Chapter 7 - The DNA Trap
The words destroyed the room.
Dante stared at me.
I stared at Victor.
“You're lying.”
Victor laughed.
“Am I?”
Dante stepped toward the screen.
“Explain.”
“One embryo was created using genetic material from the Moretti line.”
I felt sick.
“Whose?”
Victor smiled.
“Mine.”
Dante went still.
I remembered the clinic records.
Three embryos.
Three heartbeats.
Three children.
One potentially unrelated to Dante.
Victor had designed the entire plan.
But there was one problem.
He had underestimated modern genetic testing.
Dr. Warren had secretly copied the embryo records before Victor's men captured him.
We had the original genetic profiles.
Sofia returned through the emergency door.
She was carrying a hard drive.
“I got it.”
Victor's face appeared on the screen again.
His smile vanished.
Sofia connected the drive.
DNA data appeared.
Dante looked at me.
“Don't panic.”
“Easy for you to say.”
The results loaded.
Baby One: Dante Moretti.
Baby Two: Dante Moretti.
Baby Three: Dante Moretti.
I closed my eyes.
All three were his.
Victor's lie collapsed.
Sofia smiled.
“Victor never had access to the final genetic records.”
Dr. Warren had protected them.
Victor had fabricated the claim to create doubt.
But he had one last weapon.
He had Carlo.
Dante demanded an exchange.
Victor agreed.
The meeting took place in an abandoned train depot outside Chicago.
Snow fell across the tracks.
Victor arrived with six men.
Carlo was tied to a chair.
Evan stood beside him.
Dante stepped forward.
“Release them.”
Victor pointed at me.
“Come here.”
I moved.
Dante grabbed my hand.
Victor's men raised their weapons.
Then sirens sounded.
Victor turned.
Police surrounded the depot.
Federal agents entered from every side.
Victor looked at Dante.
“You called them.”
Dante shook his head.
“No.”
I stepped forward.
“I did.”
Victor stared at me.
I had spent five years being treated like Dante's quiet wife.
The woman who attended charity dinners.
The woman who waited at home.
The woman who smiled beside him.
He had no idea who I had become while surviving his family's war.
I had contacted an attorney.
Then another.
Then federal investigators.
The files from the black cross were already in their hands.
Victor was arrested.
His men surrendered.
Carlo was freed.
Sofia's brother survived.
Dr. Warren survived.
For the first time in years, the Moretti family had a chance to breathe.
But one question remained.
Dante turned toward me.
“I don't expect you to come back.”
I looked at him.
“I know.”
“I don't expect forgiveness.”
“I know.”
“I only want you safe.”
I touched my stomach.
“I'm safe.”
He looked at me.
“With you?”
I hesitated.
“I don't know yet.”
His eyes lowered.
Then he nodded.
“That’s fair.”
He didn't chase me.
That was the first thing he did right.
I returned to my hotel.
Three days later, I received divorce papers.
But Dante had added something.
A letter.
I will sign whatever you want. I will never use the children to keep you. You deserve freedom, Lena. Even if that freedom means living without me.
I read it twice.
Then I cried.
Because the man who had once tried to control everything had finally understood that love wasn't possession.
It was choice.
That night, I called him.
“Dante?”
His voice was barely audible.
“I'm here.”
“I want to talk.”
“Of course.”
“I don't know if I can forgive you.”
“I understand.”
“But I want to try.”
He stopped breathing.
“Lena…”
“One condition.”
“Anything.”
“No more secrets.”
“Never again.”
“And Sofia?”
“She's family now.”
I smiled.
“Good.”
Then I heard something crash in the background.
“What was that?”
Dante laughed.
“Your future children are apparently already causing trouble.”
I laughed for the first time in weeks.
But neither of us knew the biggest battle was still coming.
Because Victor had left one message behind.
A message addressed directly to me.
May you like
YOU WON THE TRUST.
BUT YOU HAVEN'T LEARNED WHY YOUR BLOOD WAS CHOSEN.
