Chapter 3 - The Blood Test
“No.”
Dominic said it first.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just once.
“No.”
I stared at the paper on the marble floor.
Subject C: Dominic Mercer.
Probability of biological sibling relationship with Subject B: 99.82%.
My body went numb.
Sibling.
Dominic Mercer.
Me.
“No,” he repeated.
Keller looked toward the elevator.
Nico blocked him.
Celeste sat down.
I could not.
My knees locked.
My mind rejected every word while my eyes kept returning to the report.
“You’re my brother?”
Dominic’s jaw flexed.
“That test is wrong.”
Keller spoke carefully.
“It was run twice.”
Dominic turned.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
My stomach dropped.
“Three months?”
That was when Mom got sick.
Dominic stepped toward Keller.
“How did you get my DNA?”
Keller’s face tightened.
“You undergo annual executive medical screenings.”
Dominic’s expression became lethal.
“Through St. Catherine’s.”
“Yes.”
“You used my blood without consent?”
“To confirm a historical concern.”
“Whose concern?”
Keller looked at Celeste.
She shook her head.
“Not mine.”
Then a name emerged.
“Arthur Vale.”
Dominic stopped.
I had heard that name.
Anyone who read financial news had.
Arthur Vale.
Eighty-one.
Real estate titan.
Philanthropist.
Chairman emeritus of Vale Metropolitan Group.
Celeste’s grandfather.
Dominic’s largest competitor.
And apparently the man who had ordered a secret DNA comparison between Dominic and me.
“Why?” I asked.
Keller answered.
“Because Mr. Vale suspected the missing baby had survived.”
Dominic looked at Celeste.
“Your aunt was Arthur Vale’s daughter.”
“Yes.”
“And you brought Elena into my home?”
“I didn’t know about the sibling match.”
“Why would she match me at all?”
Silence.
Dominic understood.
His face changed slowly.
“My mother.”
Keller did not speak.
Dominic stepped forward.
“My mother gave birth at St. Catherine’s twenty-three years ago too.”
Celeste whispered, “Dominic.”
He turned on her.
“Tell me.”
She flinched.
“I only learned pieces.”
“Tell me.”
“Your mother wasn’t there as a patient.”
His eyes narrowed.
“She was working there.”
The words landed heavily.
Dominic’s mother, Sofia Mercer, had died when he was sixteen.
He rarely spoke about her publicly.
“She was a nurse?” I asked.
Dominic looked at me.
“No.”
Keller answered instead.
“She used another name.”
Dominic grabbed Keller by the front of his coat.
Nico did not interfere.
“What name?”
Keller struggled for breath.
“Mercer, stop.”
“What name?”
“Margaret Marlow.”
Everything stopped.
I heard my own heartbeat.
I heard Celeste inhale.
I heard the distant hum of Manhattan through thick glass.
Dominic released Keller.
Keller stumbled backward.
“No,” I whispered.
He straightened his coat.
“Margaret Marlow is not the woman currently hospitalized under that name.”
My stomach turned.
“What?”
“The woman who raised you assumed that identity.”
“Then who is she?”
Keller said nothing.
“Who is my mother?”
“Biologically?”
“Yes!”
“Camille Vale.”
Celeste covered her mouth.
I stared at her.
Her aunt.
The eighteen-year-old girl who supposedly lost a baby and died six months later.
“I’m Arthur Vale’s granddaughter?”
“Yes.”
I looked at Dominic.
“But how is he my brother?”
Keller exhaled.
“Because Dominic’s father was also your father.”
The silence afterward felt unreal.
Dominic looked away.
His father, Salvatore Mercer, had been murdered when Dominic was nineteen.
A reputed crime figure.
Feared.
Connected.
Violent.
“If this is true,” Dominic said, “Salvatore had a child with Camille Vale.”
“Yes.”
“And someone removed that child from the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“And the woman Elena calls Margaret took her.”
“Yes.”
I shook my head.
“She wouldn’t kidnap me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know her.”
Keller’s voice softened.
“You know the woman who raised you.”
I hated him for the distinction.
Dominic picked up the report.
“Why now?”
Keller said nothing.
Dominic stepped closer.
