Chapter 5 - The Voice on the Phone
"Who is this?"
The line crackled.
"You came home too soon."
My hand tightened around the phone.
"Where is my wife?"
"Alive. For now."
"And my son?"
Silence.
"Answer me."
"Find the chapel ledger."
The call ended.
I immediately tried to call back. The number was blocked.
My mother reached for the phone.
"Give me that."
I stepped away.
"You know what the chapel ledger is."
She looked at Matteo.
That look told me they both knew.
Our private chapel had been built by my great-grandfather. Weddings, funerals, baptisms, secret meetings - everything important in our family eventually passed through that room.
I left them in the tunnel and walked there with Carlo beside me.
"Tell me what you haven't told me yet," I said.
He stared ahead.
"Grace gave birth nine days ago."
I stopped.
The world seemed to tilt.
"You knew?"
"I heard a baby crying beneath the west wing. Only once. The next morning, your mother told staff Grace had been transferred to a private clinic."
"And the baby?"
"Gone too."
In the chapel, the old registry sat beneath the altar in a locked cabinet.
The brass key opened that as well.
Inside were decades of handwritten names.
Near the back, several pages had been cut out.
But whoever removed them had missed the carbon copy beneath.
I held it toward the light.
A recent entry showed a private baptism request.
Child: Nicholas Rossi.
Mother: Grace Rossi.
Father: Luca Rossi.
Witness: Sofia Rossi.
Location: Saint Agnes Clinic.
Date: three days earlier.
My son had been baptized without me while Grace was still missing.
Carlo whispered, "Saint Agnes closed five years ago."
I looked closer.
Someone had written an address beside the clinic name.
Then I heard the chapel doors lock behind us.
May you like
A man's voice came from the shadows near the confessional.
"You should have stayed in Europe, Luca."
