Author's Note: Please be aware I am using my writer's license with this situation. While this could happen it's highly in probable that it would actually happen so don't take it too seriously. Thanks for reading. J
Chapter Seventeen – Philip In Italy: Startling Revelations
Philip and Shawn got out of the car and walked into the converted mission. They walked over to the main desk where a nun sat working on some paperwork. When she saw them approach she waved them over.
"Buon giorno, Signori. Puoi auitarti? (Good morning. Can I help you?)" She asked in a broad accent. Shawn looked to Philip although he had some knowledge of the language, it was minimal at best while, Philip was fluent.
"Buon giorno, Sorella. Parli inglese?" He questioned for Shawn's benefit.
"Oh, si, si parlo inglese." She said jovially. "How can I help you, sir?" She responded in a heavily accented English.
"I'm looking for a Signora Lazzarino. Does she work here?"
"Doctoressa Lazzarino, si yes, she works here. She is–––how do you say la regista dell' ospedali (the director of the hospital)?" The nun answered in Italian for lack of a better word.
Philip looked at Shawn with a raised brow of acknowledgement that they were getting somewhere. "Is she here? I mean would it be possible for me and my friend to speak with her today?" The nun looked as if she was going to answer but them someone else spoke up behind them.
"Sorella Francisca, I signori …" She lapsed into English. "They are here to speak with me. We will be in my office." Said a surprisingly young raven-haired woman in back of them. When Philip and Shawn had turned around she'd looked directly at them and gestured with her hands for them to follow her before she turned around. "Seguirme (Follow me)." Philip and Shawn looked at each other before starting after the woman. She led them through a long winding corridor that ended in an office. She held the door open for them to come in behind her. Once they were seated she closed the door and moved to her own seat behind the desk.
While she settled comfortably in her seat Philip studied her. At first she had not appeared vaguely familiar to him. But, upon closer observation it was very clear to him that he knew her from somewhere and it ate at him. "Have we met before? You seem familiar to me somehow." Then, it hit him. "You were the woman that helped me when Chloe, my wife, had the accident weren't you? The one who told me she was okay?"
"I wasn't sure if you would remember me, Signor Kiriakis. It was so long ago. But, yes, I was the one who told she would be alright. I was doing my residency here at the time. I'm just sorry I couldn't be of more help to you then." A sympathetic look came over her face.
"But, you were." He turned to Shawn. "She told me Chloe would be fine and made sure that she was comfortable while she stayed here." He glanced back over at the doctor and saw how nervous she looked. "Hey, there's nothing to be nervous about. I really appreciate what you did for my wife back then. Honestly."
Doctor Lazzarino seemed confused then instead of comforted. She truly couldn't understand why he was being so nice to her considering what had happened all those years ago. "Signor … Mr. Kiriakis, I really don't understand. I thought you were here to find out about the child. How can you be so nice to me after what I took part in? Don't you know what happened? What I did?" All of the sudden the pleasant demeanor in Philip changed completely.
"What do you know about Jarod? Do you know what happened to him? What did you do?" He stated the questions fiercely making the doctor wince at his tone of voice.
"Philip, man calm down--," Shawn said trying to stop Philip from getting too angry too fast, he was practically scaring the poor woman as it was.
"No, I won't calm down. She knows what happened to my son and I want to what it is. I want her to tell me what happened."
Just as Shawn was about to intervene once more the doctor stood up and walked to the window to avoid seeing Philip's angry face. "It is alright, Signor Brady he has every right to be angry. I deserve his anger and so much more … for taking his son away from him."
With that damning statement Shawn settled back down and let Philip handle everything. "Can you please tell me what happened?" Philip asked calmly waiting for Dr. Lazzarino to turn around. When he did he saw the troubled expression on her face.
"I will tell you everything about your son that is all I know, about what happened. It was when your wife was brought into the hospital. She was unconscious and in a mild coma. At the time, I was a third year resident I guess I didn't really know any better. That is no excuse by any means, however, I truly thought that she was the donor. Anton … Antonio Amodeo my superior assured me that she was it. And I believed him right up until the time you arrived."
"Wait a minute, what donor? What are you talking about Chloe was in an accident she wasn't a donor; she was hit by a car. I don't understand." Philip said as Dr. Lazzarino eyes begin to fill with tears.
"I thought she was the embryo transfer donor. They … they … Dr. Amodeo told me that she had been an accident on her way to the 'ospital. I knew something was wrong when I was prepping her for the surgery. I told him you can't do an embryo transfer on someone so far along in their pregnancy. Ma (But), but he told me that everything would be all right. The donor … your wife had second thoughts about giving the child up but she had decided to go through with it and was on her way to the 'ospital when the accident happened. He told me everything would be fine and everyone would be fine after we did the procedure. He was my mentor, my superior I never thought for a minute that he would do something like that. Or that I would help, I should have known better."
