Chapter 14 - WHO LEAH’S FATHER REALLY WAS
For the first time since the restaurant, I wished Leah had remained biologically simple.
Mine.
Damian’s.
Done.
But nothing in the Caruso family stayed simple for long.
Dr. Warren stood inside my hospital room explaining how the original genetic comparison had used a blood sample from Damian’s family medical records.
It had been stored eighteen years earlier.
Labeled DAMIAN CARUSO.
But when Warren ordered a fresh test after the restaurant, he found a problem.
“The blood type didn’t match.”
Damian stared.
“You knew before today?”
“I learned this morning.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were at the courthouse.”
“Call.”
“I tried.”
Damian’s expression suggested that explanation had a short life expectancy.
I interrupted.
“Test him now.”
Warren nodded.
“We already collected a sample when his shoulder was treated.”
Damian looked toward him.
“You used my blood without permission?”
“You signed medical consent.”
Damian’s stare could have melted steel.
“Smart wording.”
“When do we get results?” I asked.
“Soon.”
Warren hesitated.
“There’s another possibility.”
I hated those words.
“What?”
“The stored sample matched Leah as a parent.”
“Yes.”
“So if it wasn’t Damian…”
He stopped.
“Whoever the sample belonged to could be Leah’s biological father.”
I felt sick.
I turned toward Damian.
He had gone completely still.
The implications were horrible.
Some unknown man.
Someone connected closely enough to Damian that his blood was stored under Damian’s identity.
Then Damian remembered.
“My brother.”
I stared.
“You have a brother?”
“Had.”
Of course.
Nobody had mentioned him because apparently this family contained an unlimited supply of secret relatives.
“Name?”
“Adrian.”
“What happened?”
“Died at nineteen.”
“How?”
Damian’s face changed.
“Car accident.”
I almost laughed.
“Did anyone see the body?”
Damian looked annoyed.
“Don’t.”
“It seems like a fair question in this family.”
He rubbed his jaw.
“Adrian was my younger brother publicly. Vittorio’s biological son.”
“Then Luca wasn’t his father.”
“No.”
“So if the stored sample was Adrian’s…”
Warren nodded.
“He could be Leah’s biological father.”
My mind raced.
“Impossible. I never met Adrian.”
Damian looked toward me.
“When was he supposed to die?”
“Twelve years ago.”
“Then obviously impossible.”
Warren agreed.
“Unless the sample belonged to someone else.”
Samuel appeared.
He had listened from the doorway.
“There was another Caruso male near Elena in Geneva.”
Everyone turned.
“Who?” I asked.
“Gabriel.”
I stared.
“He isn’t a Caruso.”
Samuel’s expression became strange.
“You’re sure?”
The room went cold.
“No.”
I looked toward Damian.
He understood before I did.
“Gabriel’s father.”
Samuel nodded.
“Unknown.”
Gabriel had grown up in foster care.
I knew that much.
Or thought I did.
His mother died when he was five.
No father listed.
I closed my eyes.
“Please do not tell me Gabriel is secretly another Caruso.”
Samuel said nothing.
That was worse.
Damian made a call.
“Find Gabriel.”
Within hours, they did.
Not physically.
Biographically.
Thomas produced files he had hidden.
Gabriel Russo was born Gabriel Keller.
Thomas Keller’s younger half-brother.
That revelation alone shocked me.
But there was more.
Thomas’s mother had worked as Vittorio Caruso’s private secretary.
Gabriel’s biological father?
Vittorio.
I stared at the document.
“Then Gabriel was Vittorio’s son.”
“Yes,” Thomas admitted over encrypted video.
“And Gabriel knew?”
“No.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I only confirmed it last year.”
“Did you tell him?”
“No.”
Damian looked furious.
“So Gabriel was Bianca’s half-brother.”
“Yes.”
“And potentially Elena’s distant cousin through her mother.”
“Yes.”
I rubbed my temples.
“This family needs a diagram.”
Even Damian laughed once.
Then Warren entered with results.
Fresh DNA.
Mine.
Damian’s.
Leah’s.
We all stood.
He looked at me first.
“Elena is Leah’s biological mother.”
I nodded.
That remained unchanged.
“Damian…”
He looked at him.
“…is not Leah’s biological father.”
The room went silent.
Damian did not react.
At least not visibly.
I felt something break inside me anyway.
“Are they related?”
Warren nodded.
“Closely.”
