CHAPTER 6: The Driver Who Remembered the Night
Regina left without another word, but she did not go far.
Victoria watched her mother-in-law turn sharply toward the curb, make a phone call, and disappear into a black town car. That alone told Victoria enough. Regina never fled. She retreated only when she needed time to prepare a weapon.
Victoria called the one person from the old household she still trusted.
Mateo Reyes had been Julian’s driver for twenty-two years. After Julian’s fatal car accident three years earlier, Regina had dismissed him with a quiet payment and a warning not to contact Victoria again. But Mateo had once carried newborn Nathan from the hospital doors to the car. He had wept at Julian’s funeral. He had called Victoria “my girl” when she was too broken to stand.
He arrived at the blue columns in less than fifteen minutes, breathing hard from the subway stairs, cap crooked in his hands.
When he saw Caleb, he crossed himself.
“Holy Mother,” he whispered.
Victoria’s voice shook. “Mateo. Look at him.”
The old driver approached carefully, like a man approaching a miracle he feared might vanish. Caleb stood behind Nathan, one hand clutching the torn edge of his hoodie.
Mateo looked at Nathan, then Caleb, then the locket.
“I knew,” he said.
Victoria’s blood turned to ice. “You knew what?”
Mateo closed his eyes. “Not everything. Only that something was wrong.”
He told her about the night at St. Agnes. Julian had ordered the car brought to a private side entrance, not the front. Regina had been there, shouting at a nurse. Mateo had seen a woman leave with a medical bag too large for papers and too carefully guarded to be ordinary.
“I asked Mr. Julian,” Mateo said. “He told me to drive. His face was white. He kept saying, ‘My mother promised the baby was already gone.’ But he did not believe it. Not in his heart.”
Victoria gripped the streetlamp again. “Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Because the next morning, Mrs. Regina showed him documents. A death certificate. Hospital reports. Signed statements. She told him you would not survive another shock.”
“And you?” Victoria whispered. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
Mateo looked ashamed. “Because two days later, I was told my daughter’s surgery would not be paid for if I caused trouble.”
Nathan pressed close to his mother.
Caleb stared at the old driver.
May you like
Mateo looked at him with tears in his eyes. “I am sorry, little one.”
Across the street, a gray car idled too long at the curb.
