Chapter 5 - The Bloodline Lie
Nora laughed.
It was not amusement.
It was disbelief sharpened into anger.
“You're insane.”
Brody looked away.
That frightened her more than Victor's words.
“Brody.”
He did not answer.
Nora stepped forward.
“Look at me.”
Slowly, he did.
“What is he talking about?”
Brody swallowed.
“The clinic.”
“What clinic?”
“The fertility clinic.”
Nora stared.
She had gone to a fertility clinic once.
Not for treatment.
She had worked there temporarily three years earlier processing insurance claims.
Then she remembered.
The employee health study.
Blood samples.
Genetic screening.
“No.”
Brody's face collapsed.
“I was supposed to get close to you.”
“Why?”
“Victor wanted to know what Sarah had told you.”
“She told me nothing.”
“I know that now.”
“And the baby?”
Brody looked at Victor.
Victor answered.
“An opportunity.”
Matteo's voice became lethal.
“Explain.”
Victor smiled.
“Anthony died without knowing Sarah was pregnant. John discovered Nora years later.”
Nora looked at John.
He nodded sadly.
“You're saying Anthony was my father.”
“Yes.”
“Then John is…”
“Your grandfather.”
Nora looked at the old man.
John's eyes filled.
Everything changed at once.
The quiet affection.
His need to protect her.
The way he watched her stomach.
He had not simply been grateful to a kind maid.
He had been looking at his granddaughter.
Nora walked toward him.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
John struggled.
“Safe.”
“You thought I was safer not knowing.”
He nodded.
Nora wanted to be angry.
She was angry.
But she remembered her mother's letter.
Trust the promise.
Not the name.
Victor interrupted.
“How touching.”
Matteo turned.
“What did you do to Nora?”
“Nothing she didn't voluntarily sign.”
Nora's heart pounded.
“The health study.”
Victor nodded.
“We stored samples.”
Matteo moved toward him.
Luca stopped him.
Victor continued.
“When Brody learned Nora was pregnant, I became curious.”
“You had no right.”
“Rights are stories governments tell people who need permission.”
Nora felt sick.
“What does Lily have to do with this?”
Victor held up the envelope.
“Nothing.”
A pause.
“Unless the test proves what I suspect.”
“What?”
Victor looked at Matteo.
“That the child carries Moretti blood from both sides.”
Silence.
Nora stared at Matteo.
Then laughed again.
“No.”
Matteo looked genuinely confused.
Victor enjoyed it.
“Matteo donated genetic material eight years ago.”
Matteo's expression changed.
“A medical procedure.”
“Yes.”
“For my fiancée.”
Nora looked at him.
He had once been engaged.
Matteo stared at Victor.
“The samples were destroyed.”
“They were supposed to be.”
Nora stopped breathing.
“No.”
Victor smiled.
“Brody couldn't have children.”
Brody looked at the floor.
Nora's voice broke.
“What did you do?”
“I didn't know,” Brody said.
“What did you do?”
“We were trying for a baby.”
Nora remembered.
Brody had told her he wanted a family.
He had arranged appointments.
One procedure after months of failed attempts.
She had believed the clinic was using Brody's sample.
Tears filled her eyes.
“You knew?”
“Not whose sample.”
“But you knew it wasn't yours.”
Brody said nothing.
Nora slapped him.
The sound cracked through the vault.
Brody stumbled backward.
“You let me believe Lily was yours.”
“I loved you.”
“Don't.”
“I did.”
“Don't ever say that to me.”
Victor sighed.
“Emotional details aside, the child may be Matteo's.”
Matteo looked stunned.
Nora looked at him.
Neither spoke.
Victor held up the envelope.
“The prenatal sample wasn't sufficient for certainty. But after Lily is born—”
“No,” Nora said.
Victor smiled.
“No?”
“You will never touch my daughter.”
John's fist struck his wheelchair.
Victor looked at him.
“And there he is.”
John glared.
