Chapter 7 - Bella's Real FatherRafael did not cry.
That was worse.
He simply sat on the floor holding Elena's body while the rain tapped through the broken stained glass.
I stood beside him.
I didn't know what to say.
Finally, he whispered:
“She was alive.”
I nodded.
“And now she's dead.”
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
“Bella heard everything.”
My stomach dropped.
She had been listening from somewhere nearby.
We searched the church.
Nothing.
Then we found a tiny black ribbon near the back door.
Bella's ribbon.
Rafael stood.
“She's gone.”
I closed my eyes.
Vincent had taken her.
Again.
This time there would be no warning.
We returned to the house.
The security room was transformed into a war room.
Maps covered the walls.
Phones rang.
Men moved in every direction.
I stood in the center.
“Show me everything on Bella's birth.”
One guard hesitated.
Rafael noticed.
“Now.”
A file appeared on the screen.
Birth certificate.
Hospital record.
Genetic test.
I read the first report.
Then the second.
Then I stopped.
“Where's the original DNA test?”
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“Restricted.”
“By whom?”
He didn't answer.
Rafael moved toward him.
“Answer her.”
“Vincent.”
Silence.
The original test had been locked by Vincent five years ago.
Why?
I opened the digital record.
There was a discrepancy.
One line had been altered.
I zoomed in.
Paternal match: inconclusive.
I stared.
Then I found the archived version.
Paternal match: confirmed.
Rafael looked over my shoulder.
“She's mine.”
I nodded.
“Someone altered the result.”
He exhaled.
Elena had lied.
But not about Bella being yours.
She had lied about what Vincent claimed.
I looked at the original document.
There was a second name.
Donor reference: M.K.
“What is M.K.?”
Rafael frowned.
“I don't know.”
I did.
My heart began pounding.
Because three years ago, at Warehouse Seven, I had found a medical packet in Vincent's office.
It belonged to a man named Marcus Kane.
A private security contractor.
The same man whose initials were M.K.
Rafael saw my expression.
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“My father.”
He stared at me.
“What?”
I swallowed.
“My father was Marcus Kane.”
The room went silent.
My father had died when I was seventeen.
Or so I had believed.
I had never questioned it.
But now the impossible pieces began to align.
My father had worked private security.
He had known Rafael's family.
He had been involved in Bella's medical records.
And Vincent had hidden something under the initials M.K.
Rafael looked at me.
“You said your father died when you were seventeen.”
“He did.”
“Then how could he be connected to Bella?”
“I don't know.”
A guard entered.
“Boss.”
Rafael looked up.
“We found a storage unit.”
“Where?”
“New Jersey.”
“Whose?”
The guard hesitated.
“M.K.”
I grabbed my coat.
“We're going.”
The storage unit was small.
Dusty.
Forgotten.
Inside were dozens of boxes.
Old contracts.
Photographs.
Medical records.
And a locked steel cabinet.
The key I found beneath the floorboards fit.
Inside was a VHS tape.
A handwritten note.
For Nora, when Rafael finally learns the truth.
My hands shook.
We found an old television and played it.
Static.
Then a man's face appeared.
My father's.
Older.
Tired.
Alive.
I stopped breathing.
Rafael stood behind me.
Neither of us moved.
My father looked directly into the camera.
“Nora, if you're watching this, then I failed.”
His voice cracked.
“You were never supposed to know about the DeLuca family.”
I looked at Rafael.
The recording continued.
“But if Vincent finds you, you must remember one thing.”
My father's eyes filled with fear.
“Bella's father is Rafael.”
I exhaled.
“But the blood Vincent is looking for is not hers.”
Rafael stepped closer to the screen.
“What blood?”
My father looked off-camera.
Then back.
“The blood belongs to the man who started all of this.”
The tape ended.
On the screen, one final frame remained.
A photograph.
A man's face.
I recognized him instantly.
So did Rafael.
He whispered:
“That's impossible.”
The photograph was of the police commissioner who had supposedly died ten years ago.
May you like
And beneath it was one sentence.
He is the real boss.
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