Chapter 2 - The DNA Test That Changed My Entire Family
The next morning, the storm had passed.
The city looked clean from above.
But nothing inside my house felt clean.
Sofia slept on a sofa beside Matteo's crib.
She refused to leave him.
Every time Carmen tried to move her to a proper bedroom, Sofia woke up immediately.
“He'll be alone.”
“He's not alone.”
“You're busy.”
Carmen smiled.
“He has ten security guards outside his door.”
Sofia shook her head.
“They aren't me.”
That answer stayed with me.
At nine in the morning, Dr. Isabel Méndez arrived.
I had not seen her in twelve years.
She entered my study wearing a dark coat.
She looked older.
Tired.
Still beautiful.
But fear had changed the way she held herself.
I closed the door.
“You have five minutes.”
She looked at me.
“I deserve that.”
“You used my genetic samples.”
“Yes.”
“You created a child.”
“Yes.”
“You disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And now my son was found in a trash bin outside my house.”
Her eyes filled.
“I didn't put him there.”
“Who did?”
“I don't know.”
I stared.
“That's not good enough.”
She took a breath.
“Declan, I was working at a fertility research clinic twelve years ago. After your shooting, doctors told you that radiation from the treatment could damage your fertility. You asked them to preserve samples.”
“I remember.”
“I was responsible for the storage.”
“You had no right to use them.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
She looked down.
“Because your father came to me.”
My blood turned cold.
“My father?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“To know if your bloodline could continue.”
“That doesn't make sense.”
“It does if you understand your father.”
I didn't want to.
She continued.
“He believed there would be a succession war eventually. He wanted a biological heir whose existence could never be disputed.”
“You created Matteo for him?”
“No.”
“For me?”
“For you.”
She shook her head.
“But not with his permission.”
I stared.
“Then whose?”
“Ana Lucía Serrano.”
The name from the letter.
“Who is she?”
“A nurse.”
“Where is she?”
Isabel's expression changed.
“She is dead.”
Silence.
“How?”
“She was murdered.”
“When?”
“Six days ago.”
I felt the room become colder.
“Who killed her?”
“We don't know.”
“Then why was my son left outside my house?”
“She must have known she was going to die.”
Isabel placed a photograph on the desk.
A young woman.
Dark hair.
Warm eyes.
Holding a pregnant belly.
On the back was a date.
Two years earlier.
I stared at it.
“She knew?”
“Yes.”
“She knew the child was mine?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she was afraid of your enemies.”
“Which enemies?”
She looked directly at me.
“Your father's.”
I laughed bitterly.
“My father is dead.”
“His organization isn't.”
That sentence changed everything.
My father had left behind enemies.
I had spent twelve years believing I had eliminated every remaining threat.
Apparently I had not.
I asked Isabel about the clinic.
She explained the procedure.
Ana had carried Matteo.
The original plan had been to tell me when the child was born.
But halfway through the pregnancy, someone discovered the arrangement.
Ana went into hiding.
Isabel disappeared.
And the child became a target.
“Why wait twelve years?”
“He was not born twelve years ago.”
My eyes narrowed.
“No.”
“The samples were twelve years old.”
She paused.
“The procedure happened two years ago.”
I stared.
That meant Matteo had been conceived recently.
He was my biological child.
But he had been carried by another woman.
Without my knowledge.
I thought about the little face.
The tiny hands.
The way his eyes matched mine.
My chest hurt.
Then there was Sofia.
I asked Isabel about her.
She went silent.
“That name means something to you.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She is Maria's daughter.”
“And Maria is?”
“My father's daughter.”
Isabel whispered the sentence.
I leaned back.
“My father's secret daughter.”
“Yes.”
I stared at her.
“My half-sister had a daughter.”
“Yes.”
“Sofia.”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the window.
Everything had become tangled.
My son.
My niece.
My father's secret.
My father's enemies.
My former fiancée.
A dead mother.
A hidden fertility procedure.
And a mysterious group trying to erase both children.
That afternoon, Sofia's grandmother arrived at the estate under heavy security.
Her name was Elena Serrano.
She was eighty-one years old.
Weak.
But her eyes were sharp.
When she saw me, she started crying.
“You look just like him.”
“Like my father?”
“Yes.”
She sat down.
“I should have told you years ago.”
“Tell me now.”
She nodded.
“Your father had a daughter with my daughter Maria.”
“Why was she hidden?”
“Because your father was married.”
“That wasn't unusual.”
“This was different.”
“How?”
“Maria was his favorite.”
I frowned.
“My father had favorites?”
“She was clever.”
“What happened?”
“His wife found out.”
I froze.
“My mother?”
“No.”
My mother's name had never been connected to this.
Elena explained.
The woman who married my father after my birth had threatened Maria.
She said if the child was born, she would make sure neither mother nor baby survived.
My father tried to protect them secretly.
But he was watched.
Maria disappeared.
She gave birth to Sofia.
Then she died when Sofia was very young.
Sofia moved through shelters, foster homes, and streets.
Nobody told me.
“Why didn't you come to me?”
Elena's hands trembled.
“Because your father made me promise.”
“Why?”
“He feared you would be killed.”
I stared.
“My father protected me by keeping his own daughter a secret.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
“He is dead.”
She looked at me.
“So the secret is no longer protecting anyone.”
That night, the DNA results arrived.
Preliminary.
Not final.
But enough.
Matteo was almost certainly my biological son.
Sofia was my niece.
My blood.
My family.
I walked into the nursery.
Sofia was sitting beside Matteo.
She had cleaned his face with a damp cloth.
She looked up.
“Is he yours?”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
She smiled.
“I knew.”
“How?”
“He looked at me when I said you were his father.”
I almost laughed.
“He was two days old.”
“He still knew.”
I sat beside her.
“Do you want to stay here?”
She looked at me.
“Forever?”
“That depends on you.”
She thought about it.
“Can I stay if I don't have to call you Uncle?”
I smiled.
“What would you call me?”
“Declan.”
“Deal.”
She nodded.
Then she asked the question I was not prepared for.
“Will you send me away when you get rich and famous?”
I looked at the child who had slept on concrete and fed a newborn with shaking hands.
“No.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
She held out her pinky.
I hooked mine around it.
“Promise.”
Then a security alarm sounded.
I stood immediately.
Carmen rushed into the room.
“Someone breached the east gate.”
Men flooded the hall.
I moved toward the command center.
Cameras showed nothing.
No vehicle.
No intruder.
Then one camera flickered.
The image returned.
A figure stood near the estate wall.
A man in a black coat.
He lifted something toward the camera.
A note.
The security system zoomed.
One sentence.
THE GIRL IS THE KEY.
Then the camera went black.
I looked toward Sofia.
She was standing in the nursery doorway.
The little girl stared back at me.
And I understood.
They weren't only after Matteo.
They needed Sofia.
May you like
For something.
Something my father had hidden inside her bloodline.
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