Chapter 1 - THE NAME ON THE LINE
The nurse stared at Luka Moretti’s signature as if the ink itself might explode.
“Sir, you cannot simply sign that.”
Luka placed the black pen beside the folder.
“I just did.”
My newborn daughter shifted against my chest.
Her tiny fingers curled into the fabric of my hospital gown.
I should have been furious.
I should have demanded the stranger explain himself.
Instead, I kept hearing the same sentence.
“The kind who never leaves a child unprotected.”
Less than five minutes earlier, Adrian Vale had walked away from me.
My husband.
The man who had promised to hold my hand through labor.
The man who had spent the final hour of my pregnancy checking messages from another woman.
The man who had eventually appeared at my hospital door with Vanessa Cole standing beside him in a cream-colored coat.
Vanessa hadn’t even tried to hide what she was.
She had rested one hand possessively on Adrian’s arm while he told me I was being emotional.
Then they left together.
Now Luka Moretti stood where my husband should have been.
The nurse reached for the paperwork.
“We cannot process this until the legal information is verified.”
“Good.”
Luka’s response came instantly.
“Don’t process anything.”
I frowned.
“What?”
His attention shifted toward the nurse.
“Lock her chart.”
The nurse blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“Until your compliance director arrives, nobody accesses the mother’s records or the baby’s bloodwork.”
My stomach tightened.
“Why would anyone access my daughter’s bloodwork?”
Luka looked at me.
For the first time, something almost like hesitation appeared behind his eyes.
That frightened me more than his tattoos.
“What’s your name?”
I asked.
“Luka Moretti.”
“I know that part.”
My voice cracked.
“What I want to know is why you’re standing in my hospital room acting like someone is coming after my baby.”
His jaw tightened.
Before he could answer, the computer beside the nurse made a sharp sound.
The nurse glanced at the screen.
Her expression changed.
“What is it?”
I asked.
She didn’t answer.
She clicked twice.
Then three times.
“That’s strange.”
Luka moved toward her.
“What?”
“The newborn screening order has disappeared.”
My pulse stopped.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“It was here ten minutes ago.”
She refreshed the screen.
“It’s gone.”
Luka’s expression became stone.
“Check the mother’s file.”
The nurse entered my information.
Her face drained of color.
“There’s a restriction.”
“What restriction?”
She leaned closer.
A red notification filled the screen.
SEALED RECORD.
Beneath it was a code.
M-17.
My daughter began to cry.
I stared at the letters.
I had never seen them before.
Luka had.
I knew because the moment he saw the code, his entire body changed.
He reached beneath his jacket and pulled out his phone.
“Lock the maternity floor.”
The nurse stepped backward.
“You can’t order that.”
Luka was already speaking to someone.
“North stairwell first.”
A pause.
“Then elevators.”
Another pause.
“No one leaves with records, samples, or hospital property.”
I grabbed his sleeve.
“What is M-17?”
Luka slowly looked down at my hand.
Then at my face.
“It’s the reason I came here.”
My blood went cold.
“You said you didn’t know me.”
“I never said that.”
I stared at him.
His next words made the room spin.
“Your father sent me.”
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because it was impossible.
“My father has been dead for eleven years.”
Luka’s eyes never left mine.
“No, Elena.”
“He disappeared eleven years ago.”
May you like
Then he leaned closer.
“And three nights ago, Thomas Carter contacted me.”
