Chapter 15 - THE CHILD WITH THE WRONG NAME
Isabella stared at the neonatal admission record.
Ortiz placed the tablet in front of her.
“Is this your child?”
“No.”
“Your name is on the file.”
“I have never been pregnant.”
“Who could create this record?”
“My father.”
“Why?”
Isabella’s face became hollow.
“He always said blood was less important than paperwork.”
The infant had arrived in a private ambulance during the electrical failure.
Two men wearing medical uniforms carried the incubator into the neonatal wing.
Hospital staff assumed the transfer had been authorized.
The documents were perfect.
The baby was a healthy newborn boy.
No parent accompanied him.
The transport team disappeared.
Vittorio intended to register the child as Marcus’s son.
Under the trust language, a legally recognized heir could activate the voting shares.
The wording did not require a genetic test immediately.
If Khloe’s daughter died during delivery, the false son would become the only recognized child.
Vittorio would control the baby through Isabella.
The Rossi family would gain the trust shares.
Crane would lose his inheritance.
The alliance between them had ended.
Each mastermind had planned to betray the other.
Ortiz ordered the newborn placed under police protection.
She requested emergency genetic testing.
Isabella looked through the observation glass at the incubator.
“Where did he come from?”
“We are investigating.”
“Was he stolen?”
“Possibly.”
Isabella covered her mouth.
For the first time, her horror contained no concern for herself.
“My father would take someone’s child?”
“He tried to destroy Khloe’s.”
Isabella lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
“I know.”
Ortiz studied her.
“You can help identify Vittorio’s medical contacts.”
Isabella provided names.
Private doctors.
Surrogacy agencies.
International adoption attorneys.
One name stood out.
Dr. Conrad Hale.
He had overseen confidential births for wealthy families.
He also served on the original Asterion advisory team.
Adrian knew him.
Conrad had signed several altered clinical reports.
Police located his private clinic.
It had been emptied hours earlier.
A nurse was found tied inside a storage room.
She described a woman arriving in labor three days earlier.
The mother had no identification.
After delivery, Conrad separated her from the infant.
The mother’s name was Ana Morales.
She had agreed to act as a surrogate for a European couple.
The contract was false.
The intended parents did not exist.
Vittorio’s company had arranged everything.
Ana was still missing.
Inside the operating room, Khloe’s contractions intensified.
The fetal heartbeat remained dangerously slow.
Naomi prepared for an emergency cesarean delivery.
Khloe gripped the side of the bed.
“Please wait for Marcus.”
“We do not have twenty minutes.”
“What happens if we wait?”
Naomi did not soften the answer.
“Your daughter may not survive.”
Khloe closed her eyes.
“Do it.”
Adrian entered in surgical clothing.
“Marcus is seven minutes away.”
Khloe looked at him.
“Tell him I chose her.”
“He knows.”
“No.”
“Tell him exactly.”
“I chose her.”
Adrian took her hand.
“You are both coming through this.”
The anesthesiologist prepared the medication.
Then Naomi noticed the label.
The vial contained the correct drug name.
The concentration was wrong.
Ten times stronger than ordered.
She stopped the injection.
“Where did this come from?”
A nurse checked the tray.
“It was sealed.”
Naomi looked at the access log.
The medication had been placed there by the surgical supervisor whose badge Crane stole.
Crane had carried the vial.
Even after being shot, he had nearly reached Khloe through a bottle placed minutes earlier.
Naomi discarded the medication.
She opened an independently verified kit.
Khloe watched the medical team.
“Is anything in this hospital real?”
Adrian squeezed her hand.
“We are.”
The operating room doors locked.
Outside, smoke spread through the old wing.
Owen and hospital security controlled the electrical fire.
Crane was transported under armed guard.
Before leaving, he whispered to Adrian.
“You are watching the wrong elevator.”
Adrian checked the security map.
Vittorio had entered through the main lobby during the confusion.
Cameras showed him wearing a hospital board badge.
He moved toward Damian’s recovery room.
Damian woke to find Vittorio standing beside his bed.
His shoulder was bandaged.
A police officer had been stationed outside.
The officer was gone.
Vittorio closed the door.
“You failed.”
Damian stared at him.
“You abandoned Isabella.”
“She became a liability.”
“You ordered Crane to kill her.”
“Crane acted for himself.”
“You planned the false baby.”
Vittorio smiled.
“You finally understand.”
Damian attempted to reach the call button.
Vittorio moved it away.
“Marcus will never trust you again.”
“Isabella will testify against you.”
“The company knows you betrayed it.”
“You have nothing left.”
Damian looked toward the window.
“What do you want?”
“Your statement.”
Vittorio placed a document on the bed.
