Chapter 6 - The DNA Result Nobody ExpectedNathan wanted to leave immediately.
I wanted to tear the mansion apart until someone gave me my sister back.
Neither of us got what we wanted.
Calder insisted the message was a trap. Nathan's men had intercepted too many false communications to trust an invitation from someone claiming to be Daniel. The photograph might have been recent, or it might have been taken years earlier and altered.
But the image of Emily could not be ignored.
“She's alive,” I said.
Nathan stood opposite me in the east suite, his injured hand wrapped in white gauze.
“We don't know that.”
“I know her face.”
“And the people holding her know you know it. That's why they sent the photograph.”
“Then we go get her.”
“Not until we know where she is.”
“Every hour we wait, they could hurt her.”
His expression tightened.
“I understand.”
“No, you don't.”
I stepped toward him, anger burning through my fear.
“You have an army. You have people who search for things and people who destroy evidence. You can call a dozen men and make the entire city move. But my sister is the only family I have left besides Lily, and I am supposed to sit in a beautiful room while your security team decides whether she is worth saving?”
Nathan said nothing.
I regretted the words almost immediately.
Not because I believed they were wrong.
Because I had seen the expression on his face when Daniel's name appeared on the hospital photograph. I knew what it meant to have someone you loved taken from you by a lie.
“I'll find her,” he said.
It wasn't a promise delivered for comfort.
It sounded like an order he had given himself.
He turned to Calder.
“Get the clinic location verified. And send the doctor here.”
I blinked.
“What doctor?”
“The one who will perform Lily's paternity test.”
I looked at Lily, who was chewing on a plastic ring.
“Today?”
“As soon as possible.”
I swallowed.
“Fine.”
Nathan appeared surprised that I hadn't argued.
“I want the result delivered directly to me and Grace,” he told Calder. “No intermediaries. No family laboratories. No files passing through Victor's office.”
Calder nodded.
“There's a private clinic we can use.”
“No,” I said.
Both men looked at me.
“I want an independent medical facility. Somewhere neither the Blackwoods nor their enemies control.”
Nathan studied me.
“Agreed.”
For the first time since the shooting began, we made a decision without fighting over it.
Three hours later, we arrived at a small private laboratory on the Upper West Side.
Lily slept in a padded carrier between us while a physician collected samples from her and Nathan. I watched every step carefully, making sure the sample labels were sealed and signed.
Nathan signed the consent documents.
I signed mine.
Then the doctor looked at us.
“Results should be available tomorrow morning.”
“Tomorrow?” Nathan asked.
“Accurate testing takes time, Mr. Blackwood.”
Nathan's expression suggested that time was a commodity he expected to purchase.
The doctor didn't appear impressed.
“Your money can pay for better equipment, sir. It cannot make biology happen faster.”
I nearly smiled.
Nathan noticed.
“You find this amusing?”
“A little.”
“I'm delighted to provide entertainment.”
The exchange was so ordinary that, for a fleeting moment, I could almost pretend we were a normal couple bringing their daughter for a routine appointment.
Then a man outside the laboratory raised a camera.
Nathan saw him through the window.
His face changed.
“Calder.”
The security chief was at the door immediately.
“Sir?”
“Get the car.”
The doctor handed Nathan a small envelope containing the case number.
“Keep this secure.”
Nathan slipped it into his inside pocket.
As we left, the man with the camera disappeared around the corner.
We didn't chase him.
We didn't need to.
Calder had already photographed his face.
On the drive back to the mansion, Nathan sat beside me in the rear seat. Lily was awake now, kicking gently beneath her blanket.
Nathan watched her.
“Does she sleep through the night?”
“Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“She wakes up when she's hungry, uncomfortable, frightened, or convinced the entire world needs to hear her opinion.”
He glanced at Lily.
“She sounds like you.”
I stared at him.
“Excuse me?”
“She's stubborn.”
“She is eight months old.”
“An impressive achievement at such a young age.”
I almost laughed.
Then I realized what was happening.
We were talking about our daughter.
Not about the DNA test.
Not about the threat.
Not about whether she belonged to either of us.
Our daughter.
Nathan seemed to realize it too.
His expression softened, and he reached toward Lily.
She grabbed his finger.
For several minutes, the three of us sat in silence.
I wanted to trust that moment.
I wanted it so badly that it frightened me.
When we returned to the mansion, Nathan received a call from his lawyer. He stepped into the adjoining study, leaving Lily and me with Calder.
I was settling her into a playpen when I heard voices from the corridor.
One voice belonged to a woman.
The other belonged to Nathan.
“You can't keep pretending this is a private family matter,” the woman said.
Nathan replied, “Then stop speaking about it as though you have a right to it.”
A moment later, the study door opened.
A tall woman stepped into the hall wearing a black tailored suit and a diamond necklace. Her dark hair was pulled into a smooth bun, and her expression suggested she had never needed to repeat herself in her life.
She looked at me.
Then she looked at Lily.
Her face lost its color.
“That's impossible.”
Nathan emerged behind her.
“Victoria.”
She didn't look at him.
“Who is this child?”
“My daughter.”
The woman laughed once.
It was an ugly sound.
“You don't have a daughter.”
Nathan's eyes hardened.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Victoria turned toward him.
“Your father spent years ensuring you would never have an heir. Daniel was supposed to inherit everything. When he died, the board agreed that you would control the empire temporarily. But the succession documents have not been updated.”
She pointed toward Lily.
“If that child is yours, the entire agreement changes.”
Nathan stepped between her and the playpen.
“Get out.”
“I'm trying to protect you.”
“Then you've misunderstood your purpose.”
Victoria's voice dropped.
“Victor knows about the test.”
My stomach tightened.
Nathan became completely still.
“How?”
“The clinic was compromised. Someone copied the case number before you even arrived at the mansion.”
Nathan looked toward Calder.
The security chief was already reaching for his phone.
Victoria took one step closer.
“And if you're wise, Nathan, you'll destroy the sample before the results arrive.”
Nathan's face became dangerously calm.
“Why?”
She looked at me.
Then at Lily.
“Because if the result is positive, the child becomes the most valuable target in New York.”
Nathan's answer came without hesitation.
“Then every man who tries to touch her will discover exactly how expensive that mistake can be.”
Victoria shook her head.
“You're making an emotional decision.”
“No,” Nathan said. “For the first time in my life, I'm making a decision that has nothing to do with the empire.”
He opened the front door.
“Leave.”
Victoria walked past me.
Before she crossed the threshold, she stopped.
Her gaze fixed on Lily.
“You should ask what happened to Nathan's last fiancée, Grace.”
Then she stepped into the rain.
I turned toward Nathan.
“Who was his last fiancée?”
He didn't answer immediately.
Finally, he said, “A woman who believed she could use my family name to escape the life she had chosen.”
“What happened to her?”
“She died.”
“How?”
Nathan's expression closed.
“That's a story for another day.”
But that night, I couldn't stop thinking about Victoria's warning.
Just after midnight, someone slipped an envelope beneath the door of my room.
Inside was a single photograph.
Nathan stood beside a beautiful blonde woman at a charity gala.
The woman wore a diamond ring.
On the back, someone had written:
SHE DIED BECAUSE SHE CARRIED HIS CHILD.
I looked down at Lily.
May you like
Then I saw the small handwritten note beneath the photograph.
ASK NATHAN WHAT HE DID TO HIS FIRST DAUGHTER.
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