Part 7: The Bloodline Secret
Part 7: The Bloodline Secret
Emily couldn’t breathe.
She stared at the document on the screen.
Biological father: Thomas Carter.
The words seemed impossible.
Roman stood beside her, equally stunned.
“My father…”
Emily swallowed.
“Thomas Carter.”
Victor slowly shook his head.
“There has to be an explanation.”
Roman looked at him.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“You knew my father worked with Thomas. You knew about the investigation. And you never knew this?”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“Not this.”
Emily stepped away from the computer.
“If he’s my father…”
She looked at Roman.
“Then what does that make you?”
Neither of them answered.
The possibility was unbearable.
Then Victor noticed something.
“Wait.”
He leaned over the screen.
“Look at the document properties.”
Emily opened the file information.
The document had been created only minutes earlier.
Roman stared.
“Someone created this tonight.”
Emily’s eyes widened.
“So it’s fake?”
“Maybe,” Victor said.
Roman immediately understood.
“Someone wanted us to believe this.”
Emily looked at him.
“Why?”
“To destroy our trust.”
Victor pointed toward the file.
“And it worked.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
He closed the document.
“Then we’re going to find out who created it.”
A noise came from the hallway.
Everyone froze.
Victor raised his weapon.
A figure appeared in the doorway.
Emily stepped backward.
The man slowly lowered his hood.
Emily’s breath stopped.
“Dad?”
Thomas Carter stood before her.
Older.
Thinner.
His hair was streaked with gray.
But there was no mistaking him.
Emily covered her mouth.
For a moment, she was a little girl again.
Waiting by a window for a father who never came home.
Then she ran to him.
Thomas caught her in his arms.
Emily cried against his shoulder.
“You’re alive.”
“I know.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice!”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“I know.”
Emily pulled away.
“You abandoned me.”
Thomas looked at her.
“I protected you.”
“You weren’t there.”
“I watched you.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“I know.”
His voice broke.
“I know, Emily.”
Roman remained several feet away.
Thomas looked at him.
Their eyes met.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Finally, Thomas said:
“Roman.”
Roman’s expression was cold.
“You know me.”
Thomas nodded.
“Better than you think.”
“Are you my biological father?”
Thomas looked at Emily.
Then back at Roman.
“No.”
Emily’s breath escaped.
Roman closed his eyes briefly.
Thomas continued.
“That document was fabricated.”
“By whom?”
Thomas’s expression became grim.
“Aurelius.”
Roman stepped forward.
“Why would they create it?”
“To make you believe your relationship with Emily was built on a lie.”
Emily looked at Roman.
Thomas continued.
“They knew you trusted each other. They knew that trust was becoming dangerous to them.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“So they wanted to destroy it.”
“Yes.”
Thomas walked toward the computer.
“Your biological parents were different people.”
He opened another file.
“Your birth records were changed when you were a child.”
Roman stared at the screen.
The original records appeared.
His biological father was Alexander Duca.
His biological mother was Margaret Duca.
Roman exhaled.
“My mother.”
“Yes.”
Thomas looked at him.
“You are Margaret’s son.”
Roman’s shoulders relaxed slightly.
“But why was my identity altered?”
Thomas hesitated.
“Because your uncle wanted you dead.”
The room became silent.
Roman looked at Thomas.
“Why?”
“Because your father had changed his will.”
Thomas opened another document.
“Alexander Duca discovered that your uncle had been stealing from the company.”
Roman stared at the records.
“He was going to expose him.”
“Yes.”
Thomas continued.
“Your uncle learned about the investigation.”
“So he killed my father.”
Thomas didn’t answer immediately.
“Your father died because of what he knew.”
Roman’s eyes hardened.
“And my mother?”
“She tried to protect you.”
Emily looked at Thomas.
“Then why did she hide everything?”
“Because your uncle controlled the people around her.”
Thomas pointed to the old records.
“Lawyers. Banks. Security. Even some members of the police.”
Roman looked at Victor.
“And you?”
Victor answered quietly.
“I was one of the few people your father trusted.”
Thomas nodded.
“He helped me get Emily out.”
Emily looked at her father.
“Why didn’t you come back for me?”
Thomas looked down.
“Because every time I tried, someone was watching.”
He reached into his coat and removed an old photograph.
He handed it to Emily.
It showed her as a teenager.
Standing outside a school.
Across the street, Thomas watched from inside a car.
Emily’s eyes filled with tears.
“You were there.”
“Many times.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because if I had, they would have followed me to you.”
Emily looked at the photograph.
For years, she had believed her father chose to leave.
Now she understood that he had been close enough to see her growing up.
But too afraid to let her know he was alive.
Roman stepped closer.
“Who is your uncle working for?”
Thomas’s expression changed.
