Chapter 12 - VICTOR’S REAL FATHER
Victor didn’t sleep.
By sunrise, the birth certificate had been examined by three independent document specialists.
All three reached the same preliminary conclusion.
It was old.
It appeared authentic.
But authenticity did not automatically mean truth.
Records could be altered.
Names could be changed.
Paper could survive longer than honesty.
Victor refused to accept anything until DNA settled it.
The problem was finding Gabriel Thorne.
If he was alive.
Detective Grant discovered an old evidence sample connected to Gabriel from a 1994 assault investigation.
The material had been preserved.
A court order allowed comparison once the Blackwood investigation showed possible relevance to an ongoing criminal conspiracy.
The result arrived four days later.
Probability of biological relationship between Victor and Gabriel Thorne:
99.98 percent.
Victor read the number alone.
Then again.
And again.
Richard Blackwood had raised him.
Punished him.
Trained him.
Chosen him as heir.
Gabriel Thorne had fathered him.
Lily found Victor sitting in the dark library.
“You know?”
He handed her the report.
She read it.
Then sat beside him.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Neither do I.”
“Did your mother ever tell you anything?”
“No.”
“Did Richard know?”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“If he didn’t before the warehouse fire, I suspect he learned.”
Lily looked at the old photograph.
“She chose the wrong brother.”
Victor nodded.
“Maybe my mother planned to leave Richard.”
“With Gabriel?”
“Maybe.”
“And then the warehouse burned.”
“Yes.”
Lily’s expression changed.
“You think Richard killed her.”
Victor stared at the floor.
“I think I’ve spent my entire life calling the wrong man Father.”
A knock sounded.
Damian entered.
For once, Victor did not object.
Damian looked at the DNA report.
“So it’s true.”
Victor raised his eyes.
“You knew?”
“No.”
Damian sat opposite him.
“But Father hated Gabriel in a way that never felt like business.”
“Richard was your biological father.”
“Yes.”
Victor looked at his brother.
Half brother.
Another word rewritten overnight.
Damian gave a sad smile.
“Does this mean I finally get the bigger bedroom?”
Victor laughed unexpectedly.
It lasted only a second.
But it mattered.
Damian’s expression became serious.
“I remember the fire.”
“You were twenty.”
“Twenty-one.”
“What did Richard tell you?”
“That Mom had gone to inspect the warehouse.”
“Why?”
“He said there were insurance problems.”
Victor frowned.
“Mom never handled insurance.”
“I know.”
Damian looked toward the window.
“I didn’t question it then.”
“Anything else?”
Damian hesitated.
“The night before the fire, they fought.”
“About?”
“I couldn’t hear everything.”
“Try.”
Damian closed his eyes.
“She said, ‘He deserves to know whose son he is.’”
Victor stopped breathing.
Damian looked at him.
“I thought she was talking about me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I forgot.”
Victor stared.
Damian continued.
“I was twenty-one. Angry. Drunk half the time. Richard sent me away two weeks after the funeral.”
Victor looked at the black crown photograph.
The pieces began forming.
Elena Blackwood had an affair—or relationship—with Gabriel Thorne.
Victor was born.
Richard raised him as his own.
Years later, Elena planned to reveal the truth.
Three days after the photograph, she died.
Gabriel disappeared.
Richard gained control of Gabriel’s assets.
Victor eventually inherited everything.
And now someone connected to Gabriel wanted it back.
The phone rang again.
This time Victor answered.
“Gabriel.”
The elderly man chuckled.
“You learn quickly when tragedy makes you humble.”
Victor’s hand tightened.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Close enough.”
“You sent the birth certificate.”
“I did.”
“Did Richard kill my mother?”
Silence.
Victor stood.
“ANSWER ME.”
Gabriel sighed.
“Your mother died because all three of us believed love gave us permission to make terrible choices.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No.”
“Did Richard start the fire?”
“Yes.”
Victor shut his eyes.
Lily reached for his hand.
Gabriel continued.
“He discovered Elena planned to leave him.”
“And you?”
“I was supposed to meet her.”
“At the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
“Why weren’t you there?”
“I was late.”
Victor’s voice turned cold.
“My mother died because you were late.”
“Yes.”
No defense.
No excuse.
Victor almost hated him for making it impossible to argue.
“What happened afterward?”
“Richard’s men found me before police did.”
“Did they try to kill you?”
“They nearly succeeded.”
“So you ran.”
“I survived.”
“You left me.”
Gabriel became silent.
Victor’s voice broke.
“You knew I was your son and you left me with the man who killed my mother.”
“I believed Richard would never harm you.”
“You believed wrong.”
“Yes.”
“You knew where I was.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me become him.”
“No.”
Gabriel’s voice sharpened for the first time.
“I watched you become something different.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“You know nothing about me.”
“I knew you came home early.”
Victor froze.
Gabriel continued.
“I know you chose your son over your reputation. I know you turned evidence over to police when the old Blackwood way would have ended with bodies in the river.”
Lily looked at Victor.
Gabriel said quietly, “You are not Richard.”
Victor swallowed.
“Why now?”
“Because Serena and Adrian woke people who should have stayed sleeping.”
“What people?”
“My enemies.”
“Names.”
“Not yet.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Then this conversation is over.”
“Victor.”
“What?”
“Protect Lily.”
Victor looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because the photograph wasn’t sent to frighten you.”
Gabriel paused.
“It was sent to identify her.”
The line ended.
Lily’s face drained of color.
“What does that mean?”
Victor immediately called Marco.
Within minutes security doubled around Lily and Ethan.
Grant reviewed every camera.
No obvious breach.
Then Rosa came running from the kitchen.
“Mr. Blackwood!”
Victor turned.
She carried Lily’s handbag.
“I found this underneath the table.”
Lily frowned.
“I left it upstairs.”
Victor took it carefully.
Inside was a small black crown made from metal.
Attached to it was a note.
ONE NANNY SAVED THE HEIR.
LET’S SEE IF SHE CAN DO IT TWICE.
Lily looked at Ethan.
Victor felt something dark move inside him.
For months Serena had been the threat.
Now someone had chosen Lily specifically.
Not because she was weak.
Because she had proven she wasn’t.
Victor looked at Marco.
“Move Ethan and Lily.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere nobody connected to my father ever knew existed.”
Marco hesitated.
Victor already knew the answer.
Clara had once bought a small house in Wisconsin under her maiden name.
A quiet place near Lake Geneva.
No Blackwood records.
No household staff.
No business connections.
Just a house Clara had wanted for weekends.
Victor had never visited.
Exactly why it might be safe.
By nightfall, Lily and Ethan were there.
Victor came with them.
May you like
For the first time in years, the most feared mafia boss in Chicago disappeared from his own city.
And somebody noticed.
