Chapter 6 - The Footprints Beyond the East Fence

Matteo reached the nursery before Elena.

The window stood open to the rain.

One guard lay unconscious beside the crib. Rosa knelt near him, shaking so hard she could barely speak.

“She was here. Sofia was here.”

Matteo crossed the room and looked down from the window.

A rope hung against the stone wall.

Elena arrived behind him and stopped.

The empty crib became every empty thing she had survived.

“No,” she whispered.

Matteo turned.

His face was not the face of a father anymore. It was the face everyone on the aircraft had feared.

“Dmitri, close the roads. Nobody leaves the county.”

Elena walked to the crib.

The sheet was warm.

A small milk stain marked one corner.

“She was taken less than five minutes ago.”

Matteo looked at her.

“How do you know?”

Elena touched the mattress. “Because I fed her twenty minutes ago and put her down myself.”

She forced herself to breathe.

“Whoever took her knew exactly when she would be asleep.”

A sound came from the hallway.

One of the guards shouted.

Then another voice answered, “Found something.”

Outside, rain had turned the lawn black and shining. Flashlights swept the trees.

Dmitri stood beside the east fence.

Beyond it, muddy footprints led toward the woods.

Small footprints.

Not a man’s.

“A woman,” Elena said.

Matteo’s eyes narrowed.

“Marianne.”

They followed the tracks fifty yards until they reached an old service road.

The prints stopped beside tire marks.

Dmitri crouched.

“Vehicle was waiting.”

Matteo lifted his phone.

Before he could speak, Elena noticed something pale beneath a fern.

A baby sock.

Sofia’s.

She picked it up.

There was a dark line drawn inside the cuff.

Not dirt.

Ink.

Three letters.

SAN.

Elena’s pulse jumped.

“She left this.”

“Marianne?” Matteo asked.

“Maybe.”

“Why?”

“Because whoever took Sofia wanted us to know the Saint Aurelia code.”

Matteo looked toward the road.

His phone rang.

Unknown number.

Every person around him went silent.

He answered.

A distorted male voice said, “Bring Nadia’s journals and Luca Rossi’s drive to the old Saint Aurelia clinic in Portland. Midnight. No police.”

Matteo said nothing.

“If you arrive with more than one vehicle, the child disappears.”

The call ended.

Dmitri swore.

Elena looked at Matteo. “You cannot give them the originals.”

“I can if it brings Sofia back.”

“And then they destroy the evidence.”

“My daughter is not evidence.”

“I know.”

The words came out too sharply.

Matteo looked at her, and Elena saw the truth beneath all the power.

He would burn every ledger, every port, every secret, and every piece of his empire for Sofia.

She understood because she would have burned the world for Nico and Leo.

“We make copies,” she said. “We give them what they expect. But first we find out why they chose that clinic.”

The old Saint Aurelia clinic had closed eighteen months earlier after the charity moved its pediatric program downtown.

Dmitri pulled building plans.

Elena recognized the floor plan.

“I worked there once.”

Matteo stared at her.

“Temporary neonatal outreach. Two years ago.”

“Did Luca ever visit?”

“Yes.”

A memory surfaced.

Luca had brought lunch one afternoon. He had wandered off while Elena finished a consultation. When she found him, he was staring at a restricted records door.

At the time, he claimed he had taken a wrong turn.

Now she understood.

“He knew.”

They prepared the exchange.

Dmitri copied the drive.

Rosa photographed every page of Nadia’s journals.

Matteo loaded the originals into a black case.

Elena changed into dark clothes.

“You’re not coming,” Matteo said.

“Yes, I am.”

“No.”

“You need someone who can assess Sofia the second you get her back.”

“I have a doctor.”

“Your doctor doesn’t know the clinic. I do.”

Matteo stared at her.

“I will not be responsible for losing another person you love.”

Elena’s anger rose.

“You are not powerful enough to decide what I risk.”

His eyes flashed.

Then, unexpectedly, he nodded.

“Stay behind me.”

“I’m not one of your soldiers.”

“No. They listen better.”

At eleven thirty, they drove to Portland.

One vehicle.

Matteo at the wheel.

Elena beside him.

Dmitri followed at a distance on a motorcycle with his lights off, violating the kidnappers’ instructions in the smallest possible way.

The abandoned clinic stood behind a chain-link fence near the river.

Half its windows were boarded.

Matteo carried the case.

Elena carried a medical bag.

Inside, emergency lights glowed red along the floor.

A speaker clicked overhead.

“Second floor.”

They climbed.

The smell of damp plaster and disinfectant filled the stairwell.

At the top, a woman stood beneath a flickering light.

Marianne Cole.

Sofia was strapped against her chest in a carrier.

Elena stepped forward.

“Is she breathing normally?”

Marianne looked exhausted.

“She’s fine.”

Matteo raised his gun.

“Put my daughter down.”

Marianne laughed bitterly.

“If I wanted her dead, she would be.”

“Then why take her?”

“To make him come.”

A man emerged from the dark room behind her.

Gray hair.

Elegant coat.

A silver cane.

Matteo’s gun lowered by half an inch.

“Uncle Nikolai.”

Nikolai Volkov smiled.

“Give me the journals, Matteo.”

Elena looked at Marianne.

The nurse was shaking her head.

Not at Matteo.

At Elena.

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A warning.

Then every light in the clinic went out.