Chapter 14 - The Bloodline Deception
Brody backed up half a step under Giovanni's terrifying glare, but the arrogance in his voice returned as he glanced at the nervous deputies.
"Threaten me all you want, old man!" Brody shouted, gesturing at the police. "The law is the law! I am the biological father! Nora has no husband, no formal custody agreement, and this estate has been raided by the feds three times in ten years. Officers, do your job! Retrieve my daughter!"
The two deputies looked at each other, their faces pale. The senior deputy stepped forward nervously, his hand trembling on his holster. "Mr. Moretti... Don Giovanni... we don't want any trouble. But we have a signed warrant from a district judge. We have to enforce it."
Nora’s arms tightened around Lily so fiercely the little girl whimpered softly. "No! You can't take her! Please! She doesn't even know him!"
"Give me the child, Nora," Brody said, stepping toward her with an outstretched hand, a greedy smirk pulling at his mouth. "Falcone is waiting outside. Once I hand her over, my debts are wiped, and I get five million dollars cash. You can cry about it in your fancy mansion."
The confession slipped out of his mouth before he could catch himself, but Brody didn't care. He had the badge behind him.
Suddenly, Lorenzo moved.
With blinding speed, his gloved hand shot out, grabbing Brody by the throat and lifting the man completely off his feet, slamming him hard against the marble wall beneath a massive oil painting of the Moretti ancestors.
The deputies drew their sidearms in a panic. "Drop him! Hands where we can see them!"
Instantly, Vito and the five Moretti operatives drew suppressed submachine guns from beneath their overcoats, clicking off the safety levers with a unison snap that resonated through the room. Six laser sights painted bright red dots across the chests and foreheads of the two lawmen.
"Lower your weapons," Vito ordered coldly. "Or you won't survive to see the front lawn."
The deputies immediately froze, their hands shaking violently.
Brody gasped for air, his feet dangling six inches above the floor, his face turning an alarming shade of purple as Lorenzo’s fingers tightened like steel cables around his windpipe.
"You made one catastrophic mistake, Brody," Lorenzo said, his voice terrifyingly calm, whispering inches from Brody's ear. "You assumed she was yours."
Nora blinked in astonishment. "Lorenzo... what are you talking about?"
Lorenzo did not release his chokehold. With his free hand, he pulled a sealed medical envelope from his inner jacket pocket and tossed it onto Nora’s lap.
"Open it, Nora," Lorenzo commanded.
Her hands shaking, Nora tore open the seal and pulled out the medical report inside. It was a certified DNA analysis from New York Presbyterian Hospital, stamped with official state forensic seals.
"When you were admitted to the emergency clinic during the blizzard two years ago," Lorenzo explained, his eyes never leaving Brody's bulging pupils, "I ordered a full genetic profile of Lily to check for congenital defects due to your malnutrition. Out of caution, my investigators obtained Brody’s DNA from his abandoned apartment."
Nora’s eyes scanned down the page, landing on the bold, underlined conclusion at the bottom.
Probability of Paternity between Subject A (Brody Miller) and Subject B (Lily Vance): 0.00%. Biological Relationship Excluded.
Brody choked, his eyes widening in pure horror. "That's... that's impossible..."
"It is entirely possible," Lorenzo snarled. "Because Nora’s medical charts showed she was already pregnant when she met you at that diner three years ago. You were a leech who latched onto her, stole her tips, and took credit for a child that had nothing to do with your pathetic bloodline."
Nora dropped the paper, tears of absolute shock and relief pouring down her cheeks. "He... he isn't her father? All this time... the guilt, the fear..."
"You are free of him, Nora," Giovanni said softly, reaching out to pat her arm. "You have always been free."
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Lorenzo dropped Brody onto the floor like a sack of garbage. Brody lay coughing and wheezing, clutching his bruised throat.
"Now," Lorenzo said, turning slowly toward the two trembling deputies. "Take your fraudulent warrant, take this trash, and tell Dante Falcone that if he ever sets foot within ten miles of my family again, the truce is over."
