Page 62 of Code Name: Dante

As I reached for the doorknob, the sound of her crying made my chest ache.

“Gram, please. Just tell me.”

She shook her head. “Please be careful.”

I turned and left, closing the door softly behind me. I knew she was still crying, but I couldn’t let it stop me. Not anymore. Whatever secrets lay hidden at Great Sacandaga Lake, whatever truth she wasprotectingme from—it was time to face it head-on.

I made my way upstairs in a daze. Gram’s reaction to what I’d said about as many as three people on the Castellano compound had been visceral—almost as though she’d expected it. Known about it. The thought made my stomach churn. How many other secrets was she keeping? How many lives had been shaped by the choices made that summer?

Alice’s officewas a stark contrast to the cozy bedroom where I’d just confronted Gram. Multiple screens were filled with satellite images, property records, and what looked like financial documents. The technical precision of it all made my earlier conversation with Gram feel even more frustrating—emotion and evasion versus cold, hard data.

“What did you find?” I asked, sinking into the chair beside her desk.

She glanced at me, concern evident in her expression. “Are you okay? You look…”

“Like I just spent a half hour trying to get answers from someone determined not to give them?” I attempted a smile, but it felt brittle. “Gram finally admitted there were complications with my birth. That my mother needed surgery, then time to recover, and that was the reason I went to live with her. I got the impression it was supposed to be temporary.” I swallowed hard. “But when I pressed for more details, she shut down completely—again.”

Alice nodded sympathetically, then turned to her screens. “I might have found something that explains her reaction.” She pulled up a series of documents. “Hospital records from 1998. There was an incident?—”

A door opened somewhere below, followed by the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Alessandro appeared on the threshold moments later, his expression troubled. “Alice, can you pull up those old surveillance photos again? The ones from 1998?”

She nodded, fingers flying across her keyboard. “What are we looking for?”

“Tank thinks he spotted something in the background of one of them.” He moved to stand behind me, one hand resting on my shoulder as I processed what we were seeing. “There—in that window.”

Alice zoomed in on the image. Though grainy, I could make out a figure watching from one of the house’s upper windows. “Who is that?”

“Not sure,” Alessandro said quietly. “But look at the date stamp.”

My heart skipped a beat as I read it. Two days after my birth.

“There’s something else,” Alice said, her voice hesitant. “Those hospital records I mentioned? They’re from a medical facility in Saratoga Springs. Two women came in that night. One was in labor, but the other was pregnant too.” She pointed to the screen. “She complained of cramping in her stomach and bleeding.”

The air seemed to leave the room. “I don’t understand,” I whispered.

“The second woman might’ve been having a miscarriage. The reports are incomplete, but…” She glanced between Alessandro and me. “Think about it. The dates match. Both with your birth, Lark, and with when your mother disappeared, Alessandro. What if the woman who brought Summer to the hospital wasyourmother?”

When his hand tightened on my shoulder, I rested mine on top of it.

“This is where it gets strange. There’s no record of either woman or a baby being discharged. They just…vanished.” Alice pulled up another window. “But someone paid the hospital bills. Care to guess who?”

“Vincent,” Alessandro said, his voice hard.

I thought of the photos he’d kept, of the surveillance that had followed me since childhood. Of Gram’s cryptic comments about my mother needing to recover. How many pieces of this puzzle had been right in front of us all along? Yet, like before, none fit together.

“I’m going to the compound now, Lark. I can’t wait any longer,” Alessandro said under his breath before turning to cup my cheek.

My voice cracked. “What if…what if our mothers are there? What if they’ve been there all along?”

His dark eyes held mine, and I saw my own mix of hope and fear reflected there. “Then, I’ll find them,” he said softly.

21

DANTE

Like earlier, I asked Lark if she wanted to come with me, at least when I returned to the boathouse, but she said she wasn’t comfortable leaving Gram alone, especially since Alice would be a part of this meeting.

Once inside, the space felt smaller than usual, with the entire team assembled. Fresh rain drummed steadily on the roof, creating a percussive backdrop to the tension-filled silence. Tank and Grit sat at the workbench while Blackjack leaned against a support beam, arms crossed. Admiral sat beside Alice, watching as she set up her laptop to patch in her colleague Tex via videoconference.

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