Chapter 4 - The DNA Result That Changed Everything
I didn't speak for several minutes.
The room seemed frozen.
“You're saying Amelia is related to me?”
Roman nodded.
“We need confirmation.”
“Where?”
“At St. Vincent’s.”
I stared.
“That was the hospital where I went after the crash.”
“Yes.”
“Why would my records have anything to do with Amelia?”
Roman didn't answer.
I suddenly remembered something.
The night of the accident.
A nurse had asked for an emergency blood sample.
I'd been confused.
I was barely conscious.
Then someone came into my room.
A woman.
Older.
Dark hair.
She had stared at me for a long time.
I remembered one sentence.
“You have her eyes.”
At the time, I thought it was delirium.
Now I wasn't sure.
We reached the hospital before sunrise.
Roman's contacts had already accessed the archived records.
The medical director met us privately.
He looked nervous.
“What happened to my records?”
“Your file was altered,” he said.
“By whom?”
“I don't know.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
He looked at Roman.
“Because someone came here last month asking about your case.”
“Who?”
“A woman.”
“Name?”
He hesitated.
“Margaret Vale.”
Roman's face changed.
I had never seen him look genuinely shocked before.
“Who is she?”
“Daniel Cole's former attorney.”
Roman's jaw tightened.
“What did she want?”
“Your prenatal bloodwork.”
My hand instinctively moved to my stomach.
“Why?”
The doctor hesitated.
“We found something unusual.”
“What?”
He placed a sealed envelope on the table.
Inside were old laboratory results.
He pointed to a line.
“Your blood carried a genetic marker associated with a rare inherited condition.”
I didn't understand.
“What does that have to do with Amelia?”
He opened a second file.
“Amelia was tested for the same marker when she was younger.”
My heart pounded.
“The markers matched.”
“How?”
“We believe you and Amelia share a biological parent.”
I stared.
“That's impossible.”
Roman said quietly, “Is it?”
Memories flooded my mind.
The father I had grown up believing was mine.
The house.
The photographs.
The family story.
Everything suddenly felt fragile.
“Who was my father?”
The doctor shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Roman looked at me.
“I think we do.”
He handed me an old photograph.
A man stood beside Daniel Cole.
I recognized him.
Not by name.
By face.
He had appeared in one of my childhood photographs.
A man my mother had called “a family friend.”
My knees almost gave out.
“That’s my father.”
Roman stared at the image.
“He was Daniel's business partner.”
“What was his name?”
“Victor Costa.”
I looked at Roman.
“You're related to him?”
Roman nodded.
“He was my father.”
The room seemed to disappear.
I couldn't breathe.
“You're saying…”
Roman finished the sentence.
“Your father and my father were brothers.”
My stomach tightened.
I stepped backward.
“So Amelia…”
“Is your cousin.”
I closed my eyes.
Everything suddenly made horrifying sense.
Harrison had married me.
Roman's family had been watching me.
The people hunting the ledger knew my identity.
I opened my eyes.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
Roman answered.
“Because your mother hid it.”
“Why?”
“To keep you alive.”
I sat down.
The story I had been told about my childhood had been false.
I had never grown up outside the criminal world.
I had been born inside it.
And somehow, Harrison had known.
“What did my mother know?”
Roman sat beside me.
“She knew Daniel and Victor were involved in something dangerous.”
“What?”
“A shipping network.”
“Illegal?”
“Yes.”
“Drugs?”
“Not exactly.”
I looked at him.
“What then?”
Roman hesitated.
“People.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Human trafficking.”
My blood ran cold.
“And Amelia was taken because she knew?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor discovered the network and wanted out.”
I swallowed.
“Then they kidnapped his daughter?”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
“She disappeared.”
“Why?”
“To protect you.”
Tears burned my eyes.
“How did Harrison find me?”
Roman's face hardened.
“Through an old family record.”
“So he knew who I was before we met.”
“Yes.”
I laughed through tears.
“This entire marriage was built on lies.”
Roman didn't contradict me.
But then he said something unexpected.
“He loved you.”
I looked at him.
“How can you say that?”
“Because he could have taken the easy way out.”
“He did.”
“No.”
Roman shook his head.
“He could have handed you over six months ago.”
“What stopped him?”
“You.”
I looked down.
Roman continued.
“Harrison was ordered to locate the ledger.”
“And he found it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“He hid it.”
“Where?”
Roman stared at me for a long moment.
“In the one place he believed nobody would search.”
“Where?”
Roman's eyes dropped to my wedding ring.
My breath caught.
I twisted the ring.
“There’s something inside it.”
The stone had always looked slightly different from the others.
Roman removed the setting.
A microscopic compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny memory card.
My hands shook.
Harrison had hidden the ledger's digital copy inside my wedding ring.
Not his.
Mine.
I stared at Roman.
“Why would he hide it on me?”
“Because they would never suspect you.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks.
My husband had betrayed me.
But he had also trusted me with the one thing that could destroy everyone who controlled him.
And maybe that was why he had fled.
Not to escape Roman.
Not to escape the FBI.
But to draw the hunters away from me.
Unfortunately, he had underestimated how quickly they would realize I possessed the evidence.
A loud alarm suddenly sounded.
Roman stood.
“What is that?”
“Perimeter breach.”
Men ran through the hallway.
Roman pulled his weapon.
Then the lights went out.
A voice came through the darkness.
“Give us the woman.”
Roman's expression turned deadly.
“No.”
The first gunshot shattered the window.
I ducked.
Roman grabbed me.
“Stay behind me.”
Another shot.
Then another.
And somewhere in the chaos, someone shouted a name.
“Chloe!”
It wasn't Roman.
It wasn't one of his men.
May you like
I knew that voice.
Harrison.
