“Do it again.”
“Matteo—”
“Do it again.”
Dominic looked toward Liana.
“What happened?”
Liana explained.
Not all at once.
She told him about her baby’s hospitalization. The mark near the shoulder. Dr. Bell. The unexplained deterioration. The records she had never fully understood.
Dominic listened with increasing concentration.
When she finished, he rubbed one hand over his face.
“It could be coincidence.”
Matteo turned toward him.
“It could.”
Dominic paused.
“But you don’t think it is.”
Matteo looked at Nico.
“No.”
By six thirty, the first records began arriving electronically.
Dominic had contacts inside the hospital system who owed favors. Matteo had old copies of Elena’s documents archived in an encrypted server. Liana, meanwhile, called her landlord, asked permission to enter her apartment early, and sent one of Matteo’s staff to retrieve a cardboard folder she had not touched since the funeral.
The folder returned just after seven.
Liana stared at it on the table for nearly a minute before opening it.
Inside were discharge summaries, medication sheets, billing records, grief-counseling pamphlets, and two pages containing terminology she still did not understand.
Dominic sat across from her with a laptop.
“May I?”
She handed him the records.
He compared them line by line with Nico’s neonatal file.
At first, nothing seemed remarkable.
Then he stopped.
“Matteo.”
Matteo looked up.
Dominic turned the screen.
Two entries appeared side by side.
One from Nico’s chart.
One from Liana’s child’s.
The same equipment code.
The same consulting physician.
The same monitoring procedure.
The same unusual notation.
Matteo leaned closer.
“What does that mean?”
Dominic frowned.
“I don’t know yet.”
Liana pointed at the screen.
“That code. They told me it was routine.”
Dominic looked at her. “It wasn’t listed as routine on your billing statement.”
Matteo straightened.
“What was it?”
Dominic typed quickly, searched an internal medical reference database, then went still.
“It looks like a specialized blood compatibility panel.”
Liana stared.
“Why would a newborn need that?”
Dominic looked at Matteo.
“Not for ordinary monitoring.”
The room fell silent.
Matteo’s face hardened.
