Chapter 13 - THE SECOND CHILDThe little girl in the warehouse was named Nina.
That was the first thing Matteo said after Damian’s men cut him loose.
Not help me.
Not I’m sorry.
Not Rocco did this.
Nina.
He said her name like it was the only thing keeping him conscious.
She was four years old, curled inside a shipping crate with a pink backpack clutched to her chest. She had dark curls, a split lip, and a hospital bracelet tied around her wrist with faded blue string.
Not from tonight.
From birth.
Matteo had kept it.
When the field team’s camera feed came through the communications room, I saw her face and felt the world crack wider.
Rocco had not only stolen pasts.
He had kept children as proof.
As currency.
As reminders that truth could always be taken hostage.
Damian stood beside the main screen, jaw locked.
“Get them both out,” he ordered.
The field agent’s voice answered, “We’re trying, but the crate has a pressure sensor. Bomb squad is five minutes out.”
My blood ran cold.
“She’s four.”
“No movement,” Damian said. “No one touches the crate until it’s cleared.”
On the auction screen, Rocco watched us watching the warehouse.
He was enjoying it.
“You see, nephew,” he said, “families are fragile things. One wrong move and they disappear.”
I turned toward his face on the screen.
“You are sick.”
“I am efficient.”
“You put a child on a bomb.”
“I put a secret where careless men would hesitate.”
Damian did not look at him.
That was how I knew he was close to losing control.
Grace Holloway whispered through the earpiece, “Keep him engaged. We need ninety seconds.”
Ninety seconds.
A lifetime when a child is sitting on death.
I stepped toward the camera.
“Why Nina?”
Rocco’s eyes shifted to me.
“Because you care.”
“Who is she?”
“A mistake from Philadelphia.”
“She has a mother?”
“All children have mothers.”
“You stole her too?”
He smiled.
“Her mother made inconvenient choices.”
“What choices?”
“She tried to expose me.”
My stomach twisted.
“Where is she?”
Rocco’s smile faded.
“Gone.”
A sound came from the side of the room.
Mrs. Bellamy stood in the doorway, pale but steady. She had left Leah upstairs with the guards and come down without asking anyone’s permission.
“Matteo,” she whispered at the warehouse feed.
Her grandson was conscious now. Blood covered one side of his face. His hands were free, but he refused to leave Nina.
“I’m sorry, Nonna,” he said into the field camera, voice breaking. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.”
Mrs. Bellamy touched the screen.
“I know, baby.”
Damian looked at her.
There was a complicated pain between them.
Matteo had betrayed his house.
But he was also a boy Rocco had broken with lies.
On the feed, a bomb technician crawled slowly toward the crate.
Nina whimpered.
Matteo reached one hand toward her but did not touch.
“You’re okay,” he told her. “Look at me, Nina. Remember the song?”
She shook her head, crying.
“I want Mama.”
I closed my eyes.
That word again.
The word that had started everything.
The word Rocco kept turning into a weapon.
I moved closer to the microphone.
“Nina,” I said.
The field agent looked toward his speaker, then placed it near the crate.
“Nina, my name is Ava. I’m a mom.”
The little girl’s sobs hiccuped.
“I know you’re scared. But there are good people beside you. Matteo is staying with you. The man helping the box is going to make it safe.”
“I want Mommy.”
“I know.”
My voice broke, but I kept going.
“I wanted my little girl too. For a long time. Sometimes grown-ups lie, and sometimes children get lost inside those lies. But you are not alone right now.”
Nina looked toward the speaker.
“Promise?”
I looked at Damian.
His eyes were on me.
“I promise,” I said.
The bomb technician’s hand moved beneath the crate.
Everyone stopped breathing.
One wire.
Then another.
A soft beep changed rhythm.
Then stopped.
“Device safe,” the technician said.
The room erupted in exhaled breath.
Mrs. Bellamy sobbed.
Matteo reached into the crate and pulled Nina into his arms. She clung to him, crying into his shoulder.
Damian finally turned back to Rocco.
“You lost.”
Rocco’s expression had gone cold.
“No. I adjusted.”
One by one, the auction squares vanished.
He was shutting it down.
Grace cursed under her breath.
“We didn’t get all locations.”
Damian stepped closer to the camera.
“Run.”
Rocco smiled.
“You first.”
The screen went black.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Grace turned from her station.
“We captured enough for warrants, but not enough to get every child.”
Damian looked at the warehouse feed.
“Matteo has the ledger.”
At that moment, the field agent lifted a black notebook from Matteo’s jacket.
“He says this is it.”
Grace’s face changed.
“Bring him in.”
Damian nodded.
“No police yet.”
Grace glared.
“Excuse me?”
“Rocco has police.”
“He also has fewer now because we recorded him.”
Damian looked at her.
“If you move through official channels too fast, he burns whatever we have not found.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
Because he was right.
I hated that he was right.
Dr. Vale approached with a new report in his hand.
“The full DNA confirmation is processing, but the preliminary is strong enough for emergency filings. Ava can establish biological maternity.”
Damian nodded.
“Prepare it.”
I stared at him.
“You’re helping me claim her?”
He looked almost offended.
“She is yours.”
“But if I claim her legally, you could lose her.”
Pain crossed his face.
“Yes.”
“And you’re still helping?”
He looked toward the stairs, where Leah slept somewhere above us.
“I lost her the moment I learned the truth. The only question is whether I lose her by force or love her correctly.”
My throat tightened.
Before I could answer, a small voice came from the doorway.
“Daddy?”
Leah stood there in pajamas too big for her, velvet rabbit dragging from one hand.
Everyone froze.
She looked at me.
“Mama.”
Then at Damian.
“Daddy.”
May you like
Then she said a sentence that made the entire room fall silent.
“Bad man took other babies.”
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