Chapter 9 – THE TRAIN TICKET

I stared at the faded piece of cardboard in my hand.

Evelyn Vance.

The name meant nothing to me.

But Matteo had written it in thick black ink on the back of a train ticket he’d hidden deep inside the lining of my suitcase.

He had kept this separate from the brown envelope he’d given me. He had hidden it so thoroughly that even I hadn’t found it until now.

My hands trembled.

I walked out to the hallway.

“Leo?” I called out.

Leonardo was coming up the stairs, carrying a sleeping Lily over his shoulder.

He hushed me gently, nodding toward the little girl.

He walked into Lily’s newly decorated bedroom, tucked her into the pink canopy bed, and quietly closed the door.

“What is it, Emma?” he asked, noticing my pale face.

I held up the train ticket.

“I found this in the bottom of my suitcase. Matteo hid it.”

Leonardo took the ticket. He frowned, turning it over to read the name.

“Evelyn Vance?”

“Do you know who that is?” I asked.

Leonardo’s expression slowly morphed from confusion to absolute shock.

He looked at me, his eyes wide.

“Evelyn Vance was the lead nurse at Thorne’s clinic five years ago.”

My stomach dropped.

“The nurse who delivered Lily?”

Leonardo nodded slowly. “She disappeared three days after Lily was born. Richard told me she took a massive buyout to leave the state and keep quiet. We assumed she just vanished into luxury.”

“Matteo bought her a one-way train ticket to Maine,” I realized aloud.

“Why would Matteo help the nurse who sold his baby escape?” Leonardo asked, staring at the ticket.

We looked at each other.

The same impossible thought crossed our minds simultaneously.

“Because she didn’t just deliver one baby,” Leonardo whispered.

He pulled out his phone, his thumb flying across the screen.

“Carmine’s men raided Thorne’s clinic archives. They have the digitized files.”

He made the call.

“Bring me the medical file on the Russo girl’s delivery from five years ago. Now.”

Ten minutes later, one of Leonardo’s security captains stood in the upstairs study, handing Leonardo a secure tablet.

Leonardo scrolled through the scanned medical documents.

His face drained of all color.

He handed the tablet to me.

I looked at the faded, handwritten delivery notes signed by Dr. Thorne.

Patient: Isabella Russo.Delivery: Cesarean Section. 11:42 PM.Outcome: Female infant. Healthy. Transferred to adoptive custody.

But beneath that, scrawled in the margins by a different hand—Evelyn Vance’s handwriting—were three terrifying words.

Twin B: Concealed.

The tablet slipped from my hands, clattering onto the desk.

“Lily has a twin,” I gasped.

“Thorne didn’t just steal my brother’s daughter,” Leonardo said, his voice shaking with a rage so profound it terrified me. “He stole her twin. And he kept one for himself.”

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