Chapter 35

After Lily was born, the joy and pride of being a mother had overwhelmed Valeria and she had tried her best to become a mother her daughter would be very proud of. She had waited tables, cleaned hospital floors and hawked tickets, anything to put food on the table that was legal and wouldn't out her and her baby at risk. She had done this for a full year and she was proud of herself.
While, Lily had gotten really sick and needed help and fast. She couldn't raise the money for the hospital bills fast enough, not from cleaning floors and washing plates. As if on cue, a hug had come up and an old contact had offered her the job. It was a relatively simple task that would be worth $35,000 once she accomplished it.
Valeria had broken her promised to her daughter and took the gig inorder to pay her medical bills. That had been the gravest mistake of her life, one she still regretted til date. She had arrived the airport of San Francisco that evening to act as the escort for the evening's gala. It was not her first encounter with Vince the Viper but it was during that encounter that she knew who he truly was.
The evening had gone smoothly and they retired for the night. The pure gold bar was in the hotel and all she had to do was replace it with a fake and leave before the man woke. She had woken at 2:00am, replaced it successful but she had been caught at the gate of the hotel, where about a dozen guards were already waiting for her.
Vince had introduced himself and had told her that the documents she had stolen from a certain French lawman had been evidence that would put his son out of prison for a murder case. Well, his son had been convicted and killed in the electric chair and he was about to get his own pound of flesh from her. Their first meeting with him as a business Mogul was a farce and a ploy to get to her, they had failed to when she went into hiding and since then they'd been chasing her still, then they had decided to use a job to smoke her out, knowing too well that she couldn't turn down a juicy offer like that.
At that instance, right there on the lawn of the hotel where she'd been tied, Valeria knew she was meddling with an unstable man and her only worry was what would happen to her daughter if she died that night. They had taken her to a cell after blindfolding her and driving for long minutes. Pretending to convulse and lose consciousness, she'd been helped out by the men and from there, she escaped their clutches and fled.
She had first misled them to a small estate in the east of the city before skillfully reaching her home to get Lily who was being looked after by a lonely grandmother just next door. She hadn't bother explaining anything to the lovely woman, only good her bad men were after her and she had to run. The kind lady had offered her car and some money and Valeria had fled tht night and hid in an orphanage. The next morning, she had left for Seattle but hadn't gotten there as the old car broke down and left her stranded in the city.
It was in the city that they got to her again. This time, in the dead of night when she couldn't get help anywhere. Valeria had fled the best she could, took a bullet scrap and hid in a thick bush, leading to a forest reserve. She'd hid quietly and prayed they left her alone. But no, the mad man, Vince the Viper had gotten to her and discovering her with a child, he declared that it was fate and karma that he take her own child since she had taken his.
All her beggings and plea fell on deaf ears as Vince took out a nasty looking blade and right there, before her very eyes, severed Lily's head off her shoulders, leaving her tiny body tumbling to the floor. Valeria had lost consciousness after wailing on and on. She'd woken to forest empty the next day. The man hadn't left a bruise in her after killing her child. He'd simply left the body staring right at her. Valeria had buried the body and there, her nightmares began.
Then four years after her loss, she had given to her darker side and fully resumed her con artist scheme, figuring there was nothing to live clean for. It was on a very ordinary day, after a successful job posing as a mechanic inorder to steal a gold plated Lamborghini. The call had came in and the offer was juicy, it was right on job, as she met Vince that she realized she had the kill him. She had abandoned the job, left the place unnoticed, knowing too well that Vince would recognize her the minute he saw her.
Four weeks late, Vince was found dead, seated on the balcony of his penthouse suite in Alabama, his head served on the dinner plate before him, his lips still nursing a cigarette and his eyes bleeding into a desert plate where his manhood sat too. It had been a media frenzy for months. Many speculations about a jilted wife and mistress resurfaced but no one truly knew who had murdered Vince the Viper in such a gore way.
Valeria startled out of her thoughts as a tap sounded on the door, driving her t the present.
"What?" She asked, hoping Nick wasn't back to check up on her as he had made his daily ritual. The man did care about her but sometimes she wished he could just stay away.
"Ma'am, can I speak with you" came the raspy female voice that Valeria knew too well to be Grace's.
Valeria sat up, alert. She shoved the whiskey bottle under the bed first and then hurried to wear her silicone pregnancy, then she threw on a maternity gown over her underwear and opened the door.
Grace stared at her, her brows raised in question at her look. Valeria looked down and saw her bump was intact and very realistic. She sighed, uncomfortable with the scrutiny and arched her won brow at the girl.
"I spoke with your brother but he doesn't seem to care at all" she said, still staring weirdly at Valeria.
"Wrong person. I don't care what my brother said, suck it up" she replied and slammed the door on her face.
The knock came again and she groaned, yelling for her to go away.
"The baby, he's sick and I think he needs to see the doctor quickly" she stated and at once, Valeria flung the door open and looked at her expectantly.
