Chapter 7 - Two Sons
The gunfire lasted eleven seconds.
It felt like eleven years.
Marco’s men returned fire from the windows while Alessandro dragged me behind a brick fireplace.
I grabbed Daniel with one arm and Logan with the other.
Two boys.
Two terrified children.
Both three years old.
Both connected to me by a decision I had never made.
“Mommy!”
Logan screamed.
Daniel froze.
That word hung in the room.
Mommy.
Daniel looked at me.
Then at Logan.
I saw confusion in his face.
I wanted to protect him from what that word might eventually mean.
“Stay down,” Alessandro ordered.
His guards moved with practiced speed.
“Rear exit clear!”
Marco shouted.
We ran.
Daniel clung to my scrub top.
He didn’t know me.
But he understood danger.
That was worse.
An SUV waited behind the house.
I shoved both boys inside.
Alessandro climbed in after us.
The vehicle accelerated through a backyard fence just as another bullet struck the rear door.
Daniel screamed.
I pulled him against me.
“I’ve got you.”
The words came naturally.
Too naturally.
His body stiffened.
Then slowly relaxed.
Logan grabbed his hand.
“It’s okay.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Logan.”
“I’m Daniel.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Logan shrugged.
“Mommy said.”
My heart cracked.
Alessandro looked away.
Ten minutes later, we switched vehicles beneath an overpass.
Then again outside Petersburg.
Only when Richmond was far behind us did anyone speak.
“Who attacked the house?” I asked.
Marco checked his phone.
“Not Halcyon.”
Alessandro frowned.
“Then who?”
“Federal Marshals.”
I stared.
“Federal agents shot at us?”
“Not exactly.”
Marco held up a photograph.
Men in tactical gear.
“They used Marshal insignia, but facial recognition matched private contractors.”
“Halcyon.”
“Yes.”
“So they can pretend to be federal agents.”
“They can pretend to be almost anyone.”
Wonderful.
I looked down at Daniel.
He had fallen asleep against my side.
Logan slept on the other.
For the first time, I saw the differences clearly.
Logan had softer features.
A rounder face.
Alessandro’s dark eyes.
Daniel had David’s narrow nose and the tiny dimple in his chin that David hated in photographs.
Biology screamed at me.
My heart refused to choose.
“Why did David say Alessandro would ‘own’ Daniel?”
Alessandro answered before Marco could.
“He’s trying to make you distrust me.”
“He doesn’t need much help.”
“Fair.”
“What does Halcyon fear?”
Alessandro stared at Daniel.
“Evidence.”
“What kind?”
“Gabriel believed Halcyon’s founders were involved in illegal human trials. If he had a biological son, that child might prove hereditary genetic manipulation.”
“Genetic manipulation?”
Dr. Chen leaned forward from the front seat.
“Not necessarily engineered embryos. More likely drug exposure affecting germline markers.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Again. English.”
“If Gabriel was exposed to Lazarus compounds before Daniel was conceived, Daniel could carry biological evidence that the experiments affected future generations.”
My stomach turned.
“You’re talking about my son like he’s a court exhibit.”
“Sorry.”
I looked at Alessandro.
“Would you use him?”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
“Would you use his DNA?”
He paused.
“That’s different.”
“It isn’t to me.”
“We could destroy Halcyon with proof.”
“And what happens to Daniel?”
“One blood test.”
“No.”
“Catherine—”
“No.”
Alessandro looked angry.
So was I.
“You don’t get to volunteer a three-year-old.”
“They murdered my family.”
“And they stole mine.”
Our eyes locked.
“That doesn’t mean we become them.”
Silence.
Finally Alessandro leaned back.
“Fine.”
Marco looked surprised.
“No test without Catherine’s consent.”
I blinked.
I hadn’t expected to win.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. I hate it.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
We didn’t return to Maryland.
Instead, Alessandro took us to a property in rural Virginia.
An old horse farm surrounded by woods.
No obvious guards.
No iron gates.
“That doesn’t look like a mafia fortress,” I said.
“That’s why we use it.”
Inside, Daniel woke.
He immediately asked for Sofia.
Nobody knew how to answer.
I knelt in front of him.
“Your aunt had to go somewhere.”
“Did bad men take her?”
Children always knew when adults were lying.
I swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Is she coming back?”
“I’m going to try to bring her back.”
Daniel stared at me.
“Why?”
The question destroyed me.
Because I might be your mother.
Because your father let me think you never existed.
Because I lost your first steps, your first word, every fever, every birthday.
Instead I said, “Because she loves you.”
He nodded.
Then reached for my necklace.
A cheap silver pendant David gave me on our first anniversary.
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“Aunt Sofia has one.”
“What?”
He touched it.
“Same.”
My pulse quickened.
“Exactly the same?”
He nodded.
“Aunt Sofia says Uncle David gave it to her.”
The room went silent.
I stood.
“Uncle David?”
Daniel smiled.
“He brings pizza.”
Something inside me cracked.
David had visited him too.
Both boys.
Two secret families hidden inside one city.
“Does he come often?”
“Sometimes.”
“Did he tell you who he is?”
“Uncle David.”
“Anything else?”
Daniel shook his head.
“Did Aunt Sofia talk to him?”
“Yes.”
“Did they fight?”
He nodded.
“About me?”
Another nod.
“What did she say?”
Daniel frowned, remembering.
“She said, ‘You can’t keep doing this to Catherine.’”
My chest tightened.
“What did David say?”
“He said, ‘I know.’”
I closed my eyes.
Of course he knew.
That was his favorite defense.
I know.
I’m sorry.
I had to.
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Did David ever give Sofia anything?”
Daniel thought.
“A red box.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
My eyes snapped open.
“Where is it?”
Daniel pointed upstairs.
“My backpack.”
We found the backpack in the items Marco’s men had grabbed from Sofia’s house.
Inside were clothes.
A dinosaur book.
Snacks.
And a red metal box.
Locked.
No key.
Marco examined it.
“Biometric.”
Daniel placed his thumb on the scanner before anyone could stop him.
Click.
The box opened.
Inside was a phone.
One photograph.
And a handwritten letter.
The photograph showed David, Sofia, Logan, and Daniel.
Taken six months earlier.
My son—Logan—sat on David’s shoulders.
Daniel held Sofia’s hand.
They were at a park.
Together.
My knees weakened.
David had brought the boys together.
Without me.
Alessandro picked up the letter.
“It’s addressed to you.”
I grabbed it.
Cat,
If you found Daniel, I failed to keep the worlds separate.
My hands shook.
There is no gentle way to tell you this.
Daniel is our biological son.
Tears blurred the words.
Logan is Gabriel Romano’s biological son.
I looked at Logan across the room.
Alessandro did too.
The letter continued.
On the night they were born, Halcyon came for Gabriel’s baby. Elena begged me to save him. I switched the identification bands. I took Gabriel’s son to you and sent our son away with Elena.
My stomach twisted.
I thought Halcyon would follow the wrong child.
I was wrong.
They eventually realized both boys mattered.
Both.
I kept reading.
Daniel inherited my resistance marker. Logan inherited Gabriel’s Lazarus adaptation. Together, their blood proves the project continued after Halcyon publicly shut it down.
Alessandro swore under his breath.
Catherine, I know what I stole from you. There is no forgiveness large enough for that.
I started crying.
But there is one more truth you need before Alessandro learns it from anyone else.
I stopped.
Alessandro watched me.
“What?”
I read silently.
Then again.
“No.”
“What does it say?”
I looked at him.
David’s final paragraph felt impossible.
Gabriel Romano is alive.
May you like
Alessandro went completely still.
And he is running Halcyon.
