PART 4 — THE NURSE WHO WASN'T A NURSE
The room froze.
"They already... have someone... inside the hospital."
The weak whisper barely left Isabella's lips before her body relaxed again.
The heart monitor settled into a steady rhythm.
She had slipped back into unconsciousness.
"Isabella!"
Lorenzo leaned closer.
But there was no response.
The lead physician checked her pupils and quietly exhaled.
"She's stable."
"She simply doesn't have the strength to stay awake."
Lorenzo slowly stood.
His face had become unreadable again.
Only moments earlier, he had been a husband begging his wife to wake up.
Now...
The King of the Underworld had returned.
He looked at Matteo.
"Seal the hospital."
Matteo nodded immediately.
"No one enters."
"No one leaves."
The doctor stepped forward.
"You can't lock down a hospital. There are patients—"
Lorenzo calmly placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder.
"I am not stopping doctors."
"I'm stopping murderers."
The doctor looked into Lorenzo's eyes.
For the first time, he understood.
This wasn't paranoia.
Someone really was hunting those babies.
Within sixty seconds...
Every entrance was surrounded.
Every elevator was guarded.
Every security camera was connected directly to Lorenzo's surveillance team.
Every employee inside the building had their identification verified.
Or so they thought.
* * *
On the third floor...
A young nurse pushed a medicine cart down the hallway.
She wore blue scrubs.
A surgical mask.
A hospital ID badge.
She looked completely ordinary.
She smiled politely as another nurse passed.
"Long night?"
The other nurse sighed.
"The longest."
The young woman continued walking.
When she reached a supply closet...
She quietly stepped inside.
The smile disappeared.
She removed a disposable phone from her pocket.
One message.
Hospital locked down.
Three seconds later...
A reply arrived.
Complete the mission anyway.
She deleted both messages.
Then opened the bottom drawer of the medicine cart.
Hidden beneath sterile towels...
was a small black pistol fitted with a suppressor.
* * *
Meanwhile...
Matteo supervised the security sweep.
Every employee lined up in the cafeteria.
Doctors.
Cleaning staff.
Maintenance workers.
Receptionists.
Everyone.
One by one...
Their fingerprints were checked.
Identification confirmed.
Employment records reviewed.
A security officer approached Matteo.
"Boss."
"What?"
"We're missing one nurse."
Matteo looked up instantly.
"What do you mean missing?"
"According to the roster..."
"Nurse Emily Carter checked in tonight."
"But no one remembers seeing her."
Matteo frowned.
"Show me her file."
The officer handed him a tablet.
Emily Carter.
Age twenty-eight.
Employment history...
Blank.
References...
Blank.
Emergency contact...
Disconnected.
Matteo's expression hardened.
"This identity was created."
He grabbed his radio.
"Every unit."
"We have an infiltrator."
"Find her."
* * *
The fake nurse was already moving.
She entered the neonatal unit without attracting attention.
The babies slept peacefully beneath soft lights.
A real nurse smiled at her.
"Oh, thank goodness."
"I thought someone finally came to help."
The fake nurse smiled warmly.
"I'll take over."
"Go grab some coffee."
The exhausted nurse hesitated.
"Really?"
"You've been here twelve hours."
"You deserve a break."
The nurse gratefully left.
The door closed.
Silence.
The fake nurse looked toward the two bassinets.
A little boy.
A little girl.
Sleeping side by side.
She slowly removed the suppressed pistol.
Raised it.
Her hands never shook.
One bullet.
Each.
Clean.
Quiet.
Professional.
Then—
A tiny sound.
The baby girl yawned.
Opened her eyes.
And smiled.
For the briefest second...
The assassin hesitated.
Just long enough.
The nursery lights suddenly went dark.
Emergency lighting flashed red.
An alarm echoed throughout the hospital.
The fake nurse spun around.
"What—"
The door exploded inward.
Matteo entered first.
Six armed guards followed.
The assassin fired twice.
Silenced shots cracked through the room.
Glass shattered.
A guard went down, wounded in the shoulder.
The babies began crying.
Matteo dove behind an incubator.
"Protect the children!"
Two guards immediately threw themselves over the bassinets, using their own bodies as shields.
The assassin kicked over medical equipment and sprinted toward the emergency exit.
"Don't let her escape!" Matteo shouted.
* * *
She ran through the hospital corridors with unbelievable speed.
Doctors screamed.
Patients scattered.
Security teams closed in from every direction.
She reached the stairwell.
Locked.
The roof access.
Blocked.
She smiled.
Exactly as expected.
Instead...
She smashed through a maintenance window and climbed onto the narrow outer ledge of the building.
Five stories above the ground.
Rain poured heavily.
Wind howled.
She balanced effortlessly.
Behind her...
Matteo stepped onto the ledge.
"It's over."
She laughed.
"No."
"It just started."
Before Matteo could move—
She jumped.
Everyone gasped.
But instead of falling...
She landed on a suspended construction platform hanging below the fourth floor.
A motorcycle waited there.
Its rider never removed his helmet.
The assassin climbed on.
The motorcycle launched into the night before anyone could stop it.
Matteo slammed his fist against the railing.
"Damn it!"
* * *
Back inside...
Lorenzo stood beside the twins.
His daughter had finally stopped crying.
His son gripped Lorenzo's finger once again.
The pediatrician looked shaken.
"They were seconds away..."
Lorenzo didn't answer.
He gently stroked his daughter's tiny cheek.
Then he noticed something.
Wrapped around her wrist...
was a thin red thread.
He frowned.
"This wasn't here."
The nurse looked confused.
"No..."
"It wasn't."
Lorenzo carefully untied it.
Attached was a microscopic metal bead.
He handed it to Matteo, who had just returned.
"What is it?"
Matteo examined it under a flashlight.
His face changed immediately.
"It's not jewelry."
"What then?"
"A transmitter."
Silence.
Matteo looked at Lorenzo.
"They planned to track the babies."
"Even if tonight failed..."
"They intended to find them later."
Lorenzo crushed the tiny device in his palm.
His voice was colder than ice.
"No one outside this room learns my children survived."
The doctors exchanged puzzled glances.
Lorenzo continued.
"From this moment forward..."
"My son and daughter no longer exist."
Everyone stared at him.
"The hospital will announce that both babies died during delivery."
The chief physician looked horrified.
"That's a lie."
"It's also the only thing that will keep them alive."
The room fell silent.
After several long moments...
The doctor slowly nodded.
"I understand."
Within an hour...
Medical records were altered.
Death certificates were prepared.
The official announcement spread quietly through the hospital.
The twins had not survived.
Across the city...
In a luxurious penthouse overlooking the river...
Five people sat around a black marble table.
None of them showed their faces.
One of them received a secure message.
He read it once.
Then smiled.
"It seems," he said calmly,
"the De Luca bloodline ends tonight."
The other four raised their glasses.
None of them realized...
The twins were alive.
And somewhere inside that very room...
One of the five was secretly recording the entire meeting.
For someone else.