“Twenty-three years of silence. Why did Arthur Vale suddenly test her DNA?”
Keller’s eyes shifted.
“Because Margaret contacted him.”
I froze.
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
One month before her leukemia diagnosis.
“What did she say?”
“That she was dying.”
My throat closed.
“And?”
“That Elena needed protection.”
I looked at Dominic.
“From what?”
Keller’s expression tightened.
“That’s the question that started all of this.”
Dominic walked toward the bar and poured water.
He handed it to me.
I didn’t take it.
He placed it beside me.
“Why was she in danger?” he asked.
Keller rubbed his forehead.
“Because Camille Vale did not kill herself.”
Celeste went pale.
Dominic stopped moving.
“What happened?”
“She was murdered.”
My breath caught.
“By who?”
Keller shook his head.
“That was never proven.”
“Then why would I be in danger twenty-three years later?”
“Because the person responsible may still believe you died with her.”
Celeste stood abruptly.
“What?”
Keller looked at her.
“Arthur suppressed the kidnapping because revealing it would have exposed Camille’s relationship with Salvatore Mercer.”
Dominic’s face hardened.
“The Vale heir having a child with a Mercer.”
“Exactly.”
“The scandal would have destroyed both families.”
“Yes.”
“And Margaret?”
“She witnessed something.”
“What?”
“She never told Arthur.”
My phone rang.
I jumped.
Owen.
I answered.
“Hey.”
“Elena.”
His voice was shaking.
“What happened?”
“Mom woke up.”
Relief flooded me.
“Oh, thank God.”
“She wants you.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Something in his tone stopped me.
“What?”
“She said not to come here.”
“Why?”
“She keeps saying they found you.”
My skin went cold.
“Who found me?”
“I don’t know.”
I looked at Dominic.
He was watching my face.
“Owen, put Mom on.”
Movement.
Then weak breathing.
“Elena?”
My knees nearly buckled.
“Mom.”
“Listen to me.”
Her voice was faint.
“Don’t come home.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I should have told you.”
“Told me what?”
“I didn’t steal you.”
My eyes filled.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She coughed.
Dominic came closer.
“Mom?”
“I promised Camille.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“You knew her?”
“She gave you to me.”
Everyone froze.
“She gave me to you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew they were going to kill her.”
I stopped breathing.
“Who?”
Mom began crying.
I had heard her cry only twice in my life.
“Elena, there are things about that night I never told anyone.”
“Tell me now.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
“No.”
“Mom.”
“You need Dominic.”
I looked at him.
His expression shifted.
“How do you know him?”
She whispered something.
I almost missed it.
“Because Sofia asked me to keep him alive too.”
Dominic’s face went blank.
He heard.
“Margaret,” he said.
Mom gasped.
“You’re there.”
“Yes.”
Long silence.
Then she whispered, “You look like Salvatore when you’re angry.”
Dominic gripped the edge of the table.
“You knew my father.”
“I knew all of them.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That isn’t enough.”
“I know.”
“Who killed Camille?”
Mom began to answer.
Then another voice sounded faintly near her hospital bed.
Male.
“Mrs. Marlow?”
Mom stopped.
“Owen?” I said.
No response.
“Mom?”
I heard movement.
A scrape.
Then Mom whispered, terrified:
“He found me.”
The call disconnected.
I stared at the screen.
Dominic was already moving.
“Nico. Cars.”
Celeste stood.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“She’s my family too.”
Dominic looked at me.
I did not know whether I wanted to scream or collapse.
Instead, I grabbed my shoes.
We reached the private elevator.
The doors opened.
Nico received a call through his earpiece.
His face changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“St. Catherine’s security just reported a lockdown.”
My pulse jumped.
“Why?”
Nico looked at me.
“Someone entered Margaret Marlow’s room using a physician badge.”
Dominic stepped into the elevator.
“Name?”
Nico listened.
Then slowly raised his eyes.
“The badge belonged to Dr. Adrian Keller.”
Everyone turned.
The real Keller stood beside us.
His face drained white.
And from somewhere inside the penthouse, a phone began ringing.
May you like
It was Keller’s.
Except the sound was coming from inside Celeste’s handbag.
