Chapter 6 - THE DNA TEST
“No.”
I picked up my daughter.
“No.”
Luca remained frozen.
The security chief placed the report on the table.
I didn’t touch it.
“This is wrong.”
“The lab ran it twice.”
“I don’t care.”
I looked at Luca.
“You said you weren’t her biological father.”
“I’m not.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I have never—”
He stopped.
I glared.
“Never what?”
“Never slept with you.”
Despite everything, the absurdity almost made me laugh.
“Obviously.”
The chief cleared his throat.
“The relationship is not paternal.”
My stomach twisted.
“What is it?”
“Uncle-level.”
Silence.
Luca stared at him.
“No.”
“That’s the result.”
I looked between them.
“Uncle?”
Luca whispered one name.
“Matteo.”
I almost dropped into the chair.
“You think Derek isn’t her father?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Did you ever—”
“No!”
I stood.
“I have never met Matteo Moretti.”
Luca paced once across the room.
Then stopped.
“Unless you knew him under another name.”
My breath caught.
I thought of the past year.
Derek’s strange absences.
His unwillingness to discuss his childhood.
His claim that his parents were dead.
I looked at Luca.
“No.”
He saw the thought on my face.
“Emma.”
“No.”
“Derek’s full legal name?”
“Derek Mason.”
“Before adoption?”
I went still.
“He was adopted?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“His employment background file.”
“Why did you investigate him?”
“Because he started transferring confidential property records from his company.”
“To who?”
“We didn’t know.”
The library door opened again.
One of the guards entered.
“Derek is gone.”
Luca spun.
“What?”
“The guest-room window was cut from the outside.”
My heart started racing.
“How?”
“We found one guard unconscious.”
Luca cursed under his breath.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message.
He read it.
His face went blank.
“What is it?”
He handed me the phone.
There was a photograph.
Derek standing beside an older man.
The older man had Luca’s eyes.
Same jaw.
Same dark hair, now streaked with gray.
Below the image were five words.
May you like
You should have stayed buried.
Luca whispered, “Matteo.”
