The message read: “If you want to know the truth about your son, come alone.”
“Don’t call anyone.”
“Tomorrow, 11:00 a.m. at The Oak Street Cafe.”
“Bring the photo from our wedding.”
I felt the blood leave my body.
I stared at the screen for several minutes.
Over and over again.
Reading the same words.
Looking for some mistake.
Some logical explanation.
But the number was his.
The exact same one.
The one he had used for years.
The one I called when I forgot my keys.
The one that appeared on my screen every night with a simple, “Are you home yet?”
My hands began to shake.
I dialed.
Directly.
Without thinking about it.
The call went through.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then it disconnected.
And another message arrived.
“Don’t call me.”
“They are watching us.”
That phrase completely robbed me of my sleep.
Who?
Why?
And what did my son have to do with it?
Because discovering irregularities in Gabriel’s death was one thing.
But my baby…
My baby was another wound.
Another story.
Or so I had thought.
Until that night.
By ten o’clock the next morning, I was already sitting in front of The Oak Street Cafe.
I arrived an hour early.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t eat.
I couldn’t think.
I brought the photograph the message had asked for.
The one from our wedding.
Gabriel smiling.
Me leaning on his shoulder.
Two people convinced that life was simple.
How naive we were.
At seven minutes past eleven, someone took the chair across from me.
It wasn’t Gabriel.
It was a woman.
Approximately sixty years old.
Gray hair.
Dark glasses.
A blue scarf around her neck.
I looked at her, confused.
She looked at me too.
Then she spoke.
“Laura Vance.”
It wasn’t a question.
It was a statement.
“Who are you?”
The woman left a folder on the table.
“My name is Theresa Adams.”
“I don’t know you.”
“I know.”
She slowly opened the folder.
“But I did know Gabriel.”
I felt a chill.
“Where is he?”
The woman looked down.
And that reaction filled me with fear.
“Before I answer that, I need you to see something.”
She took out several photographs.
She slid them toward me.
I looked at them.
And the world stopped.
Because Gabriel was in them.
It was undeniably him.
Thinner.
With a beard.
But it was him.
He was alive.
The photos had recent dates.
Three months ago.
Four months ago.
Six months ago.
My eyes began to fill with tears.
“My God…”
The woman remained silent.
“He’s alive…”
“Yes.”
“He’s alive…”
I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath.
A year.
A damn year.
A year of crying.
A year of visiting an empty grave.
A year of believing myself to be a widow.
“Where is he?”
The woman took several seconds to answer.
“He disappeared four months ago.”
That baffled me.
“What does that mean?”
“That we are also looking for him.”
“Who is ‘we’?”
Theresa took a deep breath.
And then she showed me a badge.
Private investigator.
That made no sense.
Nothing made sense.
“I need you to explain everything to me right now.”
She nodded.
And she began.
According to Theresa, Gabriel’s accident did happen.
The car was indeed found destroyed.
There was fire.
There was chaos.
There were injured people.
But Gabriel survived.
With injuries.
With partial amnesia.
And he was transferred to a private clinic.
The same one whose name I had seen on my mother-in-law’s envelope.
The exact same one.
Neonatology.
My heart skipped a beat.
“What does a neonatal clinic have to do with this?”
Theresa looked at me.
“Everything.”
I felt that something horrible was about to arrive.
“Explain yourself.”
“Your son was born alive.”
The world disappeared.
“No…”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Laura…”
“My son died.”
The tears began to fall.
“That’s what they told me.”
Theresa slid another document over.
A certificate.
A medical record.
A footprint.
A birth weight.
A name.
My son.
My son.
My son.
He had been born alive.
Perfectly alive.
I felt my chest bursting.
“Where is he?”
My voice was barely a whisper.
Theresa closed her eyes.
“That is what we are trying to find out.”
The cafe disappeared.
The tables disappeared.
Everything disappeared.
Only those words existed.
My son was alive.
Or at least he had been.
And someone had lied to me.
Everyone had lied to me.
Gabriel.
My mother-in-law.
The hospital.
Everyone.
“Why?”
Theresa paused for a few seconds.
“Because someone paid a lot of money to make him disappear.”
I froze.
“Who?”
“We still don’t know.”
“My mother-in-law?”
“She was involved.”
That answer was enough.
Because deep down, I already knew.
I remembered the envelope.
The clinic.
Her silence.
Her threats.
Everything fit.
Too well.
“And Gabriel?”
Theresa looked down.
“When he regained his memory, he discovered the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That your son was still alive.”
I felt my heart stop.
“What?”
“Gabriel started investigating on his own.”
The folder contained copies of emails.
Notes.
Addresses.
Photographs.
“He was close to finding him.”
“And then?”
“He disappeared.”
Silence fell over us.
An unbearable silence.
“Do you think he was kidnapped?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is he dead?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer destroyed me.
Because after mourning him for a year…
I was losing him again.
Once more.
I left the cafe without knowing how I got back to my apartment.
I locked myself in.
I cried for hours.
Not for Gabriel.
Not just for him.
I cried for my son.
For the baby I never saw.
For my empty arms.
For the birthdays I never celebrated.
For the crib we never put together.
For everything.
At nightfall, I reviewed the folder again.
Page by page.
Photograph by photograph.
Until I found something.
A name repeated several times.
A person.
A doctor.
Dr. Henry Sterling.
He appeared in the accident records.
At the private clinic.
And also in documents related to neonatology.
Too many coincidences.
I picked up the phone.
And I dialed the number Theresa had written on the back of a card.
She answered on the second ring.
“Did you find something?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
I looked at the papers again.
“I think I know who connected Gabriel to my son.”
There was silence.
“Who?”
“Dr. Henry Sterling.”
No one answered on the other end of the line.
And that gave me goosebumps.
“Theresa…”
“Laura…”
Her voice sounded strange.
Tense.
Scared.
“What’s wrong?”
I heard her close a door.
Then she spoke very quietly.
“I need you to leave your apartment right now.”
I stood up abruptly.
“Why?”
“Because Henry Sterling was found dead two days ago.”
The blood froze in my veins.
“What?”
“And someone just broke into my office.”
My breathing accelerated.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that whoever hid your son knows we are investigating.”
A loud bang echoed on the other side of the call.
Then another.
And another one.
Theresa started breathing fast.
“Laura, listen carefully.”
“What’s happening?”
“If something happens to me, look for safe deposit box number 217.”
“Where?”
“National Bank, State Street branch.”
I heard a crash.
Glass breaking.
A scream.
And then a phrase that froze my soul.
“Your son wasn’t sold, Laura.”
“What?”
“He was given to a very specific family.”
“Which family?”
But the call disconnected.
I stood motionless.
With the phone in my hand.
Trembling.
And then I heard something.
Three sharp knocks.
On my apartment door.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
I looked through the peephole.
And I felt my heart stop beating.
Because on the other side was an unknown man.
Black suit.
Gloves.
And in his hands he held a photograph.
A recent photograph.
Of Gabriel.
Holding the hand of a boy who was about a year old.
A boy who had my exact same eyes.
