Chapter 4 - THE TRUTH IN HIS BLOOD
The DNA results arrived forty-eight hours later.
99.9998 percent.
Luca Moretti was the biological father of both Ava and Noah Carter.
I received the report by email while making grilled cheese sandwiches.
For several seconds, I just stared at the screen.
I had never doubted the truth.
Still, seeing it reduced to numbers did something strange to me.
It made six years of secrecy suddenly official.
“Mom?”
Noah stood beside the kitchen island.
“Why are you crying?”
I touched my cheek.
I hadn’t realized I was.
“Sometimes grown-ups cry when something important becomes real.”
He considered that.
“Like winning the lottery?”
“Not exactly.”
“Like taxes?”
I laughed through the tears.
“Definitely not.”
The doorbell rang twenty minutes later.
Luca.
He had received the results too.
He stood outside holding nothing.
I noticed because billionaires rarely arrived anywhere empty-handed.
He remembered my rule.
No gifts.
“Come in.”
The twins were waiting in the living room.
I had explained the test.
I had also told them that being biologically related to somebody did not mean they had to immediately feel anything.
Ava had nodded.
Noah had asked whether Luca knew how to make pancakes.
Children had their own priorities.
Luca walked in.
Ava stood.
“So?”
He crouched until they were at eye level.
“So the test says I’m your biological father.”
Noah frowned.
“You already said that.”
“Yes.”
“But now there’s evidence.”
Luca smiled.
“Now there’s evidence.”
Ava stared into his face.
“You really didn’t know?”
The smile disappeared.
“No.”
“Why?”
He glanced at me.
I gave the smallest nod.
Truth.
But age-appropriate truth.
“Because I made mistakes,” Luca said.
“What kind?”
“The kind where I stopped listening to someone I should have trusted.”
Ava looked at me.
“Mom?”
“Yes.”
Luca swallowed.
“And because another person kept information from me.”
“Who?”
“Someone in my family.”
Noah looked alarmed.
“Grandma Denise?”
My mother.
“No,” I said quickly.
Luca almost smiled.
“No. Not Grandma Denise.”
Ava was watching him carefully.
“Are you going to disappear again?”
The question destroyed him.
I watched it happen.
Luca’s eyes reddened.
“No.”
“What if you get busy?”
“I’ll still come.”
“What if you go to another country?”
“I’ll call.”
“What if your wife doesn’t like us?”
Luca went silent.
I stiffened.
Ava had noticed more than I realized at the restaurant.
Finally Luca said, “Evelyn has done nothing wrong to you. And what happens between Evelyn and me will never be your responsibility.”
It was a better answer than I expected.
Ava accepted it.
Noah pointed at the board game on the coffee table.
“Do you know Sorry?”
Luca looked suspiciously at the box.
“I’ve negotiated contracts with governments.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I covered my mouth.
Luca took off his jacket.
“Apparently I’m about to learn.”
He lost six games.
Badly.
The twins accused him of pretending.
He denied it.
I knew he was lying.
Luca Moretti hated losing anything.
He let them destroy him because they laughed every time they sent one of his pieces back to the beginning.
For two hours, I watched the man I had once loved discover his children.
Noah talked when nervous.
Ava observed everything first.
Noah hated pickles.
Ava secretly loved terrible pop music.
They both dipped french fries in milkshakes.
They both had Luca’s habit of tapping two fingers against a table while thinking.
The first time he noticed it, he went quiet.
After dinner, Ava brought out a photograph album.
I almost stopped her.
Then I didn’t.
Luca sat on the couch while she showed him six years he had missed.
Newborn hospital photographs.
First smiles.
First steps.
Halloween costumes.
Preschool graduation.
Noah’s missing front tooth.
Ava covered in purple birthday frosting.
Luca touched one photograph.
The twins were three days old.
I was holding both of them against my chest.
I looked exhausted.
Terrified.
Happy.
“Who took this?”
“My mom,” I said.
He nodded.
He turned the page.
Then another.
He never complained.
Never asked why he wasn’t there.
He knew.
When the children finally went to brush their teeth, Luca remained sitting with the album.
“I missed everything.”
I leaned against the doorway.
“Yes.”
His hand tightened on the page.
“I don’t know how to live with that.”
“You learn.”
He looked up.
“How did you?”
The question surprised me.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“No, Nia.”
He stood.
“I need to say this correctly.”
I didn’t move.
“I failed you before my mother ever interfered.”
My chest tightened.
“I let infertility turn into accusation without ever accusing you out loud. I withdrew. I made you feel defective. Then I ended our marriage instead of fighting for it.”
I looked away.
He continued.
“What my mother did was monstrous. But she only had room to do it because I had already abandoned you.”
I hated that those were exactly the words I had needed six years earlier.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking permission to earn the right to know them.”
I looked toward the hallway.
“You have permission to try.”
He nodded.
It was not victory.
And I was grateful he understood that.
His phone buzzed.
He checked it.
His expression changed.
“What?”
“My mother called an emergency family meeting.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course she did.”
“She wants me at her house.”
“Then go.”
“Nia—”
“Go hear her version.”
“I don’t need—”
“Yes, you do.”
He stared at me.
“You believed it once.”
He flinched.
I softened slightly.
“If you’re going to know the truth, know all of it.”
An hour later, Luca entered Teresa Moretti’s mansion.
His mother sat at the head of a dining table built for twenty.
Malcolm Price sat beside her.
So did Luca’s uncle, two board members, and the family foundation director.
It was not a family meeting.
It was a tribunal.
Teresa looked at her son.
“You’ve been emotional.”
Luca remained standing.
“My children exist.”
“Yes.”
The room went silent.
Luca stared at her.
No denial.
No confusion.
Just yes.
His voice dropped.
“How long have you known?”
“Since before they were born.”
Malcolm looked down.
Luca’s hands curled.
“You knew there were twins?”
“Eventually.”
“You let me spend six years not knowing my children.”
Teresa’s face remained composed.
“I protected you.”
“From what?”
“Nia.”
Something cracked in Luca’s expression.
“You falsified medical information.”
Teresa glanced toward Malcolm.
That tiny movement told Luca everything.
“How much did you pay Dr. Vale?”
“Careful.”
“No. You be careful.”
Nobody spoke.
Luca stepped closer.
“You forged my handwriting.”
“I prevented a mistake.”
“You stole my children.”
“I preserved your future.”
“They were my future!”
Luca’s voice thundered through the room.
Teresa finally showed emotion.
“You were building an empire!”
“I was building an empty house!”
“You married Evelyn Shaw. The Shaw partnership gave Moretti Global access to European capital. Your company tripled in value.”
Luca stared at her.
It was all there.
The motive.
Money.
Control.
Legacy.
“You destroyed my marriage for a business deal.”
“I removed a woman who made you weak.”
Luca’s expression went dead.
Then Teresa made her greatest mistake.
She smiled faintly.
“One day, when the emotion passes, you will understand.”
Luca slowly removed his wedding-family signet ring.
The ring his father had worn.
The ring Teresa had given him when he became CEO.
He placed it on the table.
“No.”
Teresa stared at it.
“One day you’ll understand something.”
Luca stepped backward.
May you like
“You don’t have a son anymore.”
For the first time, Teresa Moretti looked afraid.
