Chapter 4 - The Child Who Was Switched
# Chapter 4 - The Child Who Was Switched
The woman standing outside Dominic Moretti's security gate had just claimed that one of his four sons belonged to someone else.
And Elena Rossi looked as though she had been stabbed.
"That's impossible."
Her voice was barely audible.
Dominic turned toward her, but Elena was already shaking her head.
"No. Absolutely not."
Marco stood beside the study door, holding his phone.
"Dr. Hart says she can explain everything."
"Then she can explain it to me," Dominic replied.
He glanced toward the staircase.
Upstairs, Luca, Leo, Nico, and Matteo were sleeping peacefully.
Four little boys who had spent their entire lives believing they were brothers.
Four children Elena had raised, protected, comforted, and loved through every illness, nightmare, and scraped knee.
Dominic had known them for less than five hours.
But the possibility that one might be taken away made something savage awaken inside him.
"Bring her in," he ordered.
Marco hesitated.
"Boss, she appeared without warning. We haven't verified where she's been or whether anyone followed her."
"Then search her vehicle. Check her identification. But bring her inside."
Elena suddenly stepped forward.
"Wait."
Dominic looked at her.
She was staring toward the driveway.
"Ask her something first."
"What?"
Elena swallowed.
"Ask her which baby."
The room became silent.
Dominic understood immediately.
Which one?
Luca, who had asked why his father missed his birthday?
Leo, who had been fascinated by Dominic's tattoos?
Nico, who seemed determined to question everything?
Or Matteo, who had fallen asleep against Dominic's chest as though he had always belonged there?
Elena's fingers twisted together.
"Ask her which one she thinks isn't mine."
Dominic took Marco's phone.
"Dr. Hart?"
A woman's cautious voice answered.
"Mr. Moretti."
"You claim one of the children in this house was switched."
"Yes."
"Which one?"
A long silence followed.
Then the woman said, "I cannot safely answer that over the telephone."
Dominic's expression hardened.
"That's not an acceptable answer."
"Neither is discovering that someone has spent six years monitoring your children's DNA records."
He stopped.
"What did you say?"
"Let me inside, Mr. Moretti. And whatever you do, don't contact your uncle again."
The call ended.
Ten minutes later, Evelyn Hart entered the Seabrook house carrying a yellow envelope against her chest.
She looked nothing like the confident obstetrician Elena remembered.
Her silver-streaked hair was pulled into a loose knot. Dark circles shadowed her eyes. Her black coat was damp from the cold ocean air.
And when she saw Elena, her expression broke.
"Oh, Elena."
Elena stood rigid.
"You told me my baby died."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"I know."
"You stood beside my hospital bed. You held my hand."
"Elena—"
"You told me I was lucky to have four healthy children."
Evelyn's voice trembled.
"I believed that at the time."
Elena took a step forward.
"At the time?"
Dominic moved closer, not to restrain her, but to remain beside her.
Evelyn looked at him.
"You have every reason to distrust me. I won't ask either of you to forgive what happened."
"Good," Dominic said. "Because forgiveness isn't why you're here."
Evelyn nodded.
She placed the yellow envelope on the table.
"Before I explain, I need you to understand something. I didn't participate in the delivery. I was Elena's obstetrician before the emergency transfer. I arrived at the hospital afterward."
"You already knew she was carrying five boys?" Dominic asked.
"Yes."
"And you believed one had died?"
"That was what the hospital reported."
"What changed?"
Evelyn opened the envelope.
Inside were several photocopied medical documents, a faded photograph, and a small white hospital identification bracelet.
Elena froze when she saw it.
The bracelet was tiny.
Much too tiny for a healthy newborn.
Evelyn placed it carefully on the table.
"This was assigned to Baby E."
Elena reached for it.
Her fingers trembled so violently that Dominic had to steady her hand.
Printed on the bracelet were the words:
ROSSI, ELENA — INFANT E
Beneath them was a hospital identification number.
Elena began to cry.
"Gabriel."
Evelyn lowered her head.
"Yes."
Dominic looked at the doctor.
"Where did you get this?"
"From a nurse who worked in the neonatal unit. She kept it because she believed the official records were altered."
"Why didn't she come forward?"
"She tried."
"What happened?"
"She lost her job. Her nursing license was investigated. Her husband received threats."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"And you?"
