Chapter 6 - THE LIE INSIDE THE BLOOD TEST
Gabriel left the vault.
He did not speak.
I followed him into the private hallway.
“Gabriel.”
Nothing.
“Gabriel.”
He stopped.
His back remained toward me.
Every strange moment between us suddenly felt poisonous.
The looks.
The tension.
The almost-smiles.
The moment his eyes had dropped to my mouth.
I felt sick.
“This can't be true.”
He turned.
“We verify it.”
“How?”
“DNA.”
I laughed without humor.
“Apparently DNA tests are the Bennett family hobby.”
His expression softened.
“Emily.”
“No.”
I backed away.
“Do not suddenly start looking at me like I'm fragile.”
“I don't.”
“You do.”
“I’m looking at you like someone just detonated a bomb in both our lives.”
That was fair.
Tests were arranged immediately.
Gabriel gave blood.
So did I.
Waiting was worse than knowing.
For 14 hours, we barely spoke.
Then the doctor called.
Gabriel put the phone on speaker.
“There is no sibling relationship between the samples.”
I closed my eyes.
Relief came so violently that I hated myself for it.
Gabriel exhaled.
“What about paternal relation through my father?”
“Based on the available markers, there is no indication that you share a biological father.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“Thank you.”
He ended the call.
For several seconds neither of us moved.
Then I laughed.
He stared.
“What?”
“I think this may be the strangest good news I've ever received.”
Gabriel actually laughed.
It transformed him.
Not the feared man from the elevator.
Just Gabriel.
And that was when I realized I was in trouble.
Not because he was dangerous.
Because I wanted to see him laugh again.
Luca ruined the moment by entering.
“Sorry.”
He wasn't sorry.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
“We recovered Caruso's original laboratory records.”
The test had been altered.
Matteo Romano was not my father.
But he had believed he might be.
Why?
Mom provided the answer.
“Matteo helped me after the assault,” she explained when we visited her. “He found me outside the hotel room.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You never told me.”
“You were a child.”
“He thought he assaulted you?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“But Richard convinced him later that he had.”
My stomach turned.
“How?”
“Matteo had been drinking heavily that night. Richard manipulated the timeline. Your father became terrified that he had hurt me while intoxicated.”
Gabriel's face went pale.
“He carried that guilt?”
“Yes.”
“Until he died?”
Mom nodded.
Gabriel turned away.
Richard had not merely stolen money.
He had weaponized shame.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Matteo was investigating the missing funds,” Mom said. “Richard needed leverage.”
The full shape emerged.
Richard stole Romano money.
He framed Mom.
He convinced Matteo that he might have assaulted her.
Then he falsified a DNA test implying Matteo fathered me.
Matteo withdrew his investigation to protect me and Mom from scandal.
Richard used the stolen fortune to build Bennett Development.
And years later, he invited Matteo's son into a partnership.
“He thought he could steal twice,” Gabriel said.
Mom looked at him.
“No.”
“What?”
“I think he wanted you to buy the company.”
“Why?”
“Because Bennett Development is collapsing.”
Celeste, sitting near the window, went still.
“What?”
Mom looked at her gently.
“Your father was always good at making debt look like wealth.”
Gabriel called Luca.
Within hours, the numbers confirmed it.
Bennett Development owed nearly $300 million.
Richard planned to use Romano's investment to cover hidden losses, then shift liabilities onto the merged company.
It was fraud on an enormous scale.
But there was another discovery.
Richard had taken out a life insurance policy.
On Margaret.
$20 million.
Beneficiary: a trust controlled by Richard Bennett.
The room went silent.
“That isn't possible,” I said. “They're divorced.”
“It was created during their marriage,” Luca explained. “He continued paying premiums.”
My skin turned cold.
Mom's illness.
The surgery.
The insurance denial.
The 45-minute deadline.
“What if Mom hadn't gotten surgery?”
Nobody answered.
They didn't need to.
Gabriel's voice became hard.
“Get the hospital records.”
They found the truth before midnight.
Someone had interfered with my mother's insurance authorization.
The denial had not been accidental.
The request came from a consulting company controlled by Vivien Bennett.
Celeste began crying.
“My mother tried to kill her?”
“We don't know that,” I said.
Gabriel looked at me.
He knew.
So did I.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Richard's voice came through.
“Emily.”
Every person in the room froze.
“Where are you?”
“Safe.”
A bitter laugh.
“No one is safe with Romano.”
“You mean safer than with you?”
Silence.
Then:
“I made mistakes.”
“You told a ballroom full of people you didn't know me.”
“That saved your life.”
My anger stopped.
“What?”
“If Gabriel Romano knew who you were, you would become leverage.”
“He already knows.”
Richard breathed out.
“That is exactly what I was afraid of.”
“Stop pretending you protected me.”
“You don't understand what his family is.”
“And I don't understand what you are.”
His voice dropped.
“Ask Gabriel what happened to Victor Caruso.”
I looked at Gabriel.
“Why?”
“Ask him who ordered the hit.”
The call disconnected.
I lowered the phone.
Gabriel had heard.
“Did you kill Victor?”
“No.”
“Did your men?”
“No.”
“Do you know who did?”
Gabriel paused.
That pause was enough.
“You know.”
“I suspect.”
“Who?”
His eyes shifted toward Celeste.
She stopped crying.
Gabriel spoke carefully.
“The motel security footage shows a woman entering Victor's room 20 minutes before his death.”
Celeste whispered, “My mother.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“No.”
He turned the laptop.
The image showed a woman in a dark coat.
Her face was partially visible.
I had seen her before.
May you like
At St. Agnes.
Nurse Collins.