It claimed Damian alone planned the hospital incident.
It claimed Isabella acted under his orders.
It cleared Vittorio of all knowledge.
“Sign it.”
“No.”
“Then the police will discover that the weapon used in Helena Vale’s crash was purchased through an account in your mother’s name.”
Damian’s face changed.
“My mother had nothing to do with Helena.”
“I know.”
“The evidence will say otherwise.”
“You would destroy her.”
“She has lived comfortably because of me.”
“Comfort is not immunity.”
Damian looked at the document.
He had spent his life resenting Marcus for inheriting their father’s power.
Now he understood that power without loyalty was only another cage.
“What happens if I sign?”
“You receive legal protection.”
“Isabella?”
“She receives consequences.”
“The child?”
Vittorio’s eyes became cold.
“Which child?”
Damian understood that Khloe’s daughter meant nothing to him.
Neither did the stolen boy.
Every human being was a line in Vittorio’s strategy.
Damian reached for the pen.
Then he pressed the emergency button hidden beneath his blanket.
An alarm sounded.
Vittorio stepped back.
Damian grabbed his wrist.
The door opened.
The missing guard entered.
He did not help Damian.
He struck him across the face.
The guard worked for Vittorio.
They transferred Damian into a wheelchair.
They covered his face with an oxygen mask.
Security cameras recorded what appeared to be an emergency medical transfer.
They moved him toward the service elevator.
Elaine saw them.
She had been returning from Rachel’s room.
The man pushing the wheelchair wore shoes that did not match hospital uniform standards.
Black Italian leather.
Vittorio walked beside him.
Elaine stepped behind a pillar.
She called Ortiz.
“Vittorio has Damian.”
“Where?”
“Service elevator C.”
Ortiz ran.
Elaine followed despite being ordered to stay away.
The elevator descended toward the basement.
Ortiz took the stairs.
Elaine entered the next elevator.
In the operating room, Naomi prepared to begin.
The doors opened one final time.
Marcus entered wearing surgical scrubs.
Khloe looked at him.
“You came back.”
He went to her side.
“I told you I would prove it.”
She touched his face.
“They have to deliver her.”
“I know.”
“I am scared.”
“So am I.”
The honesty calmed her more than false confidence would have.
Marcus held her hand as the anesthesia began.
The last sound Khloe heard was her husband speaking near her ear.
“Our daughter will know her mother fought for her before she ever saw the sky.”
In the basement, Vittorio moved Damian toward a private ambulance.
Ortiz reached the loading dock.
“Stop.”
The false guard drew a weapon.
Elaine struck him from behind with a metal fire extinguisher.
The weapon fell.
Ortiz tackled Vittorio.
Damian slid from the wheelchair.
His injured shoulder struck the floor.
He cried out.
Vittorio struggled beneath Ortiz.
“You have no idea what you are interrupting.”
Ortiz secured his wrists.
“I am interrupting a kidnapping.”
“You are interrupting history.”
Elaine helped Damian sit upright.
He looked toward his father’s former partner.
“You lost.”
Vittorio smiled from the floor.
“No.”
“Marcus’s child is being delivered before the trust date.”
“The board will control the shares.”
“The merger will pass without me.”
Damian’s expression changed.
“Not if I vote against it.”
“You are suspended.”
“I transferred my personal voting shares six hours ago.”
“To whom?”
Damian looked toward the ceiling, as though Khloe could hear him several floors above.
“To my niece.”
Vittorio’s smile disappeared.
Before surgery, Damian had signed an irrevocable proxy assigning every share he controlled to Khloe’s unborn daughter.
If she survived, the board could not approve the merger.
If she did not survive, the proxy transferred to the Helena Initiative.
Either way, Vittorio had lost the vote.
Inside the operating room, the monitor sounded a final warning.
Naomi made the incision.
Marcus held Khloe’s hand.
Minutes passed.
Then a tiny child emerged into the bright surgical light.
She did not cry.
The neonatal team moved quickly.
Marcus searched their faces.
“Why isn’t she crying?”
No one answered.
The room filled with controlled commands.
Oxygen.
Suction.
Stimulation.
Khloe drifted near unconsciousness.
“Marcus.”
“I am here.”
“Is she alive?”
Marcus looked toward the small table where doctors worked over their daughter.
He saw one tiny hand move.
Then the neonatal doctor turned.
“We have a heartbeat.”
A thin cry rose through the room.
Marcus closed his eyes.
Khloe began to sob.
Their daughter was alive.
Then Naomi looked toward Khloe’s monitor.
Her relief vanished.
Khloe’s blood pressure was falling.
The internal bleeding had worsened.
May you like
The baby had survived the birth.
Now Marcus was about to lose his wife.
