Chapter 3 – THE GHOST IN THE WARD

The dining room descended into absolute chaos.

Guests began whispering furiously. A few people stood up, backing away from the table as if Vanessa carried a contagious disease.

“Noah, sweetheart,” Luca said, his hands gripping his son’s shoulders. “What do you mean she gave Mommy her medicine?”

Vanessa lunged forward, her polished veneer completely shattering.

“Don’t listen to him!” she screamed, her face flushed with panic. “He’s a child! He’s confused! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!”

“Take one more step toward my son and I will throw you through that window,” Luca snarled, his voice so dark it made my own blood run cold.

He turned his attention back to Noah. “Tell me everything, buddy. You’re safe. I promise.”

Noah sniffled, rubbing his eyes with his little fists.

“I was sleeping on the chair in Mommy’s room,” Noah whispered. “Mommy was crying because she was in pain. Then Vanessa came in. She wasn’t wearing her regular clothes. She was wearing a blue doctor coat.”

Luca stared at Vanessa.

She was shaking violently.

“She told Mommy she brought something to make the pain stop,” Noah continued. “She put something in Mommy’s IV tube. But Mommy didn’t want it. Mommy said, ‘Please, I just want to stay awake for Luca.’ But Vanessa pushed the button anyway.”

Tears streamed down Luca’s face. “And then what happened?”

“Vanessa saw me,” Noah whimpered, grabbing onto my apron again. “She came over to the chair. She grabbed my arm really hard. She told me if I ever told you she was there, you would go away too, and I would have to live in an orphanage.”

The room erupted.

A woman near the back covered her mouth, sobbing.

I felt physically sick. I looked at Vanessa, this elegant, wealthy woman who had spent the last eleven months treating me like dirt, and realized she was a monster.

“You drugged my wife,” Luca whispered, standing up. “You purposely sedated her so she couldn’t say goodbye to me.”

“I was the hospital liaison!” Vanessa cried, backing toward the dining room doors. “I was authorized to assist with patient comfort! She was in agony, Luca! I did it for her!”

“You did it because you knew she was going to expose you,” Matteo Ferretti spoke up, stepping out from the shadows of the projector.

Luca turned to the Italian businessman.

“What do you mean?” Luca asked.

Matteo reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small, folded piece of paper.

“Mr. Moretti, when your wife asked my company to restore her films, she also mailed me this letter. She told me to only open it if something happened to her second canister.”

Matteo unfolded the paper.

“Your wife discovered that Vanessa was embezzling money from the hospital’s charity fund,” Matteo read aloud. “Claire had the proof. She was going to tell the hospital board the next morning. But she never got the chance… because she slipped into a coma that night.”

Luca’s eyes widened.

He looked at Vanessa.

“You didn’t just isolate my wife,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a terrifying calm. “You silenced her to save yourself. And then you embedded yourself into my life to get access to my wealth.”

Vanessa realized it was over.

The mask fell.

Her panicked expression twisted into a cold, desperate sneer.

“You think you’re so smart, Luca?” she spat, grabbing her purse from Matteo’s hands. “You think you can just throw me out?”

“You are leaving this house tonight,” Luca said. “And my lawyers will have you arrested before sunrise.”

Vanessa laughed. It was a harsh, ugly sound.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she sneered. “And neither is the boy.”

Luca stepped in front of Noah. “You’ll never touch my son.”

Vanessa reached into her designer purse. She didn’t pull out a weapon.

She pulled out a crumpled piece of heavy, watermarked paper.

“Do you remember the business contracts you signed last week, Luca?” she smiled maliciously. “The ones you were too busy to read because you were planning this stupid birthday party?”

Luca froze.

“You signed the preliminary adoption papers,” Vanessa sneered. “I am legally Noah’s mother now. If you throw me out, I’m taking him with me.”