Chapter 6 - The Blood That Connected Them
Daniel Hart was gone before security reached the operating wing.
His locker contained cash, two passports, and a burner phone.
But the discovery that frightened Gabriel most was a copied page from Sophie's medical chart.
Her blood type was circled.
O negative.
Beside it:
MATCH CONFIRMED.
Emma stared at the words.
"Match with me?"
Gabriel said nothing.
"Gabriel."
"Possibly."
"But millions of people have O-negative blood."
"Yes."
Luca entered with another result.
Emma's donation sample had been accessed illegally after surgery.
Someone had ordered genetic testing.
Emma's mouth went dry.
"Why?"
Luca placed the report down.
The sample showed Emma and Sophie shared genetic markers consistent with biological relation.
Not mother and daughter.
More distant.
Emma looked at Gabriel.
"How?"
He looked equally stunned.
Gabriel's late wife, Isabella, had no known connection to Emma.
But Isabella's mother had been a Vale.
Adrian Vale's younger sister.
Emma sat down.
"So Adrian..."
"Was Isabella's uncle," Gabriel said.
"And if he's my biological father..."
"You and Sophie are cousins."
The blood that saved Sophie had not come from a random stranger.
It had come from family.
Emma laughed once, without humor.
"Of course."
Gabriel watched her.
"What?"
"I spend thirty-one years having almost no family, then I crawl into a burning car and apparently pull one of them out."
Sophie heard later.
Her reaction was simpler.
"So Emma is really family?"
Gabriel crouched beside her.
"Apparently."
Sophie smiled.
"I knew it."
Emma laughed.
"How?"
"You came back."
Children could make enormous truths sound obvious.
That night Emma finally agreed to stay at Gabriel's townhouse.
Not because she trusted his world.
Because Sophie was being discharged and refused to sleep unless Emma promised to be nearby.
The Moretti home surprised Emma.
It wasn't cold.
Sophie's drawings covered one refrigerator door.
A half-finished puzzle occupied the library.
Gabriel knew exactly how Sophie liked her hot chocolate.
The feared man Emma had read about online disappeared whenever his daughter entered the room.
After Sophie slept, Emma found Gabriel in the kitchen.
"You cut the crust off her sandwiches."
He looked embarrassed.
"She doesn't like crust."
"New York should know."
"New York values its survival."
Emma smiled.
Then Gabriel's expression changed.
"You should leave."
Her smile vanished.
"What?"
"Take your mother and leave the city."
"You brought me here because it wasn't safe."
"I'm telling you now because it won't become safe."
"Why?"
"Because Adrian knows you're his daughter."
Emma stared at him.
"And?"
"He may believe Thomas hid the ledger for you."
"I don't have it."
"He may not care."
Gabriel slid an envelope across the counter.
Cash.
Documents.
A key.
"There's a house in Vermont."
Emma pushed it back.
"No."
"Emma."
"You don't get to move me like one of your assets."
"I'm trying to keep you alive."
"And Sophie?"
"My responsibility."
Emma's eyes hardened.
"She became mine the moment she asked me not to let go."
Gabriel looked at her for a long time.
"That's exactly what scares me."
"Why?"
"Because people I care about become targets."
The words were almost a confession.
Emma's voice softened.
"Do you care about me?"
Gabriel didn't answer.
He stepped closer.
For one second neither moved.
Then an alarm sounded upstairs.
They ran.
Sophie's room was empty.
The window remained locked.
The hallway camera showed no one entering.
Her blanket lay on the floor.
On her pillow was the silver bracelet from the crash.
Beside it was a note.
Emma picked it up.
Gabriel read over her shoulder.
BRING THE KEY TO ROOM 317.
COME WITHOUT GABRIEL.
OR THE GIRL FINISHES WHAT THE CRASH STARTED.
Then Sophie's bedroom phone rang.
Emma answered.
A little girl's frightened breathing came through the receiver.
"Emma?"
"Sophie!"
"Please come."
Emma gripped the phone.
"Where are you?"
Sophie began to answer.
Then a man took the phone from her.
Emma recognized the voice from the call outside Margaret's room.
"Midnight," he said. "And Emma?"
She waited.
May you like
"Ask Gabriel what really happened to your father before you trust him."
The line went dead...
