Chapter 15 - THE LAST DNA ENVELOPE
The envelope was hidden beneath Sofia Moretti’s grave marker.
Luka stood beside the grave while my father removed a sealed metal container from beneath a loose stone.
For the first time since I met him, Luka looked shaken.
“My sister put this here?”
Dad nodded.
“She trusted cemeteries more than banks.”
Inside the container was a DNA report.
Still sealed.
My name was written across the front.
Below it was another name.
ETHAN M-17 PATERNAL IDENTIFICATION.
Luka reached for it.
Dad stopped him.
“If we open this, there is no putting it back.”
“Why?”
“Because Ethan’s biological father was a man powerful enough that Richard Mercer built an entire medical fraud operation to hide the truth.”
I felt Emma move against my chest.
“Who?”
My father looked at Luka.
“Your father.”
Silence.
Luka stepped backward.
“No.”
“Vincent Moretti had an affair with Hannah Cole.”
“Sofia discovered it years later.”
Luka shook his head.
“My father would have known.”
“He didn’t.”
“Hannah disappeared during pregnancy.”
“Richard Mercer arranged the delivery.”
“Why steal the baby?”
Dad exhaled.
“Because Richard’s wife could not have children.”
“And because raising Vincent Moretti’s son gave Richard leverage he intended to use one day.”
I stared at Luka.
If the report was real, Ethan and Luka were half brothers.
The tattooed stranger who had signed Emma’s father line at the hospital was her biological uncle.
Luka looked sick.
“That’s why Sofia investigated M-17.”
“Yes.”
“She found our brother.”
“Yes.”
“Did Ethan know?”
“Not who his biological father was.”
Luka closed his eyes.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then I understood Ethan’s fear.
If the envelope opened, he wouldn’t just lose the Mercer identity.
He would become legally and genetically connected to the Moretti family he had spent years calling criminals.
Luka looked at me.
“Don’t open it yet.”
I was surprised.
“Why?”
“Because my father’s estate was never fully settled.”
My father nodded.
“If Ethan is Vincent’s biological son, there are trusts, company holdings, and criminal investigations that could reopen.”
“So Ethan might inherit Moretti assets?”
“Possibly.”
Luka’s mouth hardened.
“Or liabilities.”
My phone rang.
Mara.
“Claire.”
Her voice was urgent.
“Richard Mercer just called an emergency board meeting for tomorrow night.”
“He’s announcing Ethan’s permanent removal.”
“That sounds good.”
“It isn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard is transferring Ethan’s voting control to himself.”
“And once he controls those shares, he can liquidate the hospital archive.”
I stared at the sealed envelope.
Richard was going to destroy everything before the federal warrants arrived.
We had one night.
May you like
And one piece of evidence he had spent twenty-eight years trying to bury.
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