Chapter 7 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
By Saturday morning, I had slept less than five hours in two days.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that hidden basement room.
The chair.
The scratches on the wall.
The blue ribbon wrapped around Celeste's recorder.
And the three little children who had watched their mother disappear.
I was sitting in the protected residence when Agent Reyes called.
“We're executing a search warrant at the Queens medical facility.”
I sat upright.
“Is Celeste there?”
“We don't know yet.”
“Can I come?”
“No. Your safety matters, and the children need familiar people around them.”
I looked toward the living room.
Sophia was helping Matteo arrange puzzle pieces.
Luca sat beside Adrien, turning the pages of a picture book.
The scene looked almost ordinary.
But there was nothing ordinary about the way Adrien watched his children.
He seemed afraid that if he looked away for even a moment, they'd disappear.
“I understand,” I said.
“Evelyn, I'll tell you what we find when I'm able.”
The call ended.
I remained beside the window, watching cars move through the city.
Somewhere out there, a woman who had been missing for two years might be waiting for someone to find her.
I wondered how many mornings she'd woken up believing that day would finally be different.
How many nights she'd fallen asleep without knowing whether her children were safe.
And how many times she'd tapped that same rhythm, hoping someone would answer.
Two hours later, Agent Reyes returned.
Her face told me immediately that something had happened.
Adrien stood.
“Did you find her?”
Agent Reyes removed her coat.
“No.”
His shoulders dropped.
“But we found evidence she was there.”
She placed several photographs on the table.
The first showed a small medical room.
An adjustable bed.
A narrow window covered by reinforced glass.
A television mounted high on the wall.
Everything looked sterile and expensive.
But the second photograph made my chest tighten.
On the bedside table sat a little handmade paper flower.
Its petals were blue.
Five tiny lines had been drawn across its center.
Three long.
Two short.
I touched the photograph.
“That's her signal.”
Agent Reyes nodded.
“The room was cleaned recently. But investigators recovered handwritten notes, medication records, and surveillance footage.”
Adrien leaned forward.
“Footage of Celeste?”
“Yes.”
Agent Reyes opened her laptop.
The first recording showed a corridor outside a treatment room.
A woman emerged slowly, escorted by two attendants.
Celeste.
She wore gray hospital clothing and walked carefully, keeping one hand against the wall.
Her hair fell around her face.
She looked thinner than in the family photographs.
But she was walking.
She was alive.
Adrien pressed one hand against the table.
“Celeste...”
Nobody interrupted him.
In the footage, Celeste paused beside a window.
One attendant stepped away.
She glanced toward the security camera.
Then she raised her right hand.
Three slow movements against the windowsill.
Two quick ones.
I felt my throat tighten.
Even after two years, she was still sending the same message.
Still trying to be found.
Agent Reyes paused the recording.
“There's more.”
She enlarged a section of the video.
A man's reflection appeared in the glass behind Celeste.
Dark suit.
Silver-streaked hair.
A heavy gold ring.
Victor Soren.
I stared at the image.
“There he is.”
Adrien said nothing.
But his face changed.
The grief remained.
Something colder joined it.
Agent Reyes continued.
“The facility director claims these patients were receiving private medical care. But staff records don't support that explanation.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Several patients were admitted under false identities. Some were listed as discharged to facilities that don't exist. Others were recorded as deceased.”
I looked at Celeste's face on the screen.
“How many?”
“We haven't confirmed the total.”
Adrien's voice was low.
“Find every one of them.”
Agent Reyes looked at him.
“We intend to.”
For a long moment, he held her gaze.
Then he said, “Use whatever records you need from my foundation. My attorney will cooperate.”
It wasn't an act of generosity.
Not really.
He had allowed something terrible to grow inside businesses he controlled.
Now he was finally beginning to understand the cost.
Later, Dr. Morgan asked Adrien to join his children in a simple activity.
She arranged building blocks on the carpet.
“Your dad can play if everyone wants him to,” she told them.
Luca looked at Adrien.
Then he pushed one block toward him.
Adrien accepted it as though it were made of glass.
“What should I build?”
Luca considered.
“House.”
Adrien's eyes filled.
“A house?”
Luca nodded.
“Big house.”
Adrien carefully placed one block on top of another.
Matteo added a green block.
Sophia placed a small blue one beside the others.
For twenty minutes, the most feared mafia boss in Manhattan sat on a carpet building a toy house with his children.
Nobody asked them to speak.
Nobody congratulated them every time they managed a word.
They simply played.
When the tower collapsed, Sophia laughed.
A real laugh.
The sound startled Adrien so much that he almost dropped the block he was holding.
Then he laughed, too.
I watched from the doorway.
It was the first genuinely happy moment I'd witnessed since meeting the Bellandi family.
And for a little while, I allowed myself to hope.
That evening, Agent Reyes asked to speak with Adrien and me privately.
Investigators had recovered another piece of surveillance footage from the medical facility.
This recording included sound.
Celeste was sitting in the treatment room.
A man stood outside the camera's view.
His voice was muffled.
But Celeste's response was clear.
“You told me my husband wanted answers.”
She paused.
“I gave him every chance to listen.”
The unseen man said something.
Celeste lifted her head.
“I heard the order myself.”
Adrien's expression changed.
The woman on the recording looked directly toward the doorway.
Her voice trembled.
“Adrien told you to bring me in. I heard him say it.”
The video ended.
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I slowly turned toward Adrien.
And for the first time, he couldn't meet my eyes.
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