"I started asking questions. Two weeks later, someone filed a complaint against me."
"Richard?"
"I believe he arranged it."
"Belief isn't evidence."
Evelyn nodded.
"That's why I brought evidence."
She removed a folded sheet of paper.
It was a copy of a neonatal admission register.
Five infants were listed under Elena Rossi's name.
Baby A.
Baby B.
Baby C.
Baby D.
Baby E.
Dominic examined the document.
"The fifth entry says transferred."
"Correct."
"Not deceased."
"No."
Elena covered her mouth.
Evelyn continued.
"The hospital initially recorded all five infants as living after delivery. Baby E required intensive respiratory support, but he was alive when he left the operating room."
Elena's knees weakened.
Dominic pulled out a chair.
She sat without speaking.
For six years, she had carried the guilt of never holding Gabriel.
Now she was learning that the child she mourned had been breathing somewhere beyond her reach.
"Who authorized the transfer?" Dominic asked.
"According to the records, Richard Moretti."
"We know that much."
Evelyn's eyes sharpened.
"But you don't know why."
At 12:18 a.m., Marco interrupted them.
"Boss. I've finished checking Dr. Hart's vehicle."
Dominic looked up.
"Anything?"
"No tracking devices that we've found. No weapons. But she wasn't alone when she arrived in the area."
Evelyn stiffened.
"What?"
Marco placed a tablet on the table.
"Traffic cameras recorded another vehicle following yours from the highway."
Evelyn looked frightened.
"A black sedan?"
"Yes."
She closed her eyes.
"I thought I'd lost them."
Dominic exchanged a glance with Marco.
"Who?"
"I don't know. They've been following me for months."
"How did you find this house?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Daniel Mercer."
Elena looked up immediately.
"My lawyer?"
"Yes."
Dominic leaned forward.
"Where is he?"
"I haven't spoken to him in two days."
"How did he know we were here?"
"He didn't. He told me years ago that Seabrook was somewhere Elena might seek shelter if Dominic ever learned the truth. When I received a message tonight saying Richard had found her, I came here."
"Who sent the message?"
"An anonymous number."
Dominic didn't like that answer.
Someone had directed Evelyn toward them.
Someone knew where Elena might go.
Someone was controlling how the truth emerged.
He looked at Marco.
"Double the security at the gate. No one enters without my approval."
"Understood."
"And find that sedan."
Marco left.
Evelyn watched the doorway close.
"Your uncle has more people working for him than you realize."
Dominic gave a cold smile.
"He's discovering the same thing about me."
"Tell us about the switch," Elena demanded.
Evelyn looked at her.
"The hospital's original records show five male infants. But three days after delivery, one of the surviving infants was assigned a different identification number."
Dominic frowned.
"Which one?"
"Baby D."
Elena's breath caught.
Baby D.
The fourth baby delivered.
She remembered the order.
Luca had arrived first.
Then Leo.
Nico.
Matteo.
And finally Gabriel.
"Matteo," she whispered.
Evelyn nodded.
"That was the name you later gave Baby D."
Elena stood abruptly.
"No."
"Elena—"
"No. Matteo is my son."
"Of course he is."
"Don't say that as though you're about to take it away."
Evelyn looked pained.
"I'm not questioning the bond between you. I'm questioning what happened in that hospital."
Dominic stepped forward.
"Explain the records."
Evelyn unfolded another document.
"Baby D's original admission number was discontinued. A replacement number was issued. That can happen legitimately, but normally there's a documented reason."
"And there wasn't?"
"No."
"Was another infant registered under the replacement number?"
"Yes."
Elena gripped the back of her chair.
Evelyn turned the page around.
A second infant was listed.
INFANT MALE — MATERNAL NAME WITHHELD
Dominic stared.
"Who's the mother?"
"That's one of the things I spent six years trying to discover."
"Did you?"
Evelyn hesitated.
"Not conclusively."
Dominic felt anger rising.
"Then why come here claiming a child was switched?"
"Because the infants' recorded blood groups and the archived genetic screening identifiers don't agree."
He went still.
"Explain."
"The screening specimen originally assigned to Baby D carried one laboratory identifier. Weeks later, that identifier appeared in another child's medical file."
"What child?"
Evelyn slowly turned the next page.
A name appeared.
GABRIEL BARRETT
Elena stared.
