Chapter 6 - The DNA Result
The DNA result arrived at 8:42 that evening.
Nobody celebrated.
Not at first.
Dr. Patel walked into the consultation room carrying a sealed envelope.
Sebastian stood near the window.
Isabella sat beside me.
Nadia stood behind her.
Detective Morrison had left to coordinate officers near Margaret's hospital.
Dr. Patel placed the envelope on the table.
“Both samples were processed twice.”
Isabella's fingers tightened around mine.
She had taken my hand ten minutes earlier without asking.
I hadn't let go.
Sebastian didn't move.
Dr. Patel opened the report.
“The probability of biological paternity is greater than 99.99 percent.”
Silence.
Isabella closed her eyes.
Sebastian lowered his head.
Nobody knew what to say.
Seventeen years of grief had been reduced to one sheet of laboratory paper.
Sebastian finally whispered:
“She's mine.”
Isabella opened her eyes.
“I've always been mine.”
He immediately looked at her.
“You're right.”
That response mattered.
She nodded.
Tears slid down her cheeks.
Sebastian's eyes were wet too.
“Can I…”
He stopped.
For a man who had supposedly taken anything he wanted for most of his adult life, he suddenly seemed terrified of asking for one thing.
Isabella understood.
She stood.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then she stepped forward.
Sebastian opened his arms.
She hugged him.
He made one broken sound.
Not a sob exactly.
Something deeper.
His arms closed around his daughter.
And the man who had spent seventeen years visiting an empty grave buried his face in her hair.
“I thought you were dead.”
Isabella cried against his chest.
“I know.”
“I looked for explanations.”
“I know.”
“I should have looked for you.”
“You thought I was dead.”
“I should have known.”
“How?”
“I should have known.”
She pulled back.
“That doesn't make sense.”
“Most guilt doesn't.”
She studied him.
“Margaret said guilt made you dangerous.”
“Sometimes it did.”
Isabella swallowed.
“Did you hurt people because Mom died?”
The room went still.
Sebastian didn't lie.
“Yes.”
I looked at him.
“So the newspapers—”
“Some stories are true.”
Isabella stepped backward.
He let her.
“How many?”
“Enough that I stopped counting the damage and started pretending it was business.”
She stared at him.
“Are you still that man?”
Sebastian looked toward the NICU.
“I don't know.”
“You should.”
“You're right.”
She crossed her arms.
“I don't want Luca growing up around guns and revenge and people afraid to say no.”
“He won't.”
“You can't promise that if you keep living the same way.”
Sebastian said nothing.
She nodded slowly.
“That's what I thought.”
Then she walked out.
Sebastian remained in the middle of the room.
I waited.
“You could have lied,” I said.
“No.”
“She might hate you.”
“Yes.”
“But you told her.”
He looked at me.
“She deserves to know the man she's deciding whether to forgive.”
I respected him more in that moment than I wanted to.
An hour later, Noah Reed arrived under police escort.
He was seventeen.
Thin.
Bruised around one eye but otherwise okay.
Isabella ran to him.
He barely had time to open his arms before she hit his chest.
“You disappeared!”
“I know.”
“You idiot!”
“I know.”
“I thought you were dead!”
“I know.”
Then she kissed him.
Sebastian turned toward me.
His expression was horrifying.
I whispered, “Don't.”
“I'm not doing anything.”
“You're staring at him like you're planning where to hide the body.”
“He got my seventeen-year-old daughter pregnant.”
“He is also seventeen.”
“That doesn't improve the situation.”
I nearly laughed.
“You discovered you had a daughter eight hours ago and you're already an overprotective father.”
“I've had seventeen years to accumulate concern.”
Noah noticed him.
His face turned white.
“Is that Sebastian Moretti?”
Isabella wiped her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why is Sebastian Moretti here?”
“Because he's my father.”
Noah stared.
Then sat down.
“Okay.”
Sebastian folded his arms.
“That's your reaction?”
Noah looked up.
“I got locked in a motel room for two days, my girlfriend's dead father turned out not to be dead, and her dead grandmother turned out not to be dead.”
“I'm not dead.”
“That's what I said.”
I covered my mouth.
Isabella laughed for the first time without fear.
Even Sebastian's expression softened.
Then Noah grew serious.
“Margaret didn't kidnap me.”
Sebastian's eyes narrowed.
“What happened?”
“She was protecting me.”
“From whom?”
Noah looked around.
“Can we close the door?”
I did.
He took a breath.
“After Isabella gave birth, I went downstairs for food. An older man met me near the elevators.”
“Describe him.”
“Sixties. Gray hair. Expensive suit.”
“Vale?” I asked.
“I don't know.”
I pulled up the hospital website and showed him Evan Vale's photograph.
