Chapter 4 - The Sins of the Past
The rain poured heavily over Chicago, battering against the corrugated tin roof of the abandoned warehouse on 4th Street.
Inside, tied to a heavy wooden chair beneath a single hanging bulb, sat Dr. Thomas Harrison. The former chief administrator of Saint Mary’s Hospital was bruised, sweating, and shaking violently with terror.
Roland Castellano stood in the shadows, calmly wrapping his knuckles with black leather gloves. Beside him, Walter Pike was pinned to a concrete pillar by two of Roland’s most loyal enforcers, his face bloodied from a swift interrogation.
"I'll ask one last time, Harrison," Roland said, his voice flat as he stepped into the light. "Who paid you to lie to Marlene Walsh six years ago? Who took her baby?"
Dr. Harrison sobbed, wiping blood from his nose against his shoulder. "It wasn't my idea, Castellano! I swear on my life! It was Pike! Pike came to me two months before your wife delivered!"
Roland turned his dark, lethal gaze onto Pike.
Pike spat blood onto the concrete floor and laughed bitterly. "Go ahead, Roland! Kill me! But you know why I did it! Your wife Eleanor was dying! Her heart was failing during her pregnancy! The doctors said she wouldn't survive a twin delivery!"
"So you stole a child from a poor, defenseless mother?" Roland demanded, his fists clenching so hard the leather groaned.
"Eleanor wanted a girl!" Pike shouted, his eyes wild. "She knew she was dying, Roland! She wanted to leave you a daughter before she went into the ground! When Marlene Walsh gave birth to a healthy girl in Room 304, I paid Harrison fifty thousand dollars to tell Marlene the baby died! We swapped the charts! We put Marlene’s baby into Eleanor’s arms five minutes before Eleanor breathed her last breath!"
Roland felt a sickening wave of disgust wash over him. The woman he had mourned for six years... the daughter he had raised as Eleanor’s blood... had been bought with a stolen mother's tears.
"And Mateo?" Roland asked softly. "Was Mateo Eleanor’s true biological son?"
"Yes!" Harrison blabbed nervously from his chair. "Mateo was Eleanor’s biological child! But Sofia... Sofia was Marlene Walsh’s daughter! Eleanor died thinking both children were hers!"
Roland stood motionless in the cold warehouse, the horrifying truth settling into his marrow. Eleanor hadn't known about the theft; she had been given a newborn in her dying moments and believed it was her own twin. The entire lie had been manufactured by Pike to keep Roland focused on the syndicate rather than consumed by grief.
"Pike," Roland said quietly, pulling his gun from his holster. "You spent six years watching that poor woman starve in the slums of this city, washing floors to pay debts, while my daughter slept in silk."
"Roland, please!" Pike begged, his bravado finally shattering into pure panic. "I was loyal to you! I did it for the family!"
"You aren't family, Walter," Roland said coldly. "You're a parasite."
A single silenced shot echoed through the warehouse.
Roland didn't watch Pike fall. He turned on his heel, tossed his bloody gloves into a trash bin, and looked at Frank.
"Clean this place up," Roland commanded. "And Harrison... strip him of every dime he owns, hand his illegal records to the federal prosecutors, and make sure he spends the rest of his miserable life in a maximum-security prison."
"Understood, Boss," Frank bowed his head. "And what about Mrs. Walsh?"
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Roland stopped at the warehouse doors, looking out at the pouring rain.
"Marlene Walsh is no longer a servant in my house," Roland stated, his eyes burning with intense resolve. "She is the mother of my children. And anyone who ever disrespects her again will answer to me."
