Chapter 2 - THE SIGNATURE OF A DEAD WOMAN“My mother can't have signed anything. She's dead!”
Chloe's cry cut through the dining room.
Victor immediately took the phone.
“This is Victor Costello. Tell me where the patient was taken.”
The nurse sounded terrified.
“A private ambulance collected him seven minutes ago. The paperwork was approved by the hospital's administrative office.”
“Who approved it?”
“Dr. Nathan Pierce.”
Victor's expression hardened.
He ended the call and looked at Gabriel.
“Find that ambulance. Quietly.”
Caldwell had already disappeared through the restaurant's private exit.
Chloe grabbed Victor's sleeve.
“Please. Liam's nineteen. He's sick. He can't survive without his treatment.”
Victor placed both hands gently on her shoulders.
“Look at me. We're going to find him.”
“Why would you help us?”
For a moment, something painful crossed his face.
“Because someone once helped me when nobody else would.”
Outside, sleet struck the windshield of Victor's armored SUV.
Gabriel drove while Chloe sat beside Victor, repeatedly calling Liam's phone.
Every call went unanswered.
Finally, a message appeared.
UNKNOWN NUMBER:
Stop looking for your brother. If you want him alive, bring Victor Costello to the old Mercy Hospital by midnight.
Chloe showed Victor.
He read it twice.
“That's not a hospital anymore,” he said quietly.
“What is it?”
“A building I shut down twelve years ago.”
Gabriel glanced at him through the rearview mirror.
“Boss, that's impossible. Nobody outside the family knows about Mercy.”
Victor's phone vibrated.
An image appeared.
Liam lay unconscious on a hospital bed.
Beside him stood a woman wearing a white coat.
Her face was hidden, but the necklace around her neck was clearly visible.
A small silver butterfly.
Victor went completely still.
Chloe noticed.
“You recognize that necklace?”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
Victor looked at Chloe, his voice barely above a whisper.
“That necklace belonged to my wife.”
Chloe's eyes widened.
“You're married?”
Victor shook his head.
“My wife died twelve years ago.”
Then a second photograph arrived.
The woman had turned toward the camera.
Victor stared at her face.
May you like
It was his supposedly dead wife, Elena Costello.
And she was standing beside Chloe's missing brother.
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