Chapter 7 - The Child at the Center of the WarRachel couldn't speak.
Luca stared at her.
“Tell me.”
“I can explain.”
“Tell me!”
Emma's photograph trembled in his hand.
“Is she my daughter?”
Rachel shut her eyes.
“Yes.”
Luca exhaled.
“Then whose?”
Rachel looked up.
“Yours.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“What was the note about?”
Rachel's voice broke.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That you would leave again.”
“I disappeared to protect her.”
“You disappeared because your father told you to.”
Luca went still.
Rachel continued.
“You didn't leave because you stopped loving me.”
She reached into her bag.
“You left because you believed there was something inside your blood that made you dangerous.”
She pulled out an old document.
Luca read it.
It was a genetic report.
Adrian.
Luca.
Emma.
All three shared the same mutation.
Luca looked up.
“You tested Emma.”
“When she was born.”
“Why?”
“Because of your heart.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“And?”
Rachel swallowed.
“Emma has the mutation.”
Silence.
“But she doesn't have the disease.”
“Not yet.”
Luca sat down.
For the first time, the terrifying possibility became real.
His daughter might inherit his heart.
Mara entered quietly.
She had survived the shooting.
Her arm was bandaged.
“You need to hear the rest.”
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
Mara placed another file on the table.
“Your father had researchers studying the condition.”
“Why?”
“To cure it.”
She opened the file.
“Your father's scientists believed a particular gene variant could be modified.”
Luca looked at the pages.
“This is experimental.”
“Yes.”
“And Emma?”
“Could be a candidate.”
Luca looked at Rachel.
“What did you do?”
Rachel's eyes filled with tears.
“I hid her from everyone.”
“Except Isabella.”
“Yes.”
“And Adrian?”
“He found her.”
“Why?”
Rachel whispered,
“Because he believes Emma can save him.”
Luca stood.
“Where is he?”
Mara looked at the floor.
“Adrian contacted me before the kidnapping.”
“You helped him?”
“No.”
“But you know where he is.”
Mara finally nodded.
“Your father's private clinic.”
Luca's face darkened.
“I thought it was destroyed.”
“It wasn't.”
The team moved immediately.
The clinic was buried beneath an abandoned church.
The entrance opened with Luca's blood.
Inside were laboratories.
Medical equipment.
Photographs.
And dozens of children's files.
Luca stopped.
“What is this?”
Mara scanned the room.
“The clinic wasn't treating adults.”
Marco opened a cabinet.
“Luca.”
Inside were photographs of children.
All carrying the same genetic mutation.
Emma's face was among them.
Taken three days earlier.
Luca stared.
“Someone has been monitoring her.”
A computer screen flickered on.
A recording began.
Adrian appeared.
“If you're watching this, brother, I need you to understand.”
He looked exhausted.
“I didn't take Emma to hurt her.”
Luca clenched his fists.
“I took her because they were about to.”
The recording continued.
“The Valtieri have a laboratory underneath Manhattan.”
Adrian leaned closer.
“They're preparing something.”
“What?”
Adrian looked directly into the camera.
“A procedure.”
He paused.
“To remove Emma's genetic mutation.”
Luca's heart sank.
Then Adrian said the words that changed everything.
“Because once they remove it…”
The screen went black.
A message appeared.
THEY CAN PUT IT INTO SOMEONE ELSE.
Marco stared.
“Into who?”
May you like
The answer appeared beneath it.
LUCA BELLINI.
