wasn’t an accident.”
The rage inside me became perfectly still.
“What was it?”
“Someone cut the brake line.”
I stared at her.
“Sofia was driving.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“She told everyone she was.”
My skin turned cold.
“But she wasn’t in the car.”
The implication struck instantly.
“Who was?”
Elena’s voice dropped.
“Mateo’s nanny.”
A woman who had died in the crash.
I remembered her funeral.
I remembered Sofia telling police she had crawled from the wreckage before the fire.
A lie.
The entire story had been a lie.
Dominic opened the office door.
I looked into the dark hallway.
Somewhere in the city, Sofia was waiting.
And for the first time in three years, I was going to ask my former wife a question I never imagined needing to ask.
Why had she helped the world bury our living son?
May you like
But when I finally found Sofia, she would tell me something even worse: Mateo had never been the intended victim of that crash—I was.
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