Chapter 8 - The Blood Test That Changed Everything
I thought I had misunderstood.
Grace clearly hoped she had.
Anthony did not.
His face changed first.
“No.”
Margaret looked at him.
“I’m sorry.”
Grace stared between us.
“What does she mean?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
She stood.
“What does Duca blood have to do with my daughter?”
Margaret’s voice was weak.
“Samuel wasn’t your biological father.”
Grace went completely still.
“Stop.”
“He was your father in every way that mattered.”
“Stop.”
“Grace—”
“No.”
She stepped away from the wheelchair.
“My father raised me.”
“Yes.”
“He loved me.”
“Yes.”
“Then I don’t care whose blood—”
Margaret interrupted gently.
“Vittorio Duca was your biological father.”
The building disappeared around me.
Anthony sat down.
Catherine stared at me.
Grace looked as if someone had struck her.
“My father?”
“Samuel knew before he married me.”
Margaret cried quietly.
“Vittorio and I were young. It ended before I knew I was pregnant.”
I could barely process the dates.
Grace was thirty-five.
I was forty-three.
My father had another daughter.
My half sister.
Grace Harper.
The woman who had worked inside my house for eight years.
The woman whose child I had promised to protect.
I looked at Anthony.
He whispered, “Dad never told me.”
Margaret shook her head.
“He learned years later.”
That explained too much.
Why my father protected Samuel.
Why Grace mattered.
Why his letter referred specifically to the Harper child.
Grace sat against the wall.
Mia.
Duca blood.
The trust.
Gideon needed her DNA because she was Vittorio Duca’s granddaughter.
“Does Gideon know?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Margaret nodded.
“He learned when Samuel confronted him.”
“Then why not use Grace’s DNA?”
“The trust was rewritten after Vittorio died.”
She swallowed.
“The beneficiary had to be a descendant born after his death.”
Mia.
Again.
Grace laughed once in disbelief.
“My daughter inherited nine hundred million dollars from a grandfather I didn’t know was mine.”
“Technically, she controls it at twenty-one.”
“And until then?”
“A guardian can trigger emergency release.”
I already knew.
“Grace.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Not automatically.”
Grace looked up.
“Who?”
Margaret’s eyes moved toward me.
“Vittorio named Roman.”
I stared at her.
Of course he had.
My father had spent his life creating responsibilities from beyond the grave.
Grace looked at me.
“You knew nothing?”
“Nothing.”
She believed me.
That mattered more than I expected.
Vincent entered.
“Gideon got out.”
“Daniel?”
“Missing.”
Grace stood immediately.
“He followed him.”
“Yes.”
“Then we find him.”
“We also have wounded people and a child.”
Anthony held Luca.
The boy had stopped crying.
He stared at Anthony’s face.
“Are you Mama’s friend?”
Anthony looked like he had been shot.
Catherine covered her mouth.
She knelt.
“Luca, this is your dad.”
The boy frowned.
“My dad is far away.”
Anthony closed his eyes.
Catherine whispered, “Not anymore.”
There were a thousand conversations that family needed.
None could happen here.
We moved everyone to a secure medical facility controlled by one of my companies.
Margaret was treated for dehydration and bruising.
Catherine needed stitches.
Anthony refused pain medication until Luca fell asleep beside him.
Grace sat outside Margaret’s room staring at nothing.
I brought coffee.
She looked at it.
“You always make it too strong.”
“You still drink it.”
“That’s because you pay me.”
“Not tonight.”
She took the cup.
For a while, silence.
Then:
“My mother is alive.”
“Yes.”
“My father wasn’t my father.”
“He was.”
She looked at me.
I continued.
“Biology doesn’t erase twelve years of raising you.”
Her eyes filled.
“And the man who was my biological father employed the people who destroyed my family.”
“Yes.”
I would not lie to make it easier.
She nodded.
“And now you’re my brother.”
“Half.”
She laughed.
A real one.
Small.
Exhausted.
It surprised both of us.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“We’ve had stranger discoveries tonight.”
“Your dead brother living behind my bookcase remains competitive.”
She smiled.
Then cried.
I sat beside her.
Did not touch her until she leaned against my shoulder.
“Roman?”
“Yes.”
“Promise me something.”
“I’m becoming concerned about the number of promises your family demands.”
She almost smiled.
“What?”
“If I die—”
“No.”
“Roman.”
“No.”
“Listen.”
I looked at her.
“If something happens to me, Mia and Lily—”
“Are mine.”
She stared.
I clarified.
“To protect.”
Her face softened.
“You knew what I meant.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
Vincent interrupted.
“Boss.”
His expression told me the quiet moment was over.