Dominic looked from one document to the other.
"You're saying Gabriel's identity was exchanged with Matteo's?"
"I'm saying the records suggest their identities may have been deliberately reassigned."
"That's not the same thing."
"No," Evelyn admitted. "It isn't."
Elena exhaled shakily.
"Then you don't know whether Matteo was switched."
Evelyn met her eyes.
"I know an unauthorized identity change was made. I know two infant records were connected. And I know somebody went to extraordinary lengths to conceal it."
Dominic examined the documents again.
"Could this be a coding error?"
"One discrepancy, perhaps. Not the combination of altered registration numbers, missing consent forms, and conflicting specimen identifiers."
"Can you prove which child belongs to whom?"
"Not without independently verified DNA testing."
Elena sat down again.
Dominic looked toward the staircase.
Matteo was sleeping upstairs.
His youngest son.
A little boy who loved marshmallows and believed his new father could fight monsters.
Whether or not someone had altered his hospital records, Dominic knew one thing.
No child was going to be treated as a mistake.
At 12:47 a.m., Elena left the study.
Dominic found her upstairs, standing beside Matteo's bed.
Moonlight fell across the child's face.
His dark hair was tangled against the pillow.
One hand rested beneath his cheek.
Elena watched him breathing.
"He's always slept like that," she whispered.
Dominic remained in the doorway.
"With his hand under his cheek?"
She nodded.
"Even when he was a baby."
For a long time, neither spoke.
Then Elena said, "I remember holding him the first time."
Dominic approached.
"He was so small. All of them were."
She smiled through her tears.
"Matteo had the loudest cry. The nurses joked that he was making up for being born fourth."
Dominic looked at the boy.
"Sounds like him."
Elena's smile disappeared.
"What if he's not biologically mine?"
Dominic considered his answer carefully.
"Would you love him differently?"
She turned sharply.
"Of course not."
"Then neither will I."
Her eyes filled again.
"But what if someone comes for him?"
Dominic looked at the sleeping child.
"Then we'll find out what the law says, what happened at that hospital, and how to protect him without hurting another family."
Elena studied him.
"You sound different."
"Different from what?"
"The man I remember."
Dominic gave a faint, humorless smile.
"Six years is a long time."
"For some things."
"Not for everything."
Their eyes met.
For one dangerous moment, the past seemed close enough to touch.
Elena remembered his hands around hers during winter evenings.
Dominic remembered waking beside her and believing that happiness could be simple.
Then Matteo stirred.
"Mommy?"
Elena immediately turned.
"I'm here, sweetheart."
His eyes opened halfway.
"Where's Dad?"
Both adults froze.
Matteo blinked sleepily.
"The tall one."
Dominic felt his throat tighten.
"I'm here."
The boy smiled.
"Okay."
He closed his eyes again.
A moment later, he was asleep.
Elena brushed a strand of hair from his forehead.
And Dominic understood that whatever the documents eventually revealed, the greatest danger was not losing control of his family's fortune.
It was losing one of these boys.
Downstairs, Evelyn Hart was waiting when Dominic returned.
She stood beside the fireplace, studying an old photograph of him and Elena taken during their relationship.
"You loved her," Evelyn said.
Dominic's expression hardened.
"That's not your concern."
"No. But it explains why Vittorio Moretti was so afraid."
Dominic stopped.
"What?"
Evelyn turned.
"Your father didn't simply disapprove of Elena. He believed she threatened something much bigger."
"What?"
"Your family's succession arrangements."
Dominic crossed his arms.
"Everyone keeps mentioning the family trust. Tell me what you know."
Evelyn hesitated.
"I only saw fragments. Medical records. Legal correspondence. Payments."
"Payments to whom?"
"Hospital administrators. Lawyers. Private facilities."
"From Bellwether?"
"Mostly."
"And what did those payments purchase?"
Evelyn looked directly at him.
"Control over the identity of a child."
Dominic felt the room grow colder.
"Gabriel?"
"Possibly more than one child."
He stared.
Evelyn continued.
"Your grandfather established a trust with unusually specific succession conditions. I don't know its full terms. But I found references to a designated male descendant whose identity had to be medically verified before his seventh birthday."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You're telling me Richard stole a baby for an inheritance?"
"I'm telling you the medical records were altered around the same period that private trust documents were amended."