Philip was shocked as he thought about everything that had been said about Jarod. Someone had stolen his child, his son before he or Chloe had even known about him. They had taken advantage of his wife at her most vulnerable and he hadn't been able to protect her or their son, Jarod from it. Someone had robbed Chloe and him of all of the precious firsts in his life. They had robbed him of his son. Coming out of his thoughts, he returned his intense steely blue gaze to the sobbing woman across from him. "Tell me how it happened, who did it and where I can find them."
"I … the procedure is like a––an in-vitro fertilization. But, in this case you have a donor, someone that goes through the insemination process and normally within the next 48 hours the fertilized egg, embryo is implanted into the prospective parent if not in 48 hours than the embryo is frozen until it can used. Dr. Amodeo preformed the surgery and I assisted him in taking your wife's embryo and then implanting it Signora Amodeo."
Shawn interrupted her. "Wait a minute the doctor stole his wife's embryo to implant it into his own wife?" Shawn asked clearly disgusted with what he was hearing.
"No, Signora Amodeo was his … his cousin's wife. Dr. Amodeo died about five years ago I am not even sure if his cousin knew about it. I never found out for sure. But, you can't blame the Amodeos, they could never have any children of their own, Lorenzo, the father … he was sterile, this was the only way they could ever have any children."
"You'll forgive me if I'm not sympathetic to the man who stolen my child from me." Philip replied.
"I …I," Dr. Lazzarino didn't know how to respond; she didn't blame him for the way he thought. He had every right to feel angry but she had to make sure he understood the situation completely. "You have to understand, Signor Kiriakis. They tried numerous procedures this was their last chance to have a child of their own. Their donor decided at the last moment she could got through with it at the last minute––,"
"And my wife entered the hospital at the perfect time so they decided that they would take my child. They took years of my son's life away from me and my wife. I want them to pay for what they did to my wife and the years they took of my son's life. An innocent child who didn't have his mother or father there to love him and care for him. I want them to pay and when I find them they had better pray to God for forgiveness because they won't get any from me. Where are they?" He walked around the desk to stand before the sobbing woman.
"I'm sorry, so sorry. I never meant to do this to you or your wife. But, I didn't know, I swear I didn't know. If I had I never would have done the procedure or allowed it to be done." She said staring up into Philip's eyes that seemed sliver because he was angry.
"It's okay, Philip isn't blaming you for what happened. He knows that you were just doing your job. He understands that completely. But, he has to know where the people they actually had the baby. Where are the people that raised his son?" Shawn asked again intervening and coming between the woman to ask her without having Philip make her more scared and weepy than she already was.
"The Amodeos," she said softly and Shawn nodded. "They died in a car crash about five years ago. Signora Amodeo, his nonna …grandmother, Lorenzo's mother, was given custody of the child after their deaths." Philip, who had been pacing in the background stopped and turned to Dr. Lazzarino.
"You mean his "grandmother" had custody of him?" The doctor nodded yes. "If she had custody of him than how did he end up in the US?"
"I don't know … honestly I have no idea how he ended there. I only know what I have told you. After Lorenzo and Genevieve died, she took the child with her from Roma. I lost contact with her after that. So you have the child with you?"
"Yes, he is at home with his mother." Philip replied thinking on what had just been told to him. "You have no idea where she went?"
"No, I don't but if I did I would tell you." The phone rang on her desk. She answered it. "Pronto, … si si va venire. (Hello… yes, yes I am going to come.)" She hung up the phone. "I'm sorry but one of my patients has just gone into labor. I must go." She explained taking a tissue and wiping at her eyes, drying the tears that had fell. Before she left the room she turned back to Shawn and a grim looking Philip. "I am so sorry about this. Please if there is anything I can do for you let me know." Then, nodding to Shawn she left her office and shut the door behind her.
Shawn didn't know what you say to Philip. There was nothing he could think to say to comfort Philip. The anger, he knew Philip felt wouldn't just disappear because of some words. "Look, Philip I know–––,"
"You don't know anything Shawn. Not about this. I don't want to talk about it. All I want to do now is go home to my wife and children. That's it, nothing else. So spare me with your 'I'm sorry Philip speech'. I don't want or need to hear it." He said walking pass Shawn and leaving the room.
"He's going to blow," Shawn said to himself quietly before following Philip out of the office to the car in front of the hospital. Philip was sitting in the car, his seat belt on and his hands on the stirring wheel, clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white. ~Oh yeah, he is definitely going to blow a gasket. But, who can blame him? ~ Shawn thought to himself as he approached the car not knowing whether Philip had actually been waiting for him or whether he was attempting to pull himself together to drive. But, he suspected the latter.