Chapter 6 - SOFIA'S LAST PHONE CALL
Ryan survived.
By morning, federal investigators had him under guard.
He asked to speak with me.
I did not want to see him.
Then he said he would only reveal what happened to Hope if I came.
Hope was already found.
But I needed to know everything.
I entered the room.
Ryan looked smaller than I remembered.
Bruised.
Bandaged.
Pathetic.
I had once mistaken his volatility for passion.
Now I saw what it really was.
Weakness demanding other people fear it.
“You sold our daughter.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Say it while looking at me.”
He did.
“I sold Hope.”
My hands trembled.
“For eighty thousand dollars?”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
His face twisted.
“I didn’t know they would do that.”
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate him cleanly.
But hatred felt too small.
“Why did you cause the fall?”
“I didn’t mean for you to fall.”
“You grabbed me.”
“Yes.”
“You blocked the stairs.”
“Yes.”
“Then you caused it.”
He looked away.
No more excuses.
I asked about Sofia.
Ryan claimed she contacted him after discovering his communications with Dr. Cross.
She offered him money to help recover Gabriel’s baby.
He agreed.
Not because he was good.
Because Sofia offered more than Voss.
Then Ryan tried playing both sides.
He told Voss Sofia was investigating.
He told Sofia Voss had the baby.
He told Isabella enough to frighten her.
He told Marianne enough to keep access to the estate.
Every disaster became another opportunity for Ryan.
“What happened at the hospital?”
“Sofia was bleeding.”
“I know.”
“Isabella learned someone planned to give Sofia an anticoagulant.”
“Who?”
“Cross.”
“Why?”
“To make her death look medical.”
Isabella secretly replaced the medication with saline.
But someone changed it again.
“Who?”
Ryan whispered:
“Celeste.”
The nanny.
The woman I found unconscious beside the liquor bottle.
My stomach dropped.
Celeste had worked for Gabriel before Mateo’s birth.
Sofia trusted her.
After Sofia died, Celeste became Mateo’s primary nanny.
“She killed Sofia?”
Ryan nodded.
“Voss paid her.”
“Then why was Celeste drugged?”
“Because Marianne discovered what she did.”
Everything twisted again.
Marianne had drugged Celeste the night I found Mateo.
Not to harm him.
To stop Celeste.
Marianne then tampered with security and tried to escape.
“But Mateo’s formula?”
“Celeste.”
“Isabella admitted drugging him.”
“Isabella gave small doses twice.”
Ryan grimaced.
“Celeste increased them.”
Two different people had tampered with the baby for different reasons.
Isabella wanted doctors to discover the switch.
Celeste wanted Mateo dead.
“Why kill Mateo?”
“Loose end.”
Once Gabriel’s biological son was located elsewhere, Mateo could expose the hospital network through DNA.
Voss wanted the substitute child gone.
The starving baby in my arms had survived because Celeste became too sedated to finish what she planned.
Marianne drugged her.
Then locked Gabriel and me inside the nursery long enough for security chaos to create an escape route.
“She whispered my name?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make Gabriel suspicious of you.”
Marianne was still manipulating everyone while trying to save herself.
Ryan continued.
“Voss ordered Sofia killed.”
“Where is Voss?”
Ryan smiled weakly.
“He thinks I don’t know.”
“Where?”
“An old maternity clinic in Wisconsin.”
Federal agents moved immediately.
The clinic had been closed for seven years.
Behind a false wall, they found records documenting hundreds of illegal placements.
Julian Voss was not there.
Dr. Cross was.
Alive.
She surrendered.
Her testimony became the key.
Voss ran the network.
Cross altered medical records.
Celeste handled hospital access.
Vittorio financed certain operations.
Ryan recruited vulnerable cases and moved documents.
Marianne managed information.
But Voss had one final insurance policy.
He kept original records proving where every child went.
If arrested, he threatened to destroy them.
Hundreds of families needed those records.
The FBI could not simply storm whatever location he occupied.
Cross gave them a likely contact method.
Gabriel received the call that night.
Voss wanted a trade.
His records for five million dollars and safe passage.
Gabriel agreed immediately.
Federal agents did not.
Negotiations began.
Then Voss added another demand.
“Bring Anna Mercer.”
Again.
Why me?
Cross finally explained.
Hope’s placement had become Voss’s biggest mistake.
Ryan sold a child without properly erasing maternal records.
My medical file connected multiple parts of the network.
Voss believed I had retained original paperwork.
“I don’t.”
“He doesn’t know that.”
Gabriel refused to let me participate.
“No.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
“No.”
“There could be hundreds of parents who need those records.”
“And Hope needs you.”
That stopped me.
He had learned my own argument.
I almost smiled.
Then an FBI agent proposed another approach.
I would appear by video only.
Voss needed to believe I was cooperating.
The exchange would happen at a train depot.
Gabriel would carry a case.
Federal teams would surround the area.
Dangerous.
But controlled.
Before the operation, I visited Hope.
She was transitioning gradually into my care.
Rebecca handed her to me.
Hope rested her head on my shoulder.
“Come back,” Rebecca said quietly.
I looked at her.
“For her.”
There was no jealousy in her voice.
Only fear.
We were both mothers to the same child in different ways.
“I will.”
The exchange began at midnight.
Voss appeared on a remote video connection.
Gabriel stood alone beneath depot lights.
“Money?”
Gabriel lifted the case.
“Records?”
Voss showed boxes.
Then demanded to see me.
My video feed activated from a secure location.
“There she is,” Voss said.
I looked at the man who had sold my daughter.
“You told Ryan Hope was dead.”
“I told him what was useful.”
“You sold her.”
“I arranged a placement.”
“You sold her.”
His expression hardened.
“You should be grateful. She went to a good family.”
The cruelty of that sentence took my breath.
“You stole fourteen months of her life from me.”
Voss shrugged.
Then a voice sounded behind him.
Female.
“Julian, we need to leave.”
Dr. Cross stared at the monitor.
“That’s not one of his people.”
“Who?”
Her face went pale.
“Sofia.”
Gabriel heard it through his earpiece.
He froze.
So did I.
Sofia Falcone was dead.
We had medical records.
A funeral.
A grave.
Yet Cross had recognized the woman’s voice immediately.
Agents enhanced the audio.
The woman spoke again.
“Julian.”
Gabriel whispered:
“No.”
Then Voss’s camera shifted accidentally.
For half a second, a woman appeared behind him.
Dark hair.
Thin face.
Alive.
Gabriel dropped the money case.
May you like
“Sofia.”
The video went black.