Noah's face changed.
“That's him.”
Sebastian's jaw tightened.
“What did he say?”
“He knew my name.”
“What else?”
“He said Isabella and the baby were going to be transferred for safety.”
“Did you believe him?”
“At first.”
Noah rubbed his hands together.
“Then he said something about Isabella's grandmother.”
“Vittoria?”
“I didn't know the name.”
“He said the old woman should have finished what she started seventeen years ago.”
Sebastian leaned forward.
“Exact words?”
“Pretty close.”
“What happened next?”
“Margaret showed up.”
Noah looked at Isabella.
“She grabbed me and said we had to leave.”
“Why didn't she get me?”
“She tried.”
Isabella frowned.
“What?”
“She went upstairs. She came back twenty minutes later and said you'd already left the room.”
“I was in the bathroom.”
“So she thought you were gone.”
“Then why didn't she call me?”
“She said phones weren't safe.”
Sebastian paced slowly.
“Where did she take you?”
“To the motel.”
“And the blood in her car?”
Noah looked sick.
“Someone followed us. Margaret cut her hand breaking a window.”
Nobody spoke.
“Why was the room registered under Elena Moretti?” I asked.
Noah shook his head.
“It wasn't.”
Morrison, who had just entered behind us, stopped.
“What?”
Noah looked at him.
“Margaret paid cash. The clerk never asked for ID.”
Morrison's expression sharpened.
“Then somebody changed the registration after we found the room.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“Someone inside your investigation.”
Morrison didn't deny the possibility.
Then Noah continued.
“Margaret told me things.”
Isabella sat beside him.
“What things?”
“That she didn't steal you.”
Sebastian went still.
“Who did?”
Noah looked at him.
“Your mother.”
Nobody moved.
“Vittoria?” Sebastian asked.
“Yes.”
Sebastian laughed once, bitterly.
“My mother adored Elena.”
“Margaret said that's why she did it.”
“I don't understand.”
Noah looked at Isabella.
“She said there was an attack planned against the Moretti family. Somebody learned there was a newborn.”
Sebastian's expression darkened.
“What attack?”
“She didn't know everything.”
“Tell me what she said.”
“Your mother believed the only way to keep Isabella alive was to make everyone believe she was dead.”
The room went silent.
Isabella's lips parted.
Sebastian looked like he had forgotten how to breathe.
Noah continued.
“Margaret said Dr. Vale helped falsify the records. Vittoria arranged for Isabella to be taken out during the blackout.”
“Why Margaret?”
“She was supposed to hide her for six weeks.”
“Seventeen years is longer than six weeks,” Sebastian said.
Noah swallowed.
“Because Elena found out.”
Sebastian froze.
“What?”
“Your wife discovered Isabella was alive.”
Isabella stood.
“My mother knew?”
“According to Margaret.”
Sebastian grabbed the back of a chair.
“When?”
“Months after the funeral.”
“What did she do?”
“She wanted Isabella back.”
“Of course she did.”
“Vittoria said it wasn't safe.”
Sebastian's voice rose.
“She wasn't Isabella's mother!”
Isabella flinched.
Sebastian immediately lowered his voice.
“Sorry.”
Noah continued.
“Elena planned to take Isabella and leave the city.”
Sebastian stared at him.
“Without me?”
“She thought you'd follow.”
His face fell.
“Then the car exploded,” Noah said.
Nobody moved.
“Margaret believed Vittoria thought Elena died because she tried to reunite the family. After that, she refused to return Isabella.”
“Why didn't my mother take her?” Sebastian demanded.
“Because she was terrified the same people would find her.”
“Who?”
Noah shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Morrison stepped forward.
“But Margaret does.”
Noah looked at him.
“If she wakes up.”
Isabella wrapped her arms around herself.
Sebastian looked at his daughter.
“My mother stole seventeen years from us.”
“Maybe she saved my life.”
The sentence stopped him.
Isabella's eyes filled.
“I don't know what to think.”
“Neither do I.”
That honesty again.
Then Morrison's phone rang.
He answered.
His posture changed.
“When?”
A pause.
“Lock the floor down.”
He ended the call.
“What?” Sebastian demanded.
Morrison looked at Isabella.
“Margaret woke up.”
Isabella exhaled in relief.
“Good.”
“No.”
Morrison's face was grim.
“She woke up screaming that someone was coming for you.”
Sebastian stepped forward.
“Who?”
Morrison looked at him.
“Evan Vale.”
Isabella grabbed Noah's hand.
“But you said he disappeared.”
“He did.”
“Then where is he?”
Morrison's phone buzzed again.
He read the message.
His eyes lifted.
“According to a security camera…”
May you like
He looked toward the NICU doors.
“…he just entered Pine Valley.”