“The old king.”
Victor stepped closer.
“You always loved the wrong people, John. Anthony. Sarah. Matteo.”
He looked at Nora.
“And now her.”
John forced himself upright in the chair.
His voice came slowly.
“Leave… them.”
Victor smiled.
“Or what?”
John's next words were clearer.
“Or I finish what I started.”
Victor's smile vanished.
Matteo looked at his father.
“What did you start?”
John pointed toward the flash drive.
Luca reopened the laptop.
There was another folder.
V.M.
Victor moved.
Matteo was faster.
Within seconds, Victor's wrist was twisted behind him.
A gun hit the floor.
Luca kicked it away.
Gable screamed.
Brody froze.
Matteo shoved Victor against the vault wall.
“What's in the folder?”
John looked at Nora.
Then at Matteo.
“Everything.”
Luca opened it.
Records filled the screen.
Payments to corrupt officials.
Extortion.
Witness intimidation.
The sabotage that caused Sarah Bennett's fatal crash.
Nora stopped breathing.
Victor had killed her mother.
Not directly.
But he had paid the driver.
She looked at him.
“My mother.”
Victor said nothing.
Nora moved toward him.
Matteo blocked her.
“Don't.”
“He killed her.”
“I know.”
“Move.”
“Nora.”
She looked into Matteo's eyes.
“If you touch him now, you'll remember his face every time you think of her.”
Her body shook.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Survive him.”
Behind them, John whispered:
“Live.”
Nora looked at her grandfather.
He was crying.
“Live.”
She went to him.
John took her hand.
Victor watched them with hatred.
Then alarms began sounding upstairs.
Luca checked his phone.
“Police.”
Matteo frowned.
“I didn't call them.”
Victor smiled.
“I did.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Why?”
Victor laughed.
“Because that drive contains enough evidence to destroy Matteo too.”
Matteo stared.
Victor nodded toward the files.
“You wanted legitimacy, nephew? Congratulations. Every transaction your father ever made is about to become public.”
John did not look afraid.
Matteo did.
Not for himself.
For everyone who depended on the businesses.
Thousands of employees.
Families.
Nora understood.
Victor had designed the trap so nobody could expose him without burning the entire Moretti empire.
Police sirens approached.
Victor smiled.
“You have three minutes.”
Matteo released him.
Brody suddenly grabbed Nora.
His arm locked around her.
She screamed.
Matteo turned.
Brody held a small blade near her throat.
“Back up!”
“Brody,” Nora whispered.
“I'm sorry.”
“No, you're not.”
“I didn't want this.”
“Then let me go.”
“I can't.”
“Yes, you can.”
His hand trembled.
Nora felt Lily move.
She became strangely calm.
“You used me. You lied to me. You stole from me.”
Brody began crying.
“But you don't have to hurt my daughter.”
His grip loosened.
Just enough.
Nora drove her heel down on his foot and twisted away.
Matteo tackled him.
The knife slid across the floor.
Police entered seconds later.
Everything became noise.
Commands.
Hands raised.
Weapons lowered.
Victor smiling.
Gable screaming about immunity.
Brody on his knees.
Then Nora felt something warm.
She looked down.
Blood.
Matteo saw it.
“Nora?”
She touched her dress.
More blood.
Her face went white.
“No.”
John tried to rise from his wheelchair.
Nora doubled over.
Pain tore through her abdomen.
Matteo caught her.
“Call an ambulance!”
Nora grabbed his jacket.
“Lily.”
“Stay with me.”
“Something's wrong.”
“Nora, look at me.”
She tried.
The room blurred.
Sirens filled the building.
Then one paramedic knelt beside her, checked the blood, and looked sharply at his partner.
“She's twenty-six weeks?”
“Almost twenty-seven,” Nora gasped.
The paramedic reached for his radio.
“We need neonatal ready.”
Matteo's face changed.
May you like
Nora heard only three words before everything went dark.
“We're losing her.”
