Chương 14
The federal attorneys repeatedly asked whether Victoria had ordered murders.
Dante described what he knew and refused to guess.
At night, he wrote letters to Samuel.
He did not know what one wrote to a premature infant, so he reported ordinary things.
The refrigerator sounds like someone knocking from inside. I checked twice.
Your mother says your ears are mine. She may be right, but we should wait before accepting criticism.
I ruined another shirt today. This is not important, but I have spent years pretending I do not ruin simple things.
Grace received the letters through Price. She read them beside Samuel’s incubator and stored them in a paper bag beneath her chair.
She did not reply for two weeks.
Then Dante received a photograph of Samuel’s hand around Grace’s finger. No face. No message.
He placed it beside the broken colander he kept forgetting to throw away.
Victoria was held in a private medical unit after claiming chest pain during arraignment. Tests found no acute condition. Her attorneys argued that detention endangered her health. Prosecutors presented evidence that one of her drivers had attempted to contact a potential witness from the hospital parking lot.
Bail was denied.
Elias pleaded guilty to unlawful restraint and evidence concealment. His attorney argued coercion and substantial assistance. Grace submitted a statement opposing any description of him as blameless.
He brought me water when others would not. He also locked the cage when ordered. Both facts are true.
Elias read the statement in jail and wept, according to his lawyer.
Carbone recovered enough to testify. His daughter Elise attended every hearing, always wearing a red scarf.
Sofia gave three days of grand-jury testimony and complained afterward that federal coffee was “a violation of the Constitution.”
Maria disappeared before she could be subpoenaed. Investigators found that Victoria’s attorney had arranged a flight for her family to Guatemala. Months later, Maria contacted prosecutors through a church legal clinic and admitted she had cleaned blood from the underground corridor twice.
Dr. Vale’s stored samples showed Grace had received sedatives in amounts dangerous during late pregnancy. His notes contained false diagnoses copied from unrelated patients. He pleaded guilty and agreed to testify.
None of it restored the seven months.
Grace rented a small house outside Montclair under her maiden name. Sofia moved into the finished basement “temporarily,” bringing six pans, a stand mixer, and the sourdough starter Grace had abandoned.
Samuel came home on a cold October morning.
Grace stood beside the car seat for nearly five minutes before allowing the nurse to close the straps. Every buckle resembled restraint now. Every locked door demanded inspection.
At home, she slept in forty-minute intervals. She woke convinced someone stood outside the bedroom. She kept lights on in the hallway and a hammer beneath her pillow until her trauma counselor persuaded her that a locked box beside the bed would be safer.
Sometimes Samuel’s monitor made a harmless electronic chirp, and Grace found herself on the floor before she knew she had moved.
Sofia never told her to calm down.
She picked up the baby, checked the windows, and made coffee.
Dante’s first visit occurred under supervision.
He arrived carrying no gifts because Grace had asked him not to bring anything from the Rossi estate. He wore jeans, a dark sweater, and the gold watch she remembered from the night of the rescue.
At the door, Grace looked at the watch.
He removed it immediately.
“My father’s,” he said.
“I know.”
He placed it in his coat pocket.
Samuel slept in a bassinet near the couch. Dante stood several feet away, hands at his sides.
“You can touch him,” Grace said.
“Where?”
The question caught her.
Dante glanced at her, then at the baby.
“Tell me where I can touch him.”
Grace showed him how to slide one hand beneath Samuel’s head and the other beneath his back. Dante lifted his son with such rigid caution that Sofia made an impatient sound from the kitchen.
“He is a baby, not stolen artwork.”
Dante adjusted his grip.
Samuel opened his eyes, looked toward nothing, and began to cry.
Dante froze.
“Walk,” Grace said.
He walked.
“Not like a soldier.”
He loosened his shoulders.
Samuel’s cry softened.
Dante looked down at the small face. His own expression changed slowly, first relief, then grief, then something quieter.
“Hello,” he said.
Grace turned away to give the moment privacy and then resented him for making her protect it.
The resentment embarrassed her. She let it remain.
During later visits, they discussed only practical matters at first: feeding schedules, medical appointments, press requests, security concerns. Dante offered money. Grace refused Rossi funds but accepted support drawn from accounts prosecutors confirmed were legitimate.
That distinction created three weeks of arguments with accountants.
Dante attended Samuel’s cardiology appointment by video because his travel request was denied. The connection froze while the doctor explained a minor concern, and Dante spent four minutes staring at Grace’s pixelated face before the call resumed.
He called Price afterward.
“Can a judge deny medical information because of bad internet?”
“No.”
“Then why did it happen?”
“Because technology is indifferent to your childhood.”
Grace began physical therapy. She gained weight slowly. Her bruises faded before the pain in her wrists did.
She visited the chamber in December.
The state police had released the estate after evidence collection, but the property remained tied up in forfeiture litigation. Most furniture was covered. The heat had been turned low. Without staff, the house smelled of dust, old flowers, and the faint dampness of rooms built too large.
Grace brought her attorney, her therapist, Sofia, and a victim advocate.
Dante was not permitted to enter the property.
He waited in a car beyond the gate.
May you like
Grace walked through the chapel and down the hidden stairs. Each step made her stomach tighten. At the broken steel door, she stopped.
The chamber had been stripped of medical equipment. The cage remained because prosecutors intended to use it at trial. Evidence markers dotted the floor. Sections of wall paneling had been removed around the carved message.