“How?”
“Damian is Leah’s biological uncle.”
Damian stared.
Then Gabriel.
The answer became obvious.
“Gabriel is her father.”
Warren nodded.
“The archived sample appears to have belonged to Gabriel.”
I covered my mouth.
My husband had been Leah’s biological father after all.
All the strange alternative matches came from hidden Caruso lineage.
Damian sat down.
For the first time, he looked defeated.
Leah climbed off Rosa’s lap.
She walked toward him.
“Dada?”
He looked at her.
His eyes filled.
I knew exactly what he feared.
That one laboratory report could erase two years.
I reached toward him.
“You are her father.”
He shook his head.
“Elena.”
“You raised her.”
“Gabriel—”
“Gabriel is her biological father.”
I looked toward Leah.
“You are her dad.”
Leah touched Damian’s knee.
“Dada sad?”
He pulled her into his arms.
“Yes.”
“No sad.”
She kissed his cheek.
That ended the scientific debate as far as I was concerned.
Later that night, I sat by the hospital window.
Damian entered.
Leah was asleep.
“You should rest,” he said.
“So should you.”
He sat beside me.
“I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
“For nearly believing biology mattered more than what we built.”
“We?”
He looked toward Leah.
“You know what I mean.”
I did.
Something had formed between us.
Not romance.
That possibility had been thankfully destroyed by the corrected family history anyway.
What we had was stranger.
Co-parenting born from trauma.
Family without easy labels.
Brother-like loyalty.
The shared understanding of two people who would burn cities for the same little girl.
“Damian.”
“Yes?”
“What happens when Gabriel comes back?”
His expression hardened.
“You assume he will.”
“He always comes back.”
A phone buzzed.
Mine.
Unknown number.
A message.
I opened it.
A photograph appeared.
Gabriel sitting inside a bus station.
He looked exhausted.
Beneath it:
I’M DONE RUNNING.
Then another message.
I NEED TO SEE YOU ALONE.
Damian read over my shoulder.
“No.”
I almost smiled.
“You don’t get to decide.”
“He kidnapped you.”
“He also exposed Salvatore.”
“He lied for years.”
“So did half your family.”
“That is not a defense.”
“No.”
I looked at the message.
“But I need closure.”
Damian leaned back.
“If you go, I’m following.”
“He said alone.”
“I didn’t say he had to see me.”
I smiled.
“That is disturbing.”
“I’m a disturbing person.”
For once, the label sounded almost funny.
The next morning, I left the hospital.
The bus station was crowded.
Damian’s men stayed hidden.
Gabriel sat on a bench near Gate Twelve.
He looked at me.
“Hi.”
I sat several feet away.
“Hi.”
Neither of us spoke for a while.
Finally, Gabriel said:
“I knew Sofia was mine.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“From the first test.”
“Then why did you tell me Damian might be her father?”
“Because I wanted Damian to protect her as if she was his.”
Anger rose.
“He already did.”
“I know that now.”
“You manipulated everyone.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Gabriel looked tired.
“Because I didn’t trust myself to survive.”
I stared.
“What does that mean?”
“I had evidence against Salvatore. Thomas knew. Bianca knew.”
He looked at the floor.
“If I claimed Sofia publicly, she became leverage against me.”
“So you erased yourself.”
“Yes.”
“And me.”
His voice cracked.
“That was the unforgivable part.”
I felt tears rise.
“You should have trusted me.”
“I know.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
“You had no right.”
“I know.”
That was worse than excuses.
He reached into his coat.
Damian’s men moved somewhere unseen.
Gabriel slowly removed an envelope.
“Custody documents.”
I stared.
“I signed away any legal claim to Leah.”
My breath caught.
“Why?”
“Because she calls Damian Dada.”
He smiled sadly.
“And because you deserve to choose what happens next without me using biology as another weapon.”
I could not speak.
Gabriel stood.
“Goodbye, Elena.”
“Where are you going?”
“Federal custody.”
I stared.
“What?”
He looked toward the entrance.
Three agents approached.
“I made a deal.”
“For what?”
“Everything.”
He looked at me one last time.
“I’m going to testify.”
The agents took him.
I stood frozen.
Before they reached the door, Gabriel turned.
“Elena.”
I looked at him.
“Tell Sofia…”
His voice cracked.
May you like
“…tell Leah that her father loved her enough to finally stop lying.”
Then he disappeared through the doors.
