Chapter 8 - THE SECRET PATERNITY TEST
The farmhouse became so quiet that Hunter could hear the refrigerator humming.
Lorenzo looked at Sophia.
"Who is Daniel?"
Sophia wiped her tears.
"Daniel Mercer."
Mateo frowned.
"The attorney?"
Lorenzo knew him.
Daniel Mercer had handled Rossi corporate acquisitions for nine years.
Married.
Two children.
Trusted enough to enter Lorenzo's office without being searched.
Lorenzo's face hardened.
"You slept with him?"
"No."
"Then why did that caller say—"
"Because Marco wants you to believe I did."
Lorenzo stared.
Sophia reached into a drawer and removed an envelope.
Inside was a laboratory report.
She handed it to him.
Paternity probability:
99.999%.
Lorenzo Rossi.
He looked up.
"Our son is yours."
Relief came first.
Then anger.
"You already tested him?"
"After I learned Marco was planning to use him."
"Why?"
"I needed proof."
"Proof for whom?"
Sophia hesitated.
"Your father."
Lorenzo went still.
Vittorio Rossi had supposedly died four years earlier from pancreatic cancer.
Lorenzo stared at her.
"My father is dead."
Sophia whispered, "No."
For the second time that night, Lorenzo felt reality split open beneath him.
"What?"
Camilla looked toward Sophia.
"You have to tell him everything."
Sophia nodded.
"Your father staged his death."
Lorenzo laughed once.
It sounded dangerous.
"Apparently that's becoming a family tradition."
"He was sick."
"He died in my house."
"A body was cremated before you saw it."
Lorenzo remembered.
His father had insisted on privacy at the end.
No visitors.
Closed coffin.
Immediate cremation.
All attributed to illness.
Sophia continued.
"Vittorio believed you were making the Rossi organization too legitimate."
Lorenzo's face went cold.
"He hated that I shut down narcotics."
"He hated everything that reduced his power."
Hunter listened, horrified.
"Why would he want Leo dead?"
Sophia looked at her.
"Because an heir gives Lorenzo legitimacy."
"What does that even mean?"
"The old captains support blood succession. If Lorenzo dies with no heir, control can return to the senior council."
"And Vittorio?"
"Controls that council from the shadows."
Mateo swore.
Lorenzo's expression became unreadable.
"My father tried to kill my child."
Sophia nodded.
"We think so."
"And Marco?"
"Marco discovered Vittorio was alive and joined him."
Two conspiracies that had looked separate were actually connected.
Marco wanted the shipping empire.
Vittorio wanted the old criminal order restored.
But there was still one contradiction.
"Why switch the babies?" Lorenzo asked.
Sophia explained.
"I knew Vittorio had a hospital operative. I didn't know who. When the explosion happened and I realized Marco's people were coming, switching the identification bands was the only move I had."
"Where did you take our son?"
"Camilla carried him out."
Hunter remembered the photograph.
"And the baby in the carrier was Lorenzo's."
"Yes."
"So Grace stayed behind with Sophia's identification."
Sophia nodded.
Hunter closed her eyes.
"Then Vittorio's people poisoned Grace because they believed she was Leo."
"Exactly."
Lorenzo looked at Hunter's sleeping daughter.
Rage filled him.
His father had nearly murdered an innocent infant.
"We end this tonight."
Sophia grabbed his arm.
"No."
"Move."
"You don't know where he is."
"Mateo will find him."
"Vittorio wants you angry."
Lorenzo looked at her.
"He wants the version of you he created. Violent. Predictable."
Sophia's voice softened.
"Don't give him that."
Lorenzo pulled away.
"Where is my son?"
Sophia finally answered.
"With Daniel Mercer."
Lorenzo stared.
"The lawyer."
"He helped us."
"That explains the caller."
"They know."
Fear entered Sophia's face.
She grabbed her phone.
Called Daniel.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Camilla called another number.
A woman answered crying.
Sophia took the phone.
"Rachel? Where's Daniel?"
The voice on speaker shook.
"They came."
Everyone froze.
"Who?"
"I don't know. Men. Maybe six."
"Where's the baby?"
Rachel sobbed.
"They took Daniel."
Sophia closed her eyes.
"What about the baby?"
A pause.
Then Rachel whispered:
"They took him too."
Lorenzo's face became stone.
The ransom was real now.
His biological son was truly in enemy hands.
Mateo moved immediately.
"Trace Daniel's phone."
"Already dead."
"Traffic cameras."
"Working."
Lorenzo looked at Sophia.
"You should have told me."
"I was trying to protect him."
"And now they have him."
Sophia's face crumpled.
He regretted the words instantly.
But there was no time.
Mateo's analyst called.
"We have a vehicle."
"Where?"
"Heading west on Route 25."
"Track it."
"Lost at an industrial zone."
Lorenzo knew the area.
Old warehouses.
Rail yards.
Shipping facilities.
Including one building Marco secretly purchased years ago.
They moved within minutes.
Hunter refused to stay behind.
Lorenzo objected.
She stared at him.
"Your father poisoned my daughter."
That ended the argument.
Twenty-five minutes later, the convoy approached the industrial site with headlights off.
Lorenzo, Mateo, and twelve armed men advanced through darkness.
Sophia remained in the vehicle with Hunter.
Then gunfire erupted.
Hunter ducked.
Sophia grabbed her.
"Stay down."
Explosions of muzzle light flashed across the warehouse entrance.
Within three minutes, silence returned.
Mateo radioed.
"Clear."
Hunter followed Sophia inside.
Two men lay wounded.
Three surrendered.
Marco wasn't there.
In an office at the rear, they found Daniel Mercer tied to a chair.
Alive.
Bleeding.
Lorenzo cut him free.
"Where's my son?"
Daniel coughed.
"They moved him."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Who?"
Daniel looked toward Sophia.
Then whispered:
"Vittorio."
Lorenzo froze.
A television mounted on the office wall suddenly turned on.
Static.
Then an image appeared.
An old man sat in a leather chair.
Silver hair.
Sharp eyes.
Alive.
Vittorio Rossi smiled at the camera.
"Hello, son."
Sophia gripped Lorenzo's arm.
On Vittorio's lap was a sleeping baby.
Lorenzo stepped toward the screen.
His father stroked the child's cheek.
"Beautiful boy."
Lorenzo's hands curled.
"Where are you?"
Vittorio laughed.
"You spent your entire life believing strength meant protecting what you love."
He lifted the baby slightly.
"You were wrong."
The screen changed.
A live countdown appeared.
11:59:48.
Underneath it:
ROSSI FAMILY COUNCIL — MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
Vittorio's voice continued.
"Come alone, Lorenzo."
May you like
The camera zoomed closer to the child.
"Or this time, your son really will be buried."
