Chapter 8 - The Last Lie Between Them
Bella turned toward Lucas.
"You knew?"
"No."
She searched his face.
"Don't lie to me now."
"I'm not."
Benny examined the screenshot.
"This could be fabricated."
It was.
Partly.
The DNA report correctly excluded Adrian.
But the remaining pages had been hidden.
Federal technicians recovered them from the transmission metadata.
Bella's biological father was Daniel Dracott.
Lucas's father.
Silence consumed the room.
Bella stared at Lucas.
"My father was your father."
Lucas looked devastated.
That made them half-siblings.
Except Benny found the inconsistency first.
"The dates don't work."
Daniel Dracott had been overseas during the twins' conception.
Further analysis revealed the report had been deliberately mislabeled.
The DNA sample marked Daniel belonged to someone else.
Victor.
Bella and Benny were Victor Dracott's biological children.
Adrian had raised the lie for decades because Victor had fathered twins with Anna Moroz, Adrian's wife.
There it was.
The motive beneath everything.
Adrian had not built North Meridian merely for money.
He had destroyed people out of betrayal and obsession.
Victor had separated the babies because Adrian threatened to kill them.
Helena took Bella.
Evelyn arranged Benny's adoption.
The fire followed when Daniel Dracott discovered the feud was consuming the organization.
Adrian helped Victor kill Daniel.
Then Victor betrayed Adrian.
A criminal empire had been built around men punishing one another for sins children had never committed.
Bella stared at the family tree Benny had drawn.
"This is insane."
Benny nodded.
"We might be the only normal people in it."
"You work in IT."
"Fair."
Bella laughed despite herself.
Then she looked at Lucas.
Victor was her biological father.
Victor was Lucas's uncle.
That made Bella and Lucas first cousins.
The realization landed heavily.
Their relationship could not continue romantically.
Lucas understood before she said anything.
He stepped back.
The grief in his face was quiet.
Bella's hand went instinctively to her stomach.
Whatever they had begun imagining had changed.
But their child remained innocent.
Lucas said, "Nothing changes about my responsibility to you or the baby."
Bella nodded.
"And nothing changes about your right to choose your life."
"Lucas—"
"We deal with what's true."
No argument.
No denial.
That was perhaps the greatest evidence he had changed.
But Benny was still staring at the genetic report.
"Wait."
He zoomed in.
"The sample labeled Victor isn't Victor."
Bella nearly screamed.
"Can this family have one accurate DNA test?"
Benny almost laughed.
The sample had been obtained from Victor's hospital blood after the shooting.
But hospital records showed Victor had received multiple transfusions before collection.
The result was unreliable.
Federal investigators ordered direct testing from stored medical tissue.
36 hours later, the final report arrived.
Bella sat between Benny and Lucas.
Victor was not their father.
Daniel was not.
Adrian was not.
Their biological father was a man named Nikolai Moroz, Anna's husband before Adrian.
Nikolai had died months before the twins were born.
Anna later married Adrian, who legally claimed the unborn children.
Bella closed her eyes.
"So Lucas and I aren't related."
"No," Benny said.
Lucas did not react immediately.
Bella looked at him.
"Say something."
"I've learned not to celebrate anything in this family until at least 3 laboratories confirm it."
Bella burst out laughing.
Lucas did too.
It was the first time she had heard him laugh fully.
Then the church video returned to her mind.
Elias was still in danger.
They tracked Adrian through an old North Meridian account.
He had chosen St. Nicholas deliberately.
He wanted the story to end where Helena's secret had been kept.
But when Lucas prepared to go, Bella stopped him.
"No violence."
"If he hurts Elias—"
"No."
Lucas looked at her.
"If we're building anything after this, it can't be built on another body."
He nodded.
Police surrounded the church.
Bella entered wearing a recording device.
Adrian stood beside the altar.
"You came."
"For Elias."
"For truth."
"No. I've had enough truth from men who use it like a weapon."
Adrian smiled.
"You sound like Anna."
"Good."
That wounded him.
Bella saw it.
She kept talking.
She told him the evidence had already been copied.
North Meridian was finished.
His accounts were frozen.
His allies were cooperating.
He had nothing left to bargain with.
Adrian's composure cracked.
"I built this city."
"No. You rented fear."
Outside, Lucas heard every word.
Adrian raised a gun.
Bella did not move.
"Your mother thought she could take my children."
"You mean the children you terrorized before they were old enough to know your name?"
"They were mine."
Bella remembered Anna's diary.
Children belong to themselves.
She repeated the words.
Adrian's face twisted.
Then Elias moved.
The pastor knocked Adrian's arm aside.
Police entered.
Lucas reached Bella seconds later.
No shots were fired.
No heroic execution.
No revenge.
Adrian Vale was handcuffed beneath the same church ceiling where Helena Kavalchuk had once prayed for enough time to keep Bella safe.
As officers led him away, Adrian looked at Lucas.
"She'll destroy you."
Lucas looked at Bella.
"No."
Then he said something Adrian could never understand.
"She taught me how not to destroy myself."
Three months later, North Meridian collapsed.
So did half of Dracott Holdings.
Lucas voluntarily surrendered control of every division connected to illegal activity.
Newspapers called it weakness.
Former allies called it betrayal.
Lucas called it Tuesday.
Then one morning Bella arrived at his penthouse carrying an ultrasound photograph.
Lucas looked at it for almost a minute.
"A girl?"
"A girl."
He sat down.
Bella smiled.
"Are you crying?"
"No."
"You absolutely are."
Lucas wiped his face.
"Don't tell anyone."
Bella sat beside him.
"What are you going to name her?" he asked.
Bella looked toward Lake Michigan.
"I thought we'd decide together."
May you like
Lucas looked at her.
And for once, neither of them counted the exits.