“That is the question I’ve spent twelve years trying to answer.”
“And?”
Thomas looked toward the window.
“I finally know.”
A car engine sounded outside.
Thomas immediately turned.
“Someone followed me.”
Victor moved toward the door.
“How many?”
Thomas answered:
“Enough.”
Roman looked at Emily.
“Stay with your father.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
“Emily—”
“I’ve spent my entire life being protected by people who refused to tell me the truth.”
She looked at Thomas.
“I’m done hiding.”
Thomas looked at his daughter.
For the first time, he smiled.
“You really are my daughter.”
Victor checked the ammunition.
“There’s another exit.”
Thomas nodded.
“Take it.”
They moved through the back of the farmhouse.
Outside, the night was silent.
Too silent.
Then headlights appeared.
A vehicle stopped at the end of the road.
Roman raised his weapon.
The driver’s door opened.
Margaret stepped out.
Roman froze.
“Mom?”
She raised both hands.
“Don’t shoot.”
Roman ran toward her.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He stopped in front of her.
“Who took you?”
Margaret looked at Thomas.
Then at Emily.
Then at Roman.
“No one.”
Roman stared at her.
“What?”
Margaret’s eyes filled with tears.
“I went with them willingly.”
Emily looked shocked.
“Why?”
“Because I needed to find out where they were taking you.”
Roman shook his head.
“You could have told me.”
“If I had, they would have killed you.”
Margaret turned toward Thomas.
“I think you know what comes next.”
Thomas nodded.
“The truth.”
Margaret looked at Emily.
“Your father and Alexander discovered Aurelius twelve years ago.”
She took a breath.
“But Aurelius wasn’t simply a criminal organization.”
Roman frowned.
“What was it?”
Margaret answered:
“It was created by members of our own families.”
Emily looked confused.
“Duca and Carter?”
Margaret nodded.
“Both families.”
Thomas stepped forward.
“And Laurent Holdings was only one branch.”
Roman’s expression hardened.
“Then who controls it?”
Margaret looked at him.
“The person who has been manipulating everyone.”
She pulled a photograph from her coat.
Emily looked at it.
Her blood ran cold.
The photograph showed Roman’s former security chief, Victor Hale.
But Victor was standing beside someone else.
Someone Emily recognized immediately.
Sophia Lauron.
The photograph had been taken that very morning.
Emily looked toward Victor.
He was gone.
Roman turned.
“Victor?”
No answer.
The farmhouse door stood open.
He had disappeared.
Margaret whispered:
“He was never protecting you.”
Thomas looked toward the dark road.
“He was leading them to you.”
Emily suddenly remembered something.
“The flash drive.”
She checked her bag.
It was gone.
Roman’s expression changed.
Victor had taken it.
The evidence that could destroy Aurelius was now in the hands of the enemy.
Then Emily’s phone buzzed.
A video appeared.
She opened it.
Victor was sitting in a dark room.
Beside him was Sophia.
And behind them stood a man whose face had been hidden in shadow.
Victor looked into the camera.
“Roman, you should have listened to your mother.”
Sophia smiled.
“And Emily…”
The hidden man stepped forward.
Emily’s heart stopped.
She recognized him.
It was the man they had seen at the abandoned facility.
Roman’s uncle.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Welcome home.”
The video ended.
Roman stared at the screen.
His uncle had the evidence.
Sophia was working with him.
Victor had betrayed them.
And Margaret and Thomas had finally revealed only part of the truth.
But there was one question none of them had answered.
Why had Roman’s uncle been waiting for Emily?
Thomas looked at his daughter.
His face suddenly filled with fear.
“Emily…”
She turned.
“What?”
Thomas whispered:
“He doesn’t want the evidence.”
A pause.
“He wants you.”
Emily’s blood ran cold.
“Why?”
Thomas looked at Roman.
Then back at his daughter.
“Because you’re the only person alive who can unlock what your father hid twelve years ago.”
Emily stared at him.
“What did he hide?”
Thomas’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“The ownership of the entire Duca empire.”
Roman’s face went pale.
Thomas continued.
“And Emily…”
He looked at her with tears in his eyes.
“If your uncle gets what is inside your memory, he won’t just control Duca Consolidated.”
“He will control everything.”
In the distance, a phone began ringing.
Margaret looked at Roman.
“Don’t answer it.”
But Roman already knew who was calling.
He picked up the phone.
His uncle’s voice came through.
“Roman.”
A pause.
“You have twenty-four hours.”
Roman’s voice was cold.
“For what?”
“To bring me Emily.”
The call ended.
Emily looked at Roman.
For the first time, she saw something she had never seen in him before.
Fear.
Not for himself.
For her.
And somewhere in the darkness, Sophia was preparing to make sure Roman had no choice but to surrender the woman he had sworn to protect.
