Chapter 7 - THE BLOOD TEST
No one spoke during the drive back.
Lily slept against my chest.
I kept checking her pulse like she might disappear again.
Victor stared out the window.
Gabriel sat opposite us holding my mother’s photograph.
Our children must never know which father betrayed them.
Four people in the picture.
Elena.
Thomas.
Gabriel.
Me.
Which father?
Victor?
Thomas?
Someone else?
At the safe apartment, Victor ordered DNA tests.
His.
Mine.
Gabriel’s.
Lily’s.
I didn’t want answers.
I also couldn’t survive without them.
While we waited, the priest’s metal box gave us another clue.
A key card from an old Manhattan hotel.
The Regency Crown.
Room 814.
The hotel had closed eighteen years ago.
Victor bought the building within an hour.
I was starting to understand how useful obscene wealth could be.
We entered the abandoned hotel that evening.
Dust covered the chandeliers.
Furniture was draped in sheets.
Room 814 was sealed.
Gabriel kicked the door open.
Inside, everything had been preserved.
A bed.
Desk.
Telephone.
Photographs pinned across one wall.
My childhood.
Gabriel’s childhood.
Victor stopped.
“Oh God.”
A man had watched us for years.
Photos of me walking to school.
Gabriel playing soccer.
Victor leaving restaurants.
Elena.
Thomas.
Margaret.
Dominic.
At the center was one recent photograph.
Lily.
Taken outside daycare.
My stomach turned.
Someone had been watching my baby.
Victor found a tape recorder.
He pressed play.
A man’s voice filled the room.
I recognized it.
Even after twenty-six years.
My father.
Thomas Reed.
“Hannah.”
I covered my mouth.
“If you hear this, I’m sorry.”
Victor went pale.
Gabriel looked at me.
Thomas continued.
“I was supposed to protect Elena. Instead, I helped create the lie that killed her.”
My knees weakened.
He explained.
After Elena discovered Anthony Moretti was selling information, Thomas confronted him.
Anthony claimed Victor was involved.
Thomas believed him.
He helped Elena flee.
But Thomas had also been secretly working with federal investigators.
He wanted the entire network exposed.
Victor stared at the tape.
“He was an informant.”
The recording continued.
“The mistake was trusting Margaret.”
My stomach tightened.
Thomas described the night Elena died.
He had followed her car.
Seen Margaret’s men force it off the road.
He arrived too late.
But Elena was still alive.
My breath stopped.
“She didn’t die immediately.”
Thomas’s voice broke.
“I held her.”
I cried silently.
“She gave me the locket and made me promise to protect Hannah.”
Then another revelation.
“Elena told me Gabriel was not Victor’s son.”
Gabriel stopped breathing.
Victor closed his eyes.
“What?”
The recording continued.
“She lied to Victor to protect the real father.”
Gabriel stepped backward.
“No.”
Thomas said the name.
“Anthony Moretti.”
The room exploded emotionally.
Gabriel punched the wall.
Victor stood frozen.
Anthony.
Victor’s brother.
Not his son.
His nephew.
Gabriel laughed wildly.
“So all those years—”
Victor moved toward him.
Gabriel shoved him away.
“You’re not my father.”
“I raised—”
“You didn’t raise me!”
“Hannah,” Victor said.
But I was listening.
Thomas continued.
“There is more.”
My heart sank.
“There’s always more.”
“Elena became pregnant with Hannah two years later.”
I stared.
Thomas’s voice softened.
“She was mine.”
I closed my eyes.
Relief.
At least one thing was real.
Thomas was my biological father.
Then he said:
“But the Valentis discovered our identities.”
Thomas faked his death to protect me.
He left me with distant relatives who later died.
I had spent years believing I was alone.
He had been alive somewhere.
Watching.
Why never come back?
The tape answered.
“Because Anthony found me.”
Victor stiffened.
“He gave me a choice. Disappear forever or Hannah dies.”
My hands shook.
Thomas had lived in hiding.
Tracking Anthony.
Trying to expose him.
The final message:
“Anthony is alive. He has built his power inside both families. He uses Dominic. He manipulates Margaret. And he will come for Lily.”
I whispered.
“Why?”
Thomas answered as if he heard me.
“Because Lily is the final heir.”
Victor frowned.
“Heir to what?”
Thomas continued.
“Salvatore Rossi placed ownership of his legitimate businesses in a trust. Control passes through Elena’s bloodline.”
Gabriel looked at me.
My mother’s family had owned more than records.
Warehouses.
Land.
Shipping companies.
Property worth hundreds of millions.
“Half to Gabriel,” Thomas said.
Gabriel swore.
“Half to Hannah.”
I stared.
Thomas’s voice changed.
“But if either heir dies without transferring control, the share passes to the youngest living descendant.”
Lily.
My daughter.
“That’s why they want her,” I whispered.
Victor nodded.
Not to kill her.
To control her.
Through guardianship.
Through blood.
Through fear.
Then the tape ended with one final sentence.
“If you want to find me, bring Lily to the place where Elena first met Victor.”
The restaurant.
Little Italy.
The next morning, the DNA results arrived.
Dr. Keller entered silently.
“Hannah, Thomas Reed is confirmed as your biological father using archived military DNA.”
I exhaled.
“And Lily?”
He looked uncomfortable.
“Lily’s biological father is not Michael Hayes.”
“I know.”
“We obtained a sample belonging to Daniel Valenti from an old federal case.”
My heart pounded.
“And?”
“He is her father.”
I closed my eyes.
Victor spoke.
“And Gabriel?”
Dr. Keller looked at him.
“Gabriel is not your son.”
Victor’s face barely moved.
“He is Anthony Moretti’s biological son.”
Gabriel laughed once.
No humor.
Dr. Keller continued.
“There’s something else.”
Of course.
“There always is,” I muttered.
“The samples show an unusual relationship.”
He looked at Gabriel.
“Anthony Moretti and Thomas Reed were related.”
Victor frowned.
“That’s impossible.”
“Half-brothers.”
Silence.
Victor sat down.
“My father…”
Dr. Keller nodded.
“Based on the genetic markers, they shared a father.”
Gabriel stared.
“That means Thomas was a Moretti.”
Victor whispered.
“My father had another son.”
Everything became clear.
Thomas had not simply been Victor’s friend.
He had been his half-brother.
Hidden.
Unrecognized.
Which meant I was also a Moretti by blood.
Not through crime.
Through a secret branch the family had erased.
Victor looked at me differently.
“You’re my niece.”
I stared at him.
Gabriel laughed.
“Family dinner is going to be complicated.”
Then Victor’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face became hard.
“What happened?”
A guard’s voice crackled.
“Boss, we found Daniel Valenti.”
My chest tightened.
“Where?”
Victor’s eyes moved to me.
“At the old Rossi restaurant.”
The place Thomas told us to go.
Victor ended the call.
“He’s not alone.”
“Who’s with him?”
Victor looked directly at me.
“A man matching Thomas Reed’s age and description.”
May you like
My father was alive.
And he was sitting with the father of my child.
