Chapter 11 - THE DNA REPORT THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE EXISTED
Maria nearly tore the report in half.
Alexei stopped her.
“Wait.”
She glared.
“That is my daughter’s name.”
“I know.”
“How did he get her DNA?”
They checked the document.
Private laboratory.
Sample listed:
Discarded drinking straw.
Maria felt violated.
Viktor had apparently obtained it from the playground surveillance.
Why test Sophie?
The report compared her sample to another:
Rafael Alvarez.
Impossible.
Rafael had died twelve years earlier.
Unless stored medical samples existed.
Then Dmitri read the lab details.
The second reference was not Rafael.
It was labeled:
A.P. FAMILY REFERENCE.
Alexei’s face changed.
“What?”
Dmitri looked at him.
“The lab compared Sophie to a Petrov-family sample.”
Maria stared.
No.
Absolutely not.
The report suggested a distant biological relationship.
Not Alexei’s daughter.
Not anything so simple.
Likely a second- or third-degree family connection.
Then an old secret emerged from Sergei.
Rafael Alvarez’s mother was born:
Natalia Petrova.
Maria had never known.
Natalia immigrated from Eastern Europe as a child.
Changed the family surname through marriage.
Could she be related to Alexei’s grandfather?
Sergei went pale.
“Natalia.”
He remembered the name.
Mikhail Petrov’s father had a younger sister who disappeared from family records after marrying a Mexican-American serviceman.
Family disapproved.
Contact ended.
Her married name:
Alvarez.
Maria sat down.
Rafael had not been a random warehouse supervisor.
He had been distant Petrov family.
That explained why Mikhail helped him disappear rather than simply dismissing him.
Blood.
Old family loyalty.
Also old family shame.
Then Alexei looked furious.
Not because Maria might be related to him.
Because Viktor had used a child’s DNA to manipulate them.
“What was he trying to prove?”
Sergei answered.
“If Maria had a blood claim, Viktor could argue Rafael’s ledger belonged to Petrov family heirs.”
Too complicated.
Then Dmitri found the real purpose.
A handwritten note attached to the lab report:
THE MAID IS FAMILY. ASK WHAT MIKHAIL LEFT HER.
Alexei froze.
Inheritance.
Of course.
They searched Mikhail Petrov’s estate records.
Most assets went to Alexei.
Some trusts.
Some charities.
Then one sealed codicil.
Beneficiary:
Rafael Alvarez, or if deceased, his lawful descendants.
Asset:
A 6% interest in a warehouse parcel outside Cicero.
Maria laughed nervously.
“What is that worth?”
Dmitri checked.
The original warehouse parcel had since become part of a major logistics redevelopment.
Current estimated value of the six-percent beneficial interest:
Approximately $14 million.
Maria stopped breathing.
She had spent nineteen months cleaning floors in a house owned by a distant relative—
while unknowingly holding a claim worth millions through a man she thought had died when she was nine.
Then Alexei said:
“You need your own attorney.”
Maria looked at him.
“Immediately.”
Good answer.
But before anyone could process the inheritance, another problem surfaced.
The codicil contained a condition.
The interest remained in trust until Rafael or his descendants produced the original ledger proving his cooperation with Mikhail.
Maria had the ledger.
Viktor knew it.
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The poisoning attempt was not only about silencing Alexei.
It was also about finding the document that could unlock Maria’s hidden inheritance.