Dominic remembered the message from Sloane.
The fifth child is the key.
He turned toward the desk.
"Did my father know?"
Evelyn's expression changed.
"About the hospital?"
"About the switch."
She looked away.
"Evelyn."
"Your father visited the hospital the day after the delivery."
Dominic went still.
"Elena said he was in Boston."
"He was. He arrived at the facility shortly before midnight."
"How do you know?"
"I saw him."
Dominic stared.
"And you never told Elena?"
"I didn't understand why he was there. When I later requested the visitors' register, his name had disappeared."
Dominic walked slowly toward the window.
His father had been there.
At the hospital.
While Elena was recovering from childbirth.
While five premature boys struggled through their first hours of life.
"What did he do?" Dominic asked.
Evelyn's voice dropped.
"He argued with Richard."
Dominic turned.
"About what?"
"I couldn't hear everything. But I heard Vittorio say that the original agreement had been violated."
"What agreement?"
"I don't know."
"Then what happened?"
Evelyn swallowed.
"Richard told him it was too late."
Dominic felt the first flicker of something unexpected.
Had his father actually opposed part of the plan?
Or was Evelyn being manipulated into telling him that?
"Did you hear anything else?"
She nodded slowly.
"Vittorio said, 'You were only supposed to take one.'"
The silence that followed was absolute.
Dominic stared at her.
Only one.
His father had known.
Perhaps he had participated.
But Richard had gone further than even Vittorio expected.
"One what?" Dominic asked.
Evelyn shook her head.
"I don't know."
At 1:16 a.m., Marco returned.
"Boss. We found the sedan."
Dominic turned.
"Where?"
"Abandoned about two miles from here."
"Driver?"
"Gone."
"Anything inside?"
"A prepaid phone. A parking receipt. And this."
Marco handed him a small photograph.
It showed the four boys outside their elementary school.
The image had been taken recently.
On the back was a single handwritten sentence.
Four children entered that house. Count how many leave.
Elena, who had just come downstairs, saw the message.
Her face went white.
Dominic immediately took out his phone.
"Lock down the property."
Marco was already speaking into his radio.
"All units, secure the perimeter."
Then a sound came from upstairs.
A door opening.
Footsteps.
A child's voice.
"Dad?"
Dominic looked up.
Luca stood at the top of the staircase wearing blue pajamas.
His hair was disheveled.
He held a stuffed dinosaur beneath one arm.
Dominic climbed toward him.
"What's wrong?"
Luca rubbed his eyes.
"There's a lady in our room."
Dominic stopped halfway up the stairs.
"What lady?"
"She said she was checking on us."
His blood turned cold.
Marco raised his radio.
"Second floor. Now."
Dominic reached Luca.
"Where is she?"
The boy pointed toward the hallway.
"She went into Matteo's room."
Dominic didn't wait.
He ran.
The hallway lights were dim.
Nico and Leo stood outside their bedroom, frightened and confused.
Dominic passed them and pushed open Matteo's door.
The bed was empty.
The blankets were pushed aside.
The window was partly open.
Cold ocean air moved the curtains.
Dominic's heart slammed against his ribs.
"MATTEO!"
No answer.
Elena reached the doorway behind him.
She saw the empty bed.
Then she screamed.
"MATTEO!"
Marco rushed to the window.
Outside, the terrace roof extended beneath the second-floor balcony.
A security alarm began sounding.
Dominic ran toward the open window.
Then he noticed something on the bedside table.
A small folded card.
He grabbed it.
Written in black ink were the words:
The wrong child has been living with Elena for six years. We're correcting the mistake.
Beneath the message was a symbol.
A small silver bell.
The emblem of the Bellwether Foundation.
Dominic crushed the card in his fist.
But before he could reach the window, a faint voice came from the adjoining bathroom.
"Dad?"
He turned.
Matteo was crouched behind the bathroom door, trembling.
His cheeks were wet with tears.
Dominic dropped to his knees.
"Matteo."
The child scrambled into his arms.
"A lady came in," he sobbed. "She said I had to go with her."
Dominic held him tightly.
"You're safe."
"She said Mommy isn't my real mommy."
Dominic closed his eyes.
Behind him, Elena began crying with relief.
Matteo clung to his jacket.
"I told her Mommy is my mommy. Then I hid."