“What?”
“Daniel made contact.”
Grace stood.
“Where?”
Vincent held up a phone.
Daniel’s voice came through.
“I followed Gideon.”
“Location?”
“Port of Boston. Warehouse twelve.”
I knew it.
One of my properties.
Rage flared.
“He’s using my warehouse?”
“He has used your infrastructure for years.”
“Is he alone?”
“No.”
“How many?”
“At least sixteen.”
Vincent cursed.
Daniel continued.
“He has Catherine’s father’s old archive servers here.”
“What does he want?”
“Mia.”
“That isn’t happening.”
“I know.”
“Then why stay?”
Daniel paused.
“Because he has a sample.”
Grace froze.
“What sample?”
“Blood from Mia.”
“How?”
“School nurse records. Someone collected a sample during a routine test last year.”
Grace went white.
“Can he unlock the trust?”
“Not without Roman.”
Now everyone looked at me.
“Why?”
“Guardian authentication.”
Of course.
Mia’s blood.
My biometric authorization.
The combination Gideon needed.
“So he needs me alive.”
“For a few minutes.”
Good.
That gave me an advantage.
“How long until he can use the sample?”
“He already started.”
“What does that mean?”
“The trust security system allows three verification attempts.”
Daniel’s voice tightened.
“He has completed two.”
“And failed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he needs a live guardian signature.”
“So we have time.”
“Maybe ten hours before the system resets and he can try again.”
“That sounds like plenty.”
Daniel’s voice changed.
“Roman, there’s another problem.”
“What?”
“The third attempt triggers automatic disclosure if it fails.”
“Disclosure of what?”
“Every file Samuel stored.”
Grace’s eyes widened.
“That’s good.”
Daniel said, “Not exactly.”
“Why?”
“Samuel included identities of witnesses who entered protection programs.”
Silence.
“Innocent people?”
“Hundreds.”
Their names and locations would become visible to every syndicate with access to the network.
Gideon had built the perfect trap.
Either we helped him unlock the money.
Or the failed attempt exposed innocent families.
“How do we stop the third attempt?”
“Destroy the archive servers before he starts.”
“Then why hasn’t he started already?”
Daniel did not answer.
I understood.
“He’s waiting for me.”
“Yes.”
“Then he gets me.”
Grace stood.
“No.”
“I’m not giving him what he wants.”
“You’re walking into sixteen armed men.”
“With thirty of mine.”
“He expects that.”
“So do I.”
Anthony appeared in the doorway.
“No.”
He leaned on a cane.
“This started with Dad.”
“Go back to your son.”
“It ends with us.”
I looked at him.
“You spent five years in a wall.”
“Exactly. I’m ready for fresh air.”
Even Vincent smiled.
Then Margaret’s room door opened.
She stood there in a hospital gown.
“None of you understand Gideon.”
Grace hurried toward her.
“Mom, you should be in bed.”
Margaret ignored her.
“He will not be at the warehouse.”
Daniel’s voice on speaker went silent.
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Gideon never waits where he makes demands.”
“Then where?”
Margaret looked at me.
“Where everything started.”
Anthony’s face changed.
“The Harper house.”
Margaret nodded.
The home where Samuel was murdered twenty-eight years earlier.
“What is there?”
“The original server key.”
“And Gideon knows?”
“He thinks I told Grace before he took me.”
Grace shook her head.
“You didn’t.”
“I’m telling you now.”
Margaret took her daughter’s hand.
“The basement.”
Grace’s childhood home had been condemned for twenty years.
I looked at Vincent.
“Who owns it?”
He checked.
His expression became strange.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“You do.”
“What?”
“Duca Holdings purchased it seven years ago.”
“I never authorized that.”
Anthony whispered, “I did.”
Every eye turned toward him.
“Why?”
He looked at Grace.
“Because Dad’s final instruction said never let the Harper house leave the family.”
That word landed differently now.
Family.
Before anyone could respond, an alarm sounded on Vincent’s phone.
He looked down.
Then at me.
“Movement sensor.”
“Where?”
“The Harper property.”
“How many?”
“Unknown.”
A surveillance image loaded.
An SUV stood outside the abandoned home.
A man stepped from it.
Gray hair.
Gideon Vale.
And behind him, pulled from the passenger seat at gunpoint, was Daniel Cross.
Grace whispered his name.
Then Gideon looked directly into the hidden camera.
As if he knew we were watching.
He smiled.
Held up Daniel’s phone.
And fired one shot into the basement door.
The message beneath the feed appeared seconds later.
BRING ROMAN.
May you like
BRING MIA.
OR HER FATHER DIES WHERE HERS DID.
