Chapter 6 - The Man Behind the Eight-Year Hunt
The boy's name was Noah.
Adrian had never met him.
He wasn't Adrian's son.
The DNA report had been manipulated.
That was the first thing Keller discovered.
The second was worse.
Noah was Marcus's biological son.
Marcus had spent twelve years altering records, collecting Moretti DNA and constructing a legal path that would eventually make Noah appear to be Vittorio's grandson.
Sophie ruined that plan simply by existing.
A genuine heir made the fraud vulnerable.
Claire stared at the evidence across Adrian's dining table.
“So why keep Sophie alive for eight years?”
Elena answered.
“Because Marcus needed Adrian's biological sample and Sophie's biological sample to unlock the archive.”
“And now?”
“He has them.”
Adrian looked at the bracelet.
“From the clinic.”
Elena nodded.
“The bracelet had a needle inside the clasp.”
Sophie looked at her finger.
She remembered being pricked.
Adrian's face became terrifyingly calm.
Marcus had engineered nearly everything.
He leaked Claire's pregnancy to Vittorio.
Provoked the death order.
Then “rescued” her, ensuring the unborn child survived.
He manipulated Cross and Elena separately.
He watched Sophie grow.
He waited.
“He shot himself?” Dominic asked.
Elena shook her head.
“One of his men did. Carefully.”
Adrian stood.
“Where is he?”
Nobody answered.
Then Adrian's phone rang.
Marcus.
“Uncle.”
“Now you know.”
“Enough.”
Marcus laughed.
“I gave you eight years to become strong enough for this.”
“You hunted my daughter.”
“I preserved your daughter.”
“You fired on her.”
“Never to hit her.”
Adrian looked at Sophie.
“That distinction isn't going to save you.”
Marcus's voice hardened.
“Bring Elena to Belladonna House.”
“Why?”
“Because your sister stole the second half of the archive key twenty-two years ago.”
Elena's expression changed.
Marcus continued.
“And if she doesn't return it, Belladonna burns with everyone inside.”
The line died.
Adrian looked toward the restaurant visible several blocks away.
Smoke was already rising.
“It's a trap,” Claire said.
“Yes.”
“You're going.”
“Yes.”
“Then we're going too.”
“No.”
Claire stepped closer.
“You don't get to lose eight years and then spend the next eight deciding everything for us.”
He stared at her.
“This is different.”
“It always is.”
Sophie looked between them.
“Are you two fighting?”
“Yes,” they answered simultaneously.
Sophie sighed.
“Adults are exhausting.”
Even Elena laughed.
For five seconds, they were almost a family.
Then Adrian made his decision.
“We end it tonight.”
---
Belladonna House was empty when Adrian entered.
Marcus stood beside Adrian's usual table.
The same table Sophie had approached.
“You always did like symbolism,” Adrian said.
Marcus smiled.
“You learned.”
“Not from you.”
Elena entered behind him.
Marcus's smile vanished.
“Sister and brother together again.”
“You murdered Dad,” Elena said.
Adrian looked at her.
She had never told him that.
Marcus shrugged.
“Vittorio had become sentimental.”
“You killed our father?”
“He was going to dissolve the organization.”
Marcus looked at Adrian.
“He wanted to give you a legitimate life. Imagine that. Thirty years building an empire, then suddenly morality.”
Adrian understood the archive.
Vittorio hadn't created it to rule the organization.
He had created it to destroy it.
Marcus wanted control of the evidence so he could blackmail everyone named inside.
Judges.
Police commissioners.
Senators.
Businessmen.
A criminal empire without rivals because every powerful person around it would be compromised.
“You needed Sophie to unlock it,” Adrian said.
“I did.”
“And now you have her DNA.”
Marcus smiled.
“Thank you.”
Adrian smiled back.
Marcus's faded.
“Something funny?”
“You always underestimated Claire.”
Across the city, Claire sat beside Dr. Keller.
The sample Marcus had stolen wasn't Sophie's.
Keller had switched it.
The blood belonged to an unrelated patient.
Marcus's access attempt had failed.
His laptop beeped.
BIOLOGICAL VERIFICATION REJECTED.
For the first time, panic appeared on his face.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You spent eight years watching my daughter.”
Another step.
“You should've spent five minutes learning about her mother.”
Marcus drew his gun.
Elena fired first.
The weapon flew from his hand.
Dominic's men entered.
Marcus looked around.
Finished.
“You won't expose the archive,” he told Adrian. “It destroys your family.”
Adrian looked at the restaurant his father had built.
The empire he had inherited.
Then he thought of Sophie holding his hand in the rain.
“Maybe that's what my family needs.”
Police sirens approached.
Not Moretti police.
Federal agents.
Claire had sent copies of Elena's evidence three hours earlier.
Marcus finally understood.
Adrian wasn't taking his empire from him.
May you like
He was destroying it.
---
