Chapter 8 - The Lie About Sophia
The Blood Test
Daniel was locked in a basement cell beneath Dante's city safe house.
Dante wanted answers immediately.
Instead, Daniel requested one thing.
A blood test.
Dante refused.
Daniel laughed.
“Then you'll never know.”
I sat beside Sophia in the kitchen.
She colored a picture of a family.
Me.
Herself.
Dante.
And a fourth figure.
A woman in a red dress.
I touched the drawing.
“Who's this?”
“Pretty lady.”
“Carmela?”
Sophia shook her head.
“Not her.”
My pulse quickened.
“Who is she?”
“She looks like me.”
Dante walked in.
He heard the last sentence.
He took the drawing.
His eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
Sophia pointed at the woman.
“Her baby.”
Dante looked at me.
“Did you have another child?”
“No.”
He said nothing.
But I could see the question destroying him.
Two hours later, a doctor arrived.
The test was done.
The results came back.
Dante opened the envelope.
I watched his face.
Nothing.
Then his hand started shaking.
“What?”
He handed me the paper.
I read it.
Sophia was biologically mine.
But there was no biological connection to Dante.
I laughed nervously.
“Of course.”
Dante looked at Daniel.
“Then what did you mean?”
Daniel smiled.
“She wasn't supposed to be born.”
I stepped forward.
“What?”
Daniel explained.
Carmela had discovered an illegal adoption network operating through Falcone properties.
One of the women had been forced to surrender her newborn.
Carmela had rescued the baby.
That baby was Sophia.
My mind went blank.
“No.”
Daniel nodded.
“The woman who gave birth to Sophia was dying.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked at me.
“You.”
Everything stopped.
“No.”
“You were pregnant six years ago.”
I stared at him.
Daniel continued.
“You gave birth to twins.”
The room disappeared.
I remembered the hospital.
The screaming.
The nurse telling me there had been complications.
The baby they said didn't survive.
I remembered holding only one child.
Sophia.
But there had been another.
A son.
Dead.
At least, that's what they told me.
I looked at Sophia.
Dante looked horrified.
Daniel smiled.
“One child was taken.”
“Where?”
“That is what Carmela died trying to find.”
I felt my knees weaken.
Dante caught me.
My voice broke.
“My son…”
Daniel leaned against the wall.
“He's alive.”
Dante's expression became murderous.
“Where?”
Daniel laughed.
“You don't have the right to know.”
Dante raised his gun.
Matteo stepped between them.
“No.”
Dante glared.
Daniel smiled.
“You see?”
He pointed at Dante.
“Carmela knew you'd become a monster.”
Then the basement lights flickered.
A phone on the table rang.
Dante answered.
A little boy's voice came through.
“Mommy?”
I stopped breathing.
The phone slipped from Dante's hand.
Sophia stood perfectly still.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“That's my brother.”