Dominic pressed his lips to the child's hair.
"You did exactly the right thing."
Marco's voice sounded from the hallway.
"Boss, we found an access rope attached to the terrace railing. Someone got in through the window."
Dominic looked up.
"Find them."
Marco disappeared.
Elena knelt beside Dominic and wrapped both arms around Matteo.
"My baby."
The little boy buried his face against her.
"Mommy, don't let them take me."
She held him tighter.
"Never."
Dominic looked at them.
For the first time since discovering his sons, he felt something more terrifying than anger.
Helplessness.
Because the people threatening his family had just entered a guarded house.
They knew which bedroom Matteo occupied.
They knew the layout.
And they knew Elena's deepest fear.
Someone had given them information.
Someone close.
At 2:03 a.m., the house was secured.
The children were gathered together in the largest bedroom, where Elena sat between them while Dominic remained near the door.
Marco's team searched the property and surrounding grounds.
No intruder was found.
The security camera covering the second-floor terrace had been disabled seventeen minutes before the attempted abduction.
Someone had accessed its control panel remotely.
Again.
Using an administrative account connected to Moretti Holdings.
Dominic stared at the report.
"Richard."
Marco nodded.
"Most likely."
"Most likely isn't enough."
"I know."
Dominic looked through the open bedroom door.
Elena was sitting on the bed with Matteo asleep against her shoulder.
Luca remained awake beside her.
His small face was serious.
The other boys were sleeping.
Dominic felt his anger turn into resolve.
He could no longer afford to react to Richard's moves.
He needed to understand the entire operation.
Gabriel.
The switched records.
The family trust.
And whoever had just tried to take Matteo.
His phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
A message appeared.
You saved the wrong child.
Dominic stared.
Another message followed.
Ask Evelyn why she really disappeared.
He turned toward the study.
Evelyn was still downstairs with one of Marco's guards.
Dominic typed:
Who are you?
The reply came almost immediately.
Someone who knows what happened to all five babies.
A photograph appeared.
It showed five newborn infants lying in separate hospital incubators.
The image was grainy but clear enough to reveal their identification labels.
Baby A.
Baby B.
Baby C.
Baby D.
Baby E.
Dominic enlarged the image.
Something was wrong.
The labels beneath the fourth and fifth incubators had different handwriting from the first three.
And on the fourth incubator, beneath the label marked Baby D, there was a second identification band.
One belonging to another infant.
Dominic zoomed further.
The name became visible.
INFANT MALE — S. BARRETT
He froze.
S. Barrett.
Sloane Barrett.
He remembered the woman who had nearly become his fiancée.
Her connection to the private medical residence.
Gabriel's registration under the Barrett surname.
Richard's insistence on their marriage.
Another message arrived.
Now you understand why Sloane wanted to marry you.
Dominic stared at the screen.
Then the final message appeared.
But you still don't know the worst part.
Attached was a scanned medical document dated October 14, six years earlier.
Its heading read:
CONFIDENTIAL NEONATAL TRANSFER — MATERNAL CONSENT RECORD
Dominic opened it.
There were two signatures at the bottom.
One belonged to Richard Moretti.
The other belonged to a woman.
A woman whose name was unmistakable.
Sloane Barrett.
And beside her signature was a handwritten declaration:
I authorize the transfer of my biological son into the custody of Elena Rossi.
Dominic felt the room turn silent around him.
Sloane had known.
Six years ago.
Long before their engagement.
Long before she had begun appearing at Moretti family gatherings.
She had known about a baby being placed with Elena.
And if the document was genuine, Matteo wasn't merely a child with altered records.
He was Sloane Barrett's biological son.
But there was one detail that made Dominic's blood run cold.
The document identified the child's father.
PATERNAL NAME: DOMINIC VITTORIO MORETTI.
Dominic stared at the words.
He had never been intimate with Sloane.
Not six years ago.
Not at any time.
Yet someone had signed a medical document claiming she had given birth to his child.
And across the bottom of the page, in red ink, was a warning:
PATERNITY VERIFIED — DO NOT DISCLOSE UNTIL TRUST EXECUTION.
Dominic slowly lowered the phone.
For the first time that night, he understood that the people behind the conspiracy weren't merely stealing children.
They were manufacturing an entire family history.
And someone had forged the one thing Dominic knew could never have been true.