Chapter 5 - THE SECRET IN ANNA'S BLOODVincent read the instruction again.
Then a third time.
His father had never been a gentle man, but Vincent had believed there were lines Anthony would never cross.
Apparently, he had been wrong.
“Where did you get this?” he asked.
“Someone who says he saved me.”
“Who?”
“Daniel Hayes.”
Vincent immediately called Marco.
“Find Daniel. Now.”
Anna pulled the phone away.
“Don't.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Anna, if my father was involved, you're not safe.”
“I haven't been safe since the day you walked off that plane.”
He had no defense.
For three years, Anna had lived under another name.
After the explosion, Daniel had found her trapped beneath a section of the aircraft's damaged interior. She had been unconscious, bleeding, and barely breathing.
The rescue team initially believed she wouldn't survive.
But she did.
She woke up in a small hospital outside Chicago with no memory of how she had escaped. Her pregnancy had been complicated by the injuries, and doctors had warned her that both she and the baby might not make it.
Daniel had stayed.
He arranged a new identity, helped her disappear, and found her a modest apartment in a quiet town.
Three weeks later, Anna gave birth to Ethan.
The boy had spent his first days in an incubator while Anna sat beside him, praying that he would live.
Nobody had come to visit.
Nobody had asked about the mother or the child.
Not even Vincent.
She knew why.
He believed they were dead.
But that knowledge hadn't made the loneliness easier.
“I named him Ethan,” Anna said quietly. “I wanted him to have a name that belonged to him, not to your family.”
Vincent looked at the little boy.
“I would have loved him.”
“You were supposed to.”
“I know.”
“You were supposed to be there when he was born. You were supposed to hold him. You were supposed to hear his first cry.”
Vincent's eyes filled.
“I'm sorry.”
Anna shook her head.
“Sorry doesn't give me those moments back.”
He lowered his gaze.
Then Marco entered the room.
“We found something.”
He placed a folder on the table.
The first document was a financial transfer from an offshore account belonging to Anthony Moretti. The money had been sent to a company that specialized in aircraft maintenance.
The second document contained the name of the technician who had serviced the jet.
The third was a medical report.
Anna's medical report.
Vincent frowned.
“Why is this here?”
Marco hesitated.
“Because your father requested it two days before the flight.”
Anna's stomach tightened.
“He knew I was pregnant.”
Vincent looked sick.
“He knew.”
But there was another detail.
The report contained an unusual blood test result.
Anna had a rare inherited blood condition that could cause serious complications during emergency surgery. The report recommended special precautions.
At the bottom, someone had written:
PREGNANCY CONFIRMED. SECOND-GENERATION HEIR.
Vincent stared at the words.
“What does this mean?”
Anna looked confused.
“I don't know.”
Marco turned the page.
A handwritten note was attached.
If the boy is born, the inheritance transfer must be reviewed.
Vincent's expression darkened.
His father had not simply wanted to eliminate Anna.
He had been protecting something.
A secret involving the family inheritance.
Before Vincent could speak, Ethan climbed onto the chair beside Anna.
“Mommy, I found this in my pocket.”
He held out a small folded piece of paper.
Anna recognized the handwriting immediately.
It belonged to Daniel.
She opened it.
Four words were written inside.
DON'T TRUST VINCENT'S MOTHER.
Anna looked up.
May you like
Vincent's mother, Eleanor Moretti, had died five years earlier.
Or so everyone had been told.
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