Chapter 5 - THE CHILD WHO DISAPPEARED
I hadn't dreamed about the red door in years.
But that night, inside the hospital, the memories returned.
I was six.
My father was carrying me.
Rain pounded against the windows.
A woman screamed somewhere behind us.
Then I heard a baby crying.
A boy.
I didn't know how I knew.
I simply remembered.
When I woke, Matteo was sitting beside my bed.
He looked up immediately.
“Nightmare?”
I nodded.
“About the door.”
He leaned forward.
“Do you remember anything else?”
“A baby.”
His expression changed.
“What baby?”
I swallowed.
“There was a little boy. Someone was taking him away.”
Matteo sat completely still.
Then he asked:
“Do you remember what the woman said?”
I closed my eyes.
The sound returned.
A woman's voice.
Desperate.
Terrified.
Please, don't take my son.
My eyes flew open.
“She said they were taking her son.”
Matteo's face drained of color.
“My mother used to say something similar.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
He looked away.
“When I was a child, she told me I had a younger brother.”
My stomach tightened.
“A brother?”
“He died as an infant. That's what I was told.”
I stared at him.
“What was his name?”
Matteo hesitated.
“Gabriel.”
The name struck something deep inside me.
Gabriel.
I remembered a small blue blanket.
A silver bracelet.
And my father whispering:
“Hold on, Gabriel.”
My hands began shaking.
“Matteo…”
He looked at me.
“I think the baby behind the red door was your brother.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then Luca entered.
He carried a folder recovered from the private medical facility.
“Boss, we found the original patient registry.”
Matteo stood.
“And?”
Luca opened it.
“There are records of a child transferred from the Marino estate twenty-five years ago.”
My heart raced.
“What child?”
“A male infant.”
Matteo gripped the edge of the desk.
“Name?”
Luca swallowed.
“Gabriel Marino.”
I covered my mouth.
Matteo stared at the document.
“Where was he sent?”
Luca turned the page.
Then his expression changed.
“According to this, Gabriel was placed with a family in Queens.”
My blood ran cold.
Queens.
Where I grew up.
Where my father worked.
Where my mother raised me.
Then Luca read the adoptive parents' names.
“Daniel and Margaret Parker.”
May you like
I stopped breathing.
Because those were my parents.
