Chapter 5 - The Name Buried Twenty Years Ago
Clare stared at the date until the numbers blurred.
Two days after the accident.
According to every public account, Sebastian Lombardi had been unconscious in intensive care.
Yet in the photograph he was standing.
Not leaning.
Not supported.
Standing.
She found Sebastian alone in his study.
He took the photograph.
For the first time since she had met him, she watched genuine confusion cross his face.
“Where did you get this?”
“Under my door.”
He stared at the younger version of himself.
“I don’t remember this.”
“Look at the background.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
“A hospital parking structure.”
“You recognize it?”
“St. Gabriel Medical Center.”
The hospital where he had undergone surgery.
Clare pointed to his clothes.
“You’re wearing a patient identification bracelet.”
Sebastian turned the photograph over.
The date stared back at him.
“That isn’t possible.”
Clare lowered her voice.
“Maybe your spinal damage didn’t happen during the accident.”
The idea seemed to change the air.
Sebastian stared at her.
Clare continued.
“What if you were injured, but not paralyzed?”
His expression hardened.
“And then?”
“Something happened later.”
He looked down at the photograph again.
“I remember waking after surgery.”
“Nothing before?”
“Fragments.”
“What kind?”
“Pain. My father yelling. Carlo in the hallway.”
“Your uncle?”
Sebastian paused.
“Yes.”
A knock sounded.
Adrian entered holding a folder.
“We found the original surgical team.”
“Alive?” Sebastian asked.
“Two nurses. One anesthesiologist. The surgeon died eleven years ago.”
“Name?”
“Dr. Arthur Bell.”
Clare recognized it.
Not because Bell was famous.
Because she had seen his name somewhere that morning.
She hurried back to the archive box and pulled out a post-operative note.
The signature at the bottom read:
Dr. Arthur Bell.
But beneath it, listed as consulting physician, was another name.
Dr. Thomas Vale.
Clare searched the other files.
Vale appeared nowhere else.
“Who is Thomas Vale?”
Adrian made a call.
Twenty minutes later he returned.
“He disappeared in 2008.”
“Disappeared?”
“Left his practice. Closed his accounts. No forwarding address.”
Sebastian asked, “Family?”
“One daughter.”
“Find her.”
Carlo suddenly spoke.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Carlo swallowed.
“Leave Vale alone.”
Sebastian stared at the man who had served him for almost three decades.
“Why?”
Carlo’s eyes were tired.
“Because some doors were closed for a reason.”
Sebastian rolled toward him.
“You know that name.”
Carlo didn’t answer.
“Carlo.”
“Yes.”
The word came out almost broken.
Clare felt the tension in the room tighten.
“How?” Sebastian asked.
Carlo sat slowly.
“Because Thomas Vale found me six months after your surgery.”
Sebastian’s eyes went cold.
“And?”
“He was terrified.”
“Of what?”
Carlo looked toward the closed door.
“Your family.”
Sebastian didn’t move.
“What did he tell you?”
“He said something had been done during the second operation.”
Clare’s stomach tightened.
“Second operation?”
Carlo nodded.
“The one that doesn’t exist in your records.”
Sebastian gripped the wheelchair armrest.
“You knew.”
“I knew there had been another procedure. I didn’t know what they did.”
“For twenty years?”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Sebastian laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“By keeping me ignorant?”
Carlo looked directly at him.
“By obeying your father.”
Sebastian froze.
“My father?”
Carlo’s voice dropped.
“The night Dr. Vale came to me, your father made me swear I would never tell you.”
Clare watched Sebastian absorb the betrayal.
His father had been dead for eighteen years.
Sebastian had spent those years believing the man had loved him more than anyone.
Now one question filled the room.
Why would his father help hide the truth?
Carlo reached into his jacket.
“There’s something else.”
He placed an old brass key on the table.
“Your father gave me this the week before he died.”
Sebastian stared at it.
“What does it open?”
Carlo swallowed.
May you like
“The Lombardi family chapel.”
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