"What is wrong with him?" She asked.
"His fever won't break and his wounds stink a bit, he also won't eat" the young girl replied.
Valeria swore loudly and hurried to the room where Moses laid, on his stomach, his back having taken the most of the hot water. He was silent, shaking from the fever and a slight foul smell came from the room. Valeria held in her tears, blinked multiple times and turned to Grace.
"Have you given him some meds? Anything?" She asked.
"Some counter drugs but I don't think it's helping, it's worse ma'am" she replied, worry evident in her face.
Valeria sighed heavily and took the baby, a sob broke out of her as she felt the frail frame of the child in her arms. Like the past repeating itself over again. She would be the reason another innocent child died.
"Where the fuck is Pete?!" She yelled as she took the baby.
"Who's Pete?" Grace asked.
"Huh..erhmm... Harry, my brother, Harry. Where is he?" She asked.
"He is in his room I guess" the girl replied.
Valeria bashed in, Pete was in his laptop, scrolling through the details and pictures of their loot, no doubt taking numbers and details for the legal papers.
"What the fuck Pete! I mean... Harry! What the fuck!" She snapped as she entered and dumped the baby as gently as she could on his bed.
"Hey! You know I hate sharing my space" Pete snapped and then crinkled his nose.
"Why does he stink?" He asked.
"My question exactly! That wound is infected and you are telling me you didn't see that? That boy won't survive the night" Valeria replied.
"Give him some meds, he'll be fine" Pete replied carelessly and took the baby, holding him out to Valeria.
"Really? You fucking monster! Have you seen him? He needs a hospital" she insisted, not taking the baby from him.
Pete glared at her and only jus realised that Grace had been behind her all the while, her eyes wide at the whole exchange.
"Work's over" Pete said and nodded to the girl who stood, rooted and stunned at the doorway.
"I said get the fuck out! Work's over!" He thundered and Grace squeaked before scurrying away.
"That was unnecessary" he said, turning to Valeria.
"What? We're talking what's necessary? What is necessary is you taking this boy to the hospital, I told you I wanted nothing to do with him" she replied angrily.
"Then leave him the fuck alone, he's fine, see? Calm as a butterfly" he replied and laid him on the floor before sprawling on his bed again.
"Pete, I know you don't give two shits about anybody but yourself and your money but there's a child on the floor and he is in pain and needs to go to the hospital, are you so inhuman not to see__"
"What's going on?" Nick asked as he entered the room, a shopping bag filled with baby dolls in hand. They intended to stuff as much dollar as they could in the dolls and other items as they travelled.
"Ask your lady" Pete said, gesturing to Valeria.
" I saw the nanny rush out of the building, what's wrong?" He asked.
"Look at Moses" Valeria said, tears leaking from her eyes.
"Shit" Nick muttered as he saw and smelled the child.
"He needs to go to the fucking hospital before that gets worse, and where was the nanny where the wounds became infected? Huh? Incompetent fools!" She accused.
"Well, if you had done your job, you'd have seen when the wounds needed dressing, I can't be everywhere at once Vee" he argued.
"I don't care! It was your idea to boil him in hot water so fix it!"
"Our idea! It was the only way"
"I don't fucking care! Fix him! Get him to a hospital now" she answered wildly.
"I'm afraid we can't do that. Our IDs will be discovered not to take about the child's own. What will we say? Huh? That we don't know who's child it is? Once he gets into the hospital it's gonna be a mess of procedures to get him out and that means samples and previous records that will uncover his identity and how well will that go for us?" Pete asked.
"Then we leave without him. We have the money, why not just go? Huh?"
"What about our stack?" Nick asked, interrupting their banter.
"Really? You too?" She asked in disbelief.
"That's our life's work Valeria and if we have a chance at getting it I say we give it at shot. Moses can't go to the hospital, that won't work, it will expose all of us" Nick agreed with Pete.
"What if we simply leave him there, he will be taken care of and we can go back for him with some lie or scheme, that's what we do right? It won't be more__"
"Stop, this can't happen. You and I both know that this will take more than a day to fix and his records will be needed, we don't have any of that and that will sell is out faster than you think" Pete replied.
Valeria shook her head in disappoinment and glared at the both of them.
"I'll head out and fetch some supplied and whatever else he will need. Pete will see how to patch him up" Nick suggested.
Valeria laughed, a bitter resentful laugh.
"Patch him up? This isn't some bullet wound, he's a baby and his wound is infected, you can't patch that up, not unless you have some medical degree I don't know of" she replied with a devastated look.
"Calm down Vee" Pete said.
"Calm? How can I be calm when there's a baby right__"
"Stop! You, me, all of us, we know this was a job and we took it, let's just live with it shall we?" Pete asked, frustrated with the whole issue
Valeria looked at Nick, begging with her eyes for him to be on her side this once. He blinked and sighed.
"He'll be fine" Nick stated in his usual positive manner, his tone rather unconvincing.