Chapter 11 - THE CLINIC WITHOUT WINDOWS
Saint Agnes Clinic had no public sign.
It stood behind a private rehabilitation center surrounded by forest.
Agent Quinn placed a microphone beneath my collar.
Dante, released temporarily as a cooperating witness, drove me to the entrance.
Lorenzo remained in federal custody.
He argued against the operation through his attorney.
Quinn ignored him.
So did I.
Dr. Vale’s men searched me at the door.
They missed the microphone woven into my bra strap.
The clinic smelled like the hospital where Lily died.
For one second, my legs stopped working.
Then I heard a baby crying somewhere below.
I kept moving.
Vale waited inside a white laboratory.
Camilla sat restrained in a wheelchair.
Her pearls were gone.
A burn marked one side of her face.
She looked smaller without the mansion around her.
“You came,” Vale said.
“You have Lily’s samples.”
“I have everything they removed from her.”
My hands tightened.
“You had no right.”
“Rights are paperwork written after discovery.”
“Before discovery, there is only opportunity.”
Camilla laughed weakly.
“He is going to kill you.”
Vale looked at her.
“You were willing to kill Maya yourself.”
“I was willing to use her.”
“There is a difference.”
I stared at Camilla.
“Did you order Derek to push me?”
She held my gaze.
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“Did you know Lily would die?”
“I knew it was possible.”
“Why me?”
“Your prenatal tests matched Elena’s profile.”
“You had no relatives who would ask questions.”
“You were financially vulnerable.”
“Derek was easy to purchase.”
Every word reduced my daughter’s death to logistics.
I wanted to strike her.
Instead, I asked the question Quinn needed recorded.
“Who ordered Elena Rossi’s death?”
Camilla looked toward Vale.
“He increased the medication.”
Vale’s expression hardened.
“You authorized it.”
“You said she would expose the network.”
“You turned off the monitor.”
They began blaming each other exactly as Quinn predicted.
Camilla admitted ordering Leo’s poisoning.
Vale admitted designing the bottle system.
Camilla admitted funding Derek.
Vale admitted altering Lily’s emergency records.
Then he revealed something neither Camilla nor investigators knew.
Lily had shown signs of life after delivery.
My body went cold.
“What?”
“She had a heartbeat for forty-three seconds.”
Vale spoke clinically.
“The hospital recorded her as stillborn because intervention was unlikely to succeed.”
“You didn’t try?”
“You had severe bleeding.”
“We prioritized you.”
I staggered backward.
“Did she cry?”
Vale looked annoyed by the question.
“No.”
Camilla watched me.
For the first time, something like discomfort crossed her face.
Vale continued.
“The cord blood was collected during those forty-three seconds.”
I heard Quinn’s voice through the hidden earpiece.
“Maya, leave.”
I could not move.
My daughter had lived for forty-three seconds.
No one told me.
No one placed her against my skin.
No one let me say goodbye to a child who had briefly entered the world.
Vale approached with a syringe.
“Your body is producing the treatment Leo needs.”
“We can continue safely.”
“You killed my baby and want me to help you?”
“Lily’s death created data that can save thousands.”
“No.”
“It created a crime.”
I stepped backward toward Camilla.
Vale lifted the syringe.
The laboratory lights went out.
Dante’s voice sounded from the hallway.
“Federal agents.”
Vale grabbed me.
The needle pressed against my neck.
Then Camilla rolled her wheelchair forward and struck his knees.
He fell.
The syringe slid across the floor.
I kicked it beneath a cabinet.
Vale drew a gun.
A shot exploded.
Camilla jerked in the wheelchair.
Blood spread across her chest.
Federal agents entered.
Vale fired again.
Quinn shot him.
He collapsed beside the freezer holding Lily’s samples.
Camilla looked at me.
Her lips moved.
I leaned closer.
“Why did you help me?”
She smiled faintly.
“I didn’t.”
“I stopped him from owning what was mine.”
Even dying, she understood only possession.
Camilla Rossi closed her eyes.
The clinic alarms began screaming.
May you like
Vale had activated a freezer-destruction system.
Lily’s samples were about to burn.
