Chapter 1 - The Two Empty Bassinets
The scent of another woman’s vanilla perfume was still clinging to Gabriel Costa’s collar when he walked through the front door of his estate and realized his entire life had disappeared.
It was 5:15 in the morning.
Freezing November rain swept across Chicago, turning the windows of the sprawling stone mansion into sheets of gray glass.
Gabriel closed the heavy oak door behind him.
For several seconds, he simply stood there.
Something was wrong.
The Costa estate was never silent.
Even before sunrise there were guards changing shifts, radios murmuring near the security office, kitchen staff preparing breakfast, and vehicles moving beyond the iron gates.
But that morning there was nothing.
“Norah?”
His voice traveled through the foyer.
No answer.
Gabriel removed his coat.
The faint vanilla scent reached him again.
Bianca.
He felt sick.
He had spent the night downtown with her.
Not because he loved her.
That would almost have made more sense.
Bianca was simply somewhere Gabriel could disappear.
His marriage had been collapsing quietly for months.
Norah rarely confronted him. That somehow made everything worse.
Her pregnant belly had grown larger while her words became fewer.
Sometimes Gabriel caught her watching him from across the dinner table with an expression he couldn't understand.
He had told himself it was pregnancy.
Exhaustion.
Hormones.
Anything except the truth.
She knew he was lying.
At midnight, Gabriel had switched off his phone because he didn't want anyone disturbing him.
Now he noticed a dark smear across the marble floor.
His expression changed.
“Norah?”
He followed it toward the staircase.
His heartbeat accelerated.
“Norah!”
Gabriel pulled his phone from his pocket and turned it on while taking the stairs two at a time.
The screen immediately exploded with notifications.
74 missed calls.
30 text messages.
Luca.
The estate.
Dr. Harris.
Security.
Again and again.
None from Norah.
Gabriel stopped.
That frightened him more than everything else.
He pushed open the master bedroom door.
“Norah!”
Empty.
The sheets had been stripped from the mattress.
Damp towels lay on the floor.
He entered the bathroom.
Every light was burning.
Medical wrappers covered the counter.
The bathtub was half full.
Gabriel froze.
“No.”
He backed into the hallway.
He knew before anyone told him.
Norah had been thirty-six weeks pregnant.
Twins.
Dr. Harris had warned them labor could begin early.
Gabriel followed the marks along the hallway.
They ended at the nursery.
The door stood open.
He entered slowly.
The room was perfect.
Soft gray walls.
Cream curtains.
White furniture.
Plush bunny toys.
Two identical white bassinets stood side by side.
Gabriel approached them.
Empty.
He gripped one rail.
Then the other.
Empty.
His son and daughter had been born.
And he had not been there.
Gabriel called Luca.
“Get here.”
“Boss—”
“Now.”
Twenty minutes later, black SUVs entered the estate.
Luca found Gabriel sitting on the edge of the stripped mattress.
“The guards were drugged,” Luca said.
Gabriel looked up.
“What?”
“Something was put in their coffee.”
“The staff?”
“Norah dismissed them yesterday.”
Gabriel stared.
“She told everyone you wanted the house empty.”
Meaning Norah had planned this.
“Where's Harris?”
“Kitchen.”
Gabriel went downstairs.
Dr. Harris looked like a man who hadn't slept.
“What happened?”
“Her water broke around ten.”
Ten.
Gabriel had already been with Bianca.
“I called you.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“Luca called you. The estate called you.”
“I asked what happened.”
Harris swallowed.
“The labor progressed too quickly to move her safely. She delivered here.”
Gabriel's eyes closed briefly.
“What time?”
“Your son came shortly after two.”
Gabriel opened his eyes.
“Son?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Ten minutes later, your daughter.”
A boy.
A girl.
“Healthy?”
“Small but healthy.”
Gabriel pressed both palms against the counter.
“What happened after that?”
“I checked Norah and the babies. Then I went to my car for another medical bag.”
“You left?”
“Five minutes.”
“And?”
“When I came back, they were gone.”
Gabriel seized his collar.
“A woman who just gave birth carried two newborns out of here?”
“She had help!”
Gabriel released him.
Harris coughed.
“There were tire tracks behind the house. Someone was waiting.”
Gabriel turned toward Luca.
“Airports. Train stations. Bus terminals. Tollways. Private airfields.”
“Already moving.”
“Every camera within five miles.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked around at his men.
“Find my wife and children.”
The Costa organization moved across Chicago.
But Gabriel stayed behind.
Something bothered him.
Norah had not escaped impulsively.
She had disabled the house without violence.
She had cleared the staff.
She had arranged transportation.
His quiet wife had planned an operation beneath the nose of one of Chicago's most powerful organizations.
Gabriel searched their bedroom.
Most of Norah's clothes remained.
Her jewelry remained.
Then he discovered a locked wooden box.
He broke it open.
Photographs.
Gabriel leaving restaurants with Bianca.
Gabriel entering hotels.
Receipts.
Dates.
Months of evidence.
Norah had known.
At the bottom was an envelope.
Gabriel.
He opened it.
I knew about Bianca.
Gabriel swallowed.
Then:
That isn't why I'm leaving.
He read the sentence twice.
At the bottom was one final instruction.
Ask Luca what happened on March 14.
Gabriel slowly looked toward the doorway.
Luca stood there.
May you like
And for the first time in eleven years, Gabriel saw fear in his most trusted man's eyes.
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