Chapter 4 - The Hospital Room with No PatientDominic arrived at St. Catherine's Hospital at 9:46 a.m.
By then, twelve of his men had surrounded the building, and another six were checking the surrounding streets. Dominic hated bringing violence anywhere near a hospital, but he hated being manipulated even more.
Marco walked beside him.
“The woman was moved fifteen minutes ago,” he reported. “The nurse says a doctor ordered the transfer.”
“Which doctor?”
“There's no transfer order in the system.”
Dominic stopped in the corridor.
“Then someone stole my sister out of a hospital bed.”
Nobody answered.
They reached Elena's room. The bed was empty, the blanket had been thrown aside, and the heart monitor continued beeping as if nothing had happened.
A paper cup lay on its side beside the window.
Dominic picked it up.
The rim carried a faint smear of red lipstick.
His sister had worn that shade since she was seventeen.
He closed his fingers around the cup.
“Lock down the building.”
Marco spoke into his radio.
Within seconds, the corridor filled with men dressed in dark suits. Hospital staff hurried past, frightened by the sudden appearance of armed security.
A nurse approached Dominic cautiously.
“Are you Mr. Evans?”
“Yes.”
She glanced toward the guards.
“Your sister told me to give you something if she disappeared.”
Dominic's entire body became still.
“Where is it?”
The nurse reached into her pocket and produced a brass key wrapped in a piece of tissue.
“She said you would recognize it.”
Dominic stared at the key.
It belonged to the storage cabinet in the basement of their childhood home, a cabinet their father had forbidden anyone to open.
After his father's death, the cabinet had vanished during the renovation.
“Did she say anything else?”
The nurse nodded.
“She said the girl must never be allowed to see the man with the gold ring.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
Victor wore a gold signet ring.
“What man was she talking about?” the nurse asked nervously.
Dominic slipped the key into his pocket.
“Someone who should have stayed dead to us.”
He turned toward the elevator.
A sudden crash sounded behind them.
One of his guards shouted. Another yelled for assistance. The corridor erupted in movement.
Dominic spun around.
A hospital orderly had dropped a metal cart and was running toward the stairwell. Marco pursued him, but the man hurled a fire extinguisher down the stairs, buying himself enough time to disappear.
“Don't chase him!” Dominic shouted.
Marco stopped immediately.
Dominic looked through the glass doors of Elena's room.
On the pillow lay a small object that hadn't been there before.
A child's red hair ribbon.
Ellie's ribbon.
Dominic snatched it from the bed.
Then his phone rang.
An unknown number.
He answered without speaking.
A man's voice came through the receiver.
“You're moving faster than I expected, Dominic.”
“Victor.”
“Still so quick to make accusations.”
“Give me my sister.”
Victor laughed softly.
“I haven't seen Elena in seven years. Why would I suddenly know where she is?”
“You've purchased the property surrounding the warehouse where she disappeared. You sent someone after Ellie. You had her taken from this hospital.”
“Careful. You're letting grief turn you stupid.”
Dominic stared at the floor.
“Where is she?”
A pause followed.
Then Victor said, “Come to the warehouse tonight. Bring the little girl. No army, no police, no heroic rescue attempt. Just you, me, and the family you've been so desperate to recover.”
Dominic's expression didn't change.
“And if I refuse?”
“You'll have to explain to Ellie why her mother died twice.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, Dominic listened to the silence.
Then he turned toward Marco.
“Trace the call.”
“We're trying.”
“Don't try. Find him.”
Marco nodded and hurried away.
Dominic remained in the corridor, holding the ribbon.
For years, he had believed he could protect his family by making himself untouchable. He had built an empire surrounded by men who would die for him, and he had convinced himself that fear was a kind of safety.
But Elena had been hunted while he was busy conquering New York.
Ellie had been sleeping on cardboard while he lived behind guarded gates.
And now Victor was using both of them to drag him into a trap.
Dominic looked at the ribbon again.
A memory rose unexpectedly: Elena tying bright ribbons in her hair before school, laughing whenever he complained that she looked ridiculous.
He had promised their father he would protect her.
He had failed.
He would not fail Ellie.
He called the mansion.
Margaret answered immediately.
“How is she?”
“She's eating lunch,” Margaret replied. “She wants to know whether you'll be back before dinner.”
Dominic swallowed.
“Tell her I'll try.”
There was a brief silence.
“Mr. Evans, she asked me something else.”
“What?”
“She wanted to know whether a daddy could stop loving a little girl if she turned out to be trouble.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“No,” he said firmly. “Tell her that isn't how love works.”
After ending the call, he entered the hospital's underground parking garage.
A black sedan stood beside his car.
Its windows were dark.
Dominic noticed the rear tire first. It was punctured, and someone had scratched a message across the driver's door with a sharp object.
THE FIRST LIGHT TOUCHES THE WATER.
Beneath the words was a tiny crescent moon.
Dominic reached for his weapon.
A side door opened with a metallic squeal.
Someone stepped out of the darkness.
A young nurse stood before him, trembling, with blood running down her forehead.
“Mr. Evans,” she whispered. “Your sister told me to find you.”
Dominic lowered his weapon slightly.
“Where is she?”
The nurse looked toward the stairwell.
“She's not in the hospital anymore.”
“I know that.”
“No, sir. You don't understand.” The nurse swallowed. “The woman they took from the hospital wasn't Elena.”
Dominic went completely still.
The nurse held out a photograph.
It showed Elena sitting beside an open window, her face turned toward the camera.
Behind her stood a second woman with the same dark hair, the same height, and an almost identical profile.
One wore a crescent-moon pendant.
The other wore a gold ring.
At the bottom of the photograph, Elena had written a message.
HE HAS A TWIN. AND ONE OF THEM IS ALREADY INSIDE YOUR HOUSE.
Dominic looked toward the elevator.
For the first time that morning, he wasn't thinking about Victor.
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He was thinking about Ellie, sleeping beneath a canopy in his mansion.
And he was wondering who had been standing guard outside her bedroom.
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