Chapter 3
Vincent’s eyes hardened.
“She did come here.”
Vanessa stopped breathing.
Ethan slowly pulled one final document from the folder.
“Security footage,” he said. “Eleven months ago.”
He turned his laptop toward Vincent.
The screen showed the lobby of Moretti Tower.
Claire walked through the revolving doors wearing a loose gray coat, one hand resting over the unmistakable curve of her pregnant stomach.
She was alone.
Vincent leaned closer.
Claire approached security.
She spoke to the guard.
Then she waited.
Five minutes.
Ten.
Twenty.
Finally, someone entered the frame.
Vanessa.
Vincent went completely still.
On-screen, Vanessa spoke to Claire for less than a minute.
Claire’s face changed.
Then she turned around and walked out.
Vincent looked at Vanessa.
“What did you tell her?”
Vanessa’s confidence vanished.
“Vincent—”
“What. Did. You. Tell. Her?”
Her lips parted.
“I told her you didn’t want to see her.”
Silence.
“And?”
Vanessa looked away.
“I told her you knew about the pregnancy.”
Vincent’s chair scraped backward as he stood.
“And?”
Tears suddenly filled Vanessa’s eyes.
“I told her you said the babies weren’t your problem.”
Vincent stared at her as if she had become a stranger.
Then his phone rang.
The hospital.
He answered immediately.
“Moretti.”
The doctor’s voice was urgent.
“Mr. Moretti, your wife is awake.”
Vincent grabbed his coat.
But the doctor wasn’t finished.
“She’s asking for her children.”
His blood turned cold.
“What happened?”
A pause.
Then came the sentence that made Vincent forget how to breathe.
“Your son has been taken downstairs for emergency surgery.”
Vincent stared at Vanessa for a long moment.
“She did.”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
Not much.
Just enough.
A tiny tightening around her mouth.
A flicker in her eyes.
But Vincent saw it.
Ethan saw it too.
“What do you mean?” Vanessa asked.
Vincent didn’t answer her.
He looked at Ethan.
Ethan reached into the folder and removed a small flash drive.
“There’s something else.”
Vanessa’s face drained of color.
“Ethan.”
He ignored her.
“Building security keeps archived footage for eighteen months. I checked every date connected to Claire’s notifications.”
He inserted the drive into his laptop.
A video appeared.
The timestamp in the corner read eleven months earlier.
Moretti Tower.
Main lobby.
10:43 a.m.
Vincent leaned toward the screen.
And there she was.
Claire.
His wife.
Pregnant.
Even beneath the loose gray coat, there was no mistaking the curve of her stomach.
Vincent stopped breathing.
He had never seen her pregnant.