Chapter 12 - FORTY-THREE SECONDS
Liquid nitrogen released from the laboratory vents.
Warning lights flashed above the storage freezers.
Quinn ordered everyone out.
I refused.
“Lily is in there.”
A technician found the emergency override.
It required Vale’s biometric authorization.
He was unconscious but alive.
Dante dragged him to the scanner.
The system rejected his hand.
Camilla’s authorization was also required.
She was dead.
The freezer temperature began rising.
Records on dozens of stolen samples would be destroyed.
I looked at the blood on Camilla’s thumb.
Then at the scanner.
Quinn understood.
She pressed Camilla’s hand against the glass.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The destruction sequence stopped with sixteen seconds remaining.
Technicians secured Lily’s cord-blood sample.
I watched them place the container inside an evidence case.
It was small.
Everything left of her could fit inside one hand.
Quinn stood beside me.
“You can decide what happens to it after the case.”
“No company keeps it.”
“That can be arranged.”
“No research without consent.”
“Agreed.”
I looked toward Vale being loaded onto a stretcher.
“He said she lived for forty-three seconds.”
“We will verify it.”
The hospital monitor logs confirmed it.
Lily’s heart had beaten briefly after delivery.
Vale ordered the nurse to record no signs of life.
The nurse later received a payment from Rossi Medical Holdings.
She had told herself there was no chance of survival.
She had also told herself silence protected her job.
I listened to the monitor audio.
Forty-three seconds of static.
Machines.
Voices.
Then a small irregular heartbeat.
My daughter’s only sound.
I sat in the evidence room and cried until my body had nothing left.
Dr. Reed stayed with me.
She did not tell me Lily might have survived.
She did not offer false comfort.
She said the only honest thing.
“You should have been told.”
Lorenzo received permission for a secure hospital visit with Leo.
Federal officers cuffed one wrist to the chair.
I stood outside the room.
He held his son for the first time since the mansion fire.
Leo looked stronger.
His cheeks had begun filling out.
When he became hungry, Lorenzo offered a bottle.
Leo drank.
He no longer needed me to feed him every time.
Relief and grief collided inside me.
I had wanted him safe.
Part of me had also feared becoming unnecessary.
Lorenzo noticed my expression.
“He remembers you.”
“He’s two months old.”
“He knows safety.”
I entered the room.
Leo turned toward my voice.
Lorenzo looked at the floor.
“I heard what Vale did to Lily.”
I said nothing.
“No apology from my family can touch that.”
“You are part of that family.”
“Yes.”
His answer was quiet.
“I also built the power that allowed Camilla to hide it.”
“You didn’t order her death.”
“I made fear normal.”
“I taught people that Rossi problems stayed inside Rossi walls.”
“Camilla used that silence.”
He had agreed to surrender the medical network, financial records, and names of corrupt officials.
In return, prosecutors promised protection for Leo and the surviving mothers.
They did not promise Lorenzo freedom.
“How long will you go to prison?” I asked.
“I do not know.”
“Do you expect me to raise your son?”
“No.”
“Then why am I listed in Elena’s trust?”
His face changed.
He had not known I had seen it.
The amended document named an independent guardian if Lorenzo became incarcerated.
Elena had listed Dr. Reed first.
The second name had been added later in handwriting.
May you like
Maya Carter.
The date was two weeks before Lily died.
