Chapter 12 - THE CHILD MARCUS COULD NOT CLAIM
Marcus lowered the gun by half an inch.
“That’s impossible.”
“No,” Sabrina said. “It’s exactly what Lucia planned.”
I did not understand either.
Marcus and I had tried for a child for nearly two years. There had been fertility appointments, medications, tests, and one failed procedure.
Then I became pregnant naturally.
Or so I had believed.
My mother spoke from the witness room through the courthouse sound system.
“Lucia replaced one of Elena’s fertility samples.”
Marcus looked toward the ceiling.
“Whose?”
“Adrian Knox’s.”
The name struck the courtroom like another explosion.
My father moved beside me.
Knox was not only the man who opened my cage and later betrayed Victor.
He was Ava’s biological father.
I remembered a fertility procedure eight months before the pregnancy. Marcus had insisted on using a private clinic recommended by Elaine.
He had known.
Or perhaps he had been manipulated too.
Marcus’s face twisted.
“You’re lying.”
Sabrina took another step forward.
“Mother needed the child to carry both Gabriel Soren’s bloodline through Elena and Victor’s loyal line through Knox.”
“Why Knox?”
My mother answered.
“Adrian is Victor’s son.”
Everyone looked at my father.
He appeared stunned.
“I have no son.”
“You did not know,” Isabella said. “Adrian’s mother never told you.”
Knox was my father’s biological child.
Ava carried the blood of Gabriel Soren through me and Victor Vale through Knox.
To Lucia, she represented the union of two empires.
To me, she was simply my daughter.
Marcus screamed and fired toward the speakers.
The bullet struck the wall.
Federal officers rushed the doors, but Marcus had chained them from inside.
“Stay back!” he shouted. “I’ll kill everyone.”
People crouched behind benches.
I remained standing.
“Elena,” my father whispered, “move behind me.”
“No.”
Marcus pointed the gun at Ava.
Every part of me became still.
“You were never going to keep her,” he said.
“You were going to steal her.”
“I was going to raise her.”
“With Sabrina?”
“With whoever followed the plan.”
Sabrina flinched.
Even she had been disposable.
“Did you ever love me?” I asked.
Marcus laughed.
“At first, I tried.”
“What changed?”
“I learned who you were.”
“I didn’t know who I was.”
“You had everything without earning it.”
“And that justified the cage?”
“You were supposed to sign and disappear quietly.”
“You laughed when I bled.”
His eyes flickered.
For the first time, he looked ashamed.
Then the expression vanished.
“I was angry.”
“You were cruel.”
“You made me cruel.”
“No, Marcus. That is the lie you tell yourself because the truth is smaller.”
I stepped away from my father.
“You were cruel because it made you feel powerful.”
Marcus aimed at me.
“Put the baby down.”
I placed Ava’s carrier on the witness table but kept one hand around the handle.
My father tensed.
Sabrina moved slightly to the left.
Marcus noticed.
“Don’t.”
She stopped.
“Where are the certificates?” Marcus demanded.
“Destroyed,” my mother said through the speakers.
He fired again.
Ava began crying.
I leaned over her.
Marcus took a step closer.
“Give me the film.”
“You came for the certificates.”
“The film controls the people who control the certificates.”
He knew more than we thought.
“Where is Lucia?” I asked.
“Watching.”
“From where?”
He smiled.
“Closer than you think.”
A woman screamed near the jury box.
An elderly court clerk stood and removed her wig.
Lucia.
She had entered disguised among courthouse staff.
Before officers could react, she pressed a device.
The floor beneath the archive doors exploded.
Smoke filled the courtroom.
Lucia ran toward the opening.
Marcus turned to follow.
Sabrina tackled him.
The gun discharged.
She fell.
I screamed her name.
Marcus threw her aside and reached for Ava.
My father struck him from behind with a wooden chair.
The gun slid across the floor.
Detective Ortiz broke through a side window with two officers.
They pulled Marcus down.
He fought wildly, shouting that Ava belonged to him, the company belonged to him, and none of us understood what Lucia had promised.
I crawled toward Sabrina.
Blood spread across her abdomen.
“Stay with me.”
She pressed a hand against the wound.
“I’m tired of people saying that.”
“You saved Ava.”
“She was supposed to be mine.”
“But you saved her.”
Tears moved down her face.
“I hated you.”
“I know.”
“I still do a little.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
She smiled weakly.
Then paramedics reached her.
Lucia disappeared into the underground archive.
My mother knew another route.
She guided federal teams through service passages while firefighters controlled the smoke.
I remained with Ava.
My father sat beside me, his broken wrist now injured again.
“Is Knox really your son?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Would it change anything?”
He looked at Ava.
“No.”
“Good.”
Agents found the archive empty.
The bearer certificates were gone.
A tunnel led to the river.
Lucia had escaped.
Marcus returned to custody under military-level security.
Sabrina survived surgery.
The bullet had missed major organs.
Nathan Cole was found inside the archive, unconscious but alive. He had entered earlier to stop Lucia and had been struck from behind.
When he woke, he revealed the final part of the plan.
Lucia did not intend to access Gabriel’s fortune.
She intended to destroy it.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Gabriel left everything to Isabella’s daughter,” Nathan said. “Not Lucia’s children.”
Marcus, Sabrina, and Nathan had been raised to believe they would inherit an empire.
In truth, Gabriel had left them nothing.
Lucia had built their entire lives around recovering something never meant for them.
“What will she do with the certificates?” Agent Price asked.
“Burn them,” Nathan replied. “Then release the film publicly.”
My father understood.
“The names would destroy governments, courts, and law enforcement agencies.”
“Exactly,” Nathan said. “She doesn’t want money anymore. She wants collapse.”
“When?”
“Forty-eight hours.”
“How do you know?”
Nathan looked at me.
“Because she scheduled a live global broadcast.”
He gave Agent Price the access code.
A countdown appeared on the screen.
Forty-seven hours.
Fifty-three minutes.
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Beneath it was a message from Lucia:
WHEN THE TRUTH BURNS, ELENA WILL CHOOSE WHICH FATHER’S WORLD SURVIVES.
