Chapter 6 - The Recording Inside the Rabbit
The memory card was smaller than my thumbnail.
Yet the people hunting us had killed for less.
I picked it up carefully.
“Where did you get this rabbit, Lily?”
“Mommy gave him to me.”
“When?”
“Before she went to heaven.”
I remembered the afternoon.
Isabella had returned from the city looking exhausted. She carried two identical rabbits, one pink and one gray.
Lily chose the gray one.
Sofia chose the pink.
After the accident, Lily refused to sleep without hers.
“Did Mommy tell you anything about it?”
Lily nodded.
“She said Mr. Rabbit had to stay with me until Daddy stopped being sad.”
My chest tightened.
Isabella had trusted a three-year-old child more than the adults around her.
Perhaps she had been right.
Marco found an old laptop without a network connection. He covered the camera, disabled the wireless hardware, and inserted the card.
Three folders appeared.
SOFIA.
CROWN.
ADRIAN.
I opened the file bearing my name.
Isabella appeared on-screen.
She sat in a dark room wearing the cream sweater she had worn the week before her death. Her hair was tied back, and shadows beneath her eyes made her look older.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she looked directly into the camera.
“Adrian, if you are watching this, I failed.”
Every person in the room went still.
“I need you to know that I loved you. Not at first. That is the first truth I owe you.”
I clenched my jaw.
“I was sent to meet you. My father owed money to people connected to an organization called the Crown. They offered to erase his debt if I earned your trust.”
Her eyes lowered.
“I told myself you were dangerous. I told myself deceiving you was justified. Then I learned who you were when no one was watching.”
The image flickered.
“You brought coffee to your guards during winter patrols. You remembered the names of their children. You pretended not to cry when Lily first called you Daddy.”
I turned away briefly.
Elena stood near the girls, tears on her face.
“By the time I understood that I loved you,” Isabella continued, “I was already trapped. The Crown knew everything. They knew about my parents, my brother, our accounts, our home.”
She wiped her eyes.
“When I became pregnant, they demanded access to one child. They said it would be a harmless procedure, a way to test whether you would sacrifice your business interests for your family.”
Her voice broke.
“I tried to refuse. They threatened both babies.”
The screen changed to security footage from a hospital corridor.
A nurse carried two newborns.
Clara followed behind her.
Another woman appeared at the end of the hall.
My mother.
She entered a restricted room.
The timestamp showed twelve hours after the twins’ birth.
My hands became cold.
Isabella returned on-screen.
“My mother-in-law told me she could protect one child. Only one. She said the Crown would never stop until they had leverage over you.”
Lily leaned against Elena, too young to understand.
Sofia watched the screen with solemn eyes.
“I switched the bracelets,” Isabella said. “I believed the Crown had chosen Sofia because she was smaller. I thought they might reconsider if they saw Lily’s name. I was wrong. They had chosen Lily.”
I understood then.
Isabella had switched them hoping to confuse the attackers.
Instead, the Crown followed the bracelet and harmed Sofia.
“My choice hurt our daughter,” she whispered. “There is no punishment greater than living with that truth.”
The recording cut to medical documents, signatures, lists of medications.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Dr. Nathaniel Shaw.
Sofia’s first neurologist.
A man who had assured me the damage occurred before birth.
He had retired to Switzerland six months after Isabella died.
Or so I had been told.
“The procedure was performed by Dr. Shaw,” Isabella said. “But he did not create the Crown. The organization existed before him.”
She leaned closer to the camera.
“The leader is inside the Moretti family.”
I looked at Marco.
He looked equally stunned.
“My mother-in-law is involved,” Isabella continued, “but I do not believe she is the leader. She is afraid of someone.”
Footsteps sounded outside the room in the recording.
Isabella glanced toward the door.
“If I cannot reach you, the evidence is divided. One part is with Lucia Rossi. One part is beneath the nursery. The final part is in Locker 317 at Grand Central Station.”
The key.
“The locker contains a ledger,” she said. “Not money. Names. Dates. Children. Payments. Enough to destroy the Crown.”
Her expression changed.
“There is one more thing you must know about Sofia.”
I leaned closer.
The video froze.
The file ended.
“No,” I whispered.
Marco checked the card.
“The file may be damaged.”
Elena opened the SOFIA folder.
Inside were therapy videos, medical scans, and a document titled GENETIC ANALYSIS.
Before we could open it, the laptop shut down.
The battery had died.
“Find a charger.”
Marco searched the shelves.
My phone buzzed.
Another image of my mother appeared.
This time, a gun was pressed against her head.
Midnight.
Santa Lucia Church.
Bring Elena.
Bring the key.
No police.
No army.
One vehicle.
I looked at the clock.
Two hours remained.
“We go to the church,” I said.
Elena shook her head.
“That is what they want.”
“They have my mother.”
“Your mother helped them.”
“That does not mean I leave her to die.”
Elena stepped close enough that only I could hear her.
“It might not be your mother in danger.”
I glanced toward the girls.
“What are you saying?”
“Clara’s final words were ‘beneath the chapel.’ She believed her son was being held there.”
“You think others are there too?”
“I think the Crown keeps people who can be used as leverage.”
Marco returned with a charger.
The laptop restarted.
We opened the genetic report.
Rows of numbers meant nothing to me.
Elena read the conclusion aloud.
“Subject Sofia Moretti displays no genetic markers consistent with the paternal sample provided.”
Silence.
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Marco answered quietly.
“It means the test says Sofia is not your biological daughter.”
I looked at Sofia.
She sat beside her sister, both girls sharing the same blanket.
Same eyes.
Same smile.
Twins.
The report had to be false.
Then Elena scrolled lower.
A second conclusion appeared.
Subject Lily Moretti displays no genetic markers consistent with the maternal sample provided.
My daughters were twins.
Yet according to the report, one was not mine.
And the other was not Isabella’s.
At the bottom of the page was a handwritten note.
May you like
The children were exchanged before Adrian entered the delivery room.
Ask Mother where the real twins are.
