Chapter 6 – THE LIE AND THE TRUTH

The ride back to St. Catherine’s Hospital felt completely different from the ride there.

The world outside the window was turning a pale, bruised purple as dawn approached. In the backseat, Mia was fast asleep, her head resting heavily on my chest, her tiny fingers still tangled in the fabric of my coat. I rested my chin on her head, listening to the rhythmic, miraculous sound of her breathing.

But Antonio’s words were a poison slowly spreading through my veins.

Ask your dear husband exactly how he paid off his gambling debts three years ago.

Daniel didn’t gamble. Did he?

Three years ago, right before I went into early labor, we were drowning in debt. The rent was three months behind. The car was repossessed. And then, suddenly, a week after we buried the empty urn, Daniel came home with cash. He told me his uncle had passed away and left him a small inheritance.

Had he lied to me? Had the man I loved, the man bleeding in a hospital bed right now, sold our daughter?

“Stop thinking so loudly, Rachel,” Luca said from the front passenger seat. He didn’t turn around.

“Did he know?” I whispered, my voice breaking. “Did Daniel sell her to Vanessa?”

Luca sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “My father is a snake, Rachel. He bites when he is cornered, and he aims for the weakest point. Your husband fought a woman in a back alley tonight to get a piece of evidence. Does that sound like a man who sold his child?”

“Then where did the money come from?”

“We will ask him when he wakes up.”

When we walked back into the ICU, the nurses immediately rushed toward us, their eyes wide at the sight of the little girl in my arms. But Luca silenced them with a single look.

“Put a cot in Daniel Bennett’s room,” Luca ordered the head nurse. “And lock the door. Nobody enters without my direct permission.”

We walked into Daniel’s room.

The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor was the only sound. Daniel looked terrible. His head was wrapped in thick white bandages, his face bruised and swollen. Tubes ran from his arms.

I sat in the chair next to his bed, holding Mia on my lap. She stirred, blinking her green eyes open, and looked at the man in the bed.

“Daddy?” she murmured.

My heart squeezed. She recognized him from the drawing. The drawing Helen had shown me.

“Yes, baby,” I whispered. “That’s daddy. He’s sleeping right now.”

Suddenly, Daniel’s fingers twitched against the white sheets.

I gasped, leaning forward. “Daniel?”

His eyelids fluttered. The nurse had said the sedation was wearing off, but it would take time. Slowly, agonizingly, his green eyes opened. They were glassy and unfocused, but as they landed on me, they cleared.

Then, he saw the little girl on my lap.

A tear immediately spilled down the side of Daniel’s bruised face. He tried to lift his hand, but he was too weak.

“You found her,” Daniel rasped, his voice barely a whisper behind the oxygen mask.

“I did,” I cried, leaning forward so he could touch Mia’s foot. “Luca helped me.”

Daniel looked up at Luca, who was standing by the door. “Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank me yet, Daniel,” Luca said, his voice dangerously calm. “My father told Rachel an interesting story on the tarmac. He suggested you knew about the kidnapping. He suggested you sold her to pay off a gambling debt.”

Daniel closed his eyes, fresh tears leaking out.

“Daniel?” I asked, panic rising in my chest. “Tell me it isn’t true. Please.”

“I didn’t sell her,” Daniel choked out, his chest heaving. “I swear to God, Rachel, I didn’t sell her. I thought she was dead. Just like you did.”

“Then where did the money come from?” I pleaded.

Daniel looked at me, his eyes filled with three years of agonizing shame.

“Vanessa,” Daniel whispered.

The room went completely still.

“After the funeral… after they gave us the urn… I was desperate,” Daniel cried. “I went to a loan shark to pay for the hospital bills. He was going to kill me. The next day, an envelope of cash was slipped under our apartment door. There was a note. It said it was from an anonymous donor who heard about our tragic loss.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I sobbed.

“Because you were already broken, Rach. If I told you we were taking charity from strangers because I couldn’t provide for us, it would have destroyed whatever pride we had left. I made up the story about my uncle to protect you.”

“But how did you know it was Vanessa?” Luca asked sharply.

“Because of the envelope,” Daniel said, coughing weakly. “It had a custom wax seal. A bell with a vine wrapped around it. The Bellini family crest.”

Luca’s jaw clenched tight enough to shatter bone.

“Tonight,” Daniel continued, “I was delivering wine to the summer house. I saw the little girl playing in the yard. I saw the birthmark on her neck. And then… I saw the nanny packing a bag. I recognized the nanny, Rachel. It was the same nurse who handed us the death certificate at the hospital.”

I gasped. Helen wasn’t just a nanny. She was a fake nurse Vanessa had hired to swap the babies.

“I followed her to the mansion,” Daniel said, his eyes drooping as exhaustion took over. “I confronted her in the alley. I was going to bring the police. But she hit me.”

He reached out, his trembling fingers brushing against my hand.

“I’m so sorry, Rach. I failed you. I failed both of you.”

I grabbed his hand and kissed his knuckles, weeping. “You didn’t fail us. You fought for us. You brought her back.”

Luca turned toward the door. His face was a mask of absolute, terrifying fury.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“To finish my engagement party,” Luca replied.

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