Chapter 10 - THE DNA LIE
“No.”
Raphael said it before anyone else could.
Clara backed away.
“No.”
Daniel looked sick.
Anthony closed his eyes.
Raphael turned on him.
“Explain.”
“The report was forged.”
Silence.
Raphael’s voice became deadly calm.
“Why show it to us?”
“Because Bianca believes it.”
Anthony explained that years earlier, Bianca fabricated the result to manipulate Victor.
She wanted him to believe Raphael had unknowingly fathered Clara’s child.
That would give Victor a reason to keep both Clara and Noel alive.
Clara sat down hard.
“So Noel isn’t Raphael’s?”
“No.”
Raphael could not identify the strange mixture of relief and disappointment that passed through him.
Then Daniel asked:
“Who is?”
Anthony looked at him.
“You.”
Daniel stared.
“But the exclusion report?”
“Also forged.”
Clara almost laughed.
Too many lies.
Too many papers.
Too many people deciding the truth for her.
Raphael slammed his hand onto the table.
“Enough.”
Everyone stopped.
“We test everyone ourselves.”
A private physician arrived before sunrise.
DNA swabs were taken.
Daniel.
Noel.
Raphael, to eliminate all doubt.
By afternoon, the result arrived.
Daniel Mercer: probability of paternity 99.999%.
Daniel sat alone in the garden and cried.
Clara watched from the window.
Raphael stood several feet away.
“He loved you.”
“I know.”
“Do you love him?”
Clara looked toward Daniel.
“I loved who we were.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
Raphael felt guilty for how much that answer mattered.
Before either could say more, Milo entered.
“We found Bianca.”
“Where?”
“St. Leonard’s Church.”
Raphael frowned.
Bianca had returned to the place where the wedding collapsed.
They drove there.
She sat alone in the front pew holding the black notebook.
Raphael approached.
“It’s over.”
“No.”
Bianca’s eyes were red.
“It’s only beginning.”
She handed him the book.
Raphael expected a trap.
Instead, she said:
“Victor lied to me too.”
“About what?”
“Everything.”
Then she opened the final pages.
Raphael’s father had written one sentence repeatedly.
VICTOR IS NOT ACTING ALONE.
Below it was the name of his partner.
Anthony Morelli.
Raphael turned.
May you like
Anthony, who had supposedly confessed everