Chapter 2 - Sins of the Past
The sterile smell of antiseptic and ozone hung heavy in the subterranean medical wing beneath my Manhattan compound. Outside, thunder shook the steel-reinforced concrete, but inside, the only sound was the rhythmic hiss of a mechanical ventilator pushing oxygen into Sophia’s lungs.
Dr. Sterling, my personal physician who had patched me up after a dozen shootouts, pulled off his surgical gloves, his expression grim. "The hemorrhaging is contained, Dominic, but her blood work is an absolute nightmare. This isn't tuberculosis or cancer. She has been systematically poisoned with a synthetic thallium derivative over the course of three months."
A cold, lethal fury settled over my bones. "Who did this?"
"I don't know," Sterling said quietly, handing me an encrypted tablet. "Whoever administered it knew exactly how to make it look like a progressive illness. But there's something else. While running her tox screen, I processed the child’s DNA sample you requested."
My breath hitched. I took the tablet, staring at the glowing genetic sequence. The probability of paternity was displayed in glaring neon green: 99.98%.
"Lily is your biological daughter, Dominic," Sterling confirmed softly.
I leaned against the glass partition looking into the recovery room. Lily was curled up in a leather armchair beside Sophia’s bed, fast asleep, clutching a worn teddy bear whose ear was stitched together with coarse black thread. My little girl. The child who had knelt in my blood on Fifth Avenue, keeping death at bay with her bare hands, was my own flesh and blood.
The door clicked open, and Sophia stirred on the bed. The ventilator had been swapped for a low-flow oxygen cannula. I stepped into the room, signaling Sterling to leave us.
"You should be resting," I murmured, pulling a chair close to her bedside.
Sophia turned her head slowly, tears carving clean trails through the pale dust on her cheeks. "You look at her like you know," she whispered, her voice cracked and fragile.
"Why, Sophia?" I asked, the raw ache of seven years bleeding into my tone. "Why did you vanish in the middle of the night? You knew I would have leveled entire cities to keep you safe."
"Because the monster who threatened her wasn't an outsider, Dominic," Sophia sobbed, her fingers trembling as she reached for Lily's sleeping form. "Seven years ago, I received an ultrasound at your private clinic. The very next morning, an envelope was slid under our bedroom door containing photos of me sleeping, with a sniper's crosshairs on my belly. The note told me that if I didn't disappear forever, you would find both of us slaughtered. The sender had access to your private security codes."
My blood turned to pure ice. "Someone in my inner circle."
"Yes," Sophia choked out, gripping my wrist with feverish desperation. "And two months ago, a man found our apartment in Queens. He told me that if I went to you for help, Lily would be sold into an overseas trafficking ring before you could even draw your gun. Then I started getting sick... coughing blood..."
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Before I could answer, the compound’s emergency sirens blared, bathing the room in pulsing crimson light. The heavy blast doors at the end of the corridor shuddered under a massive detonation.
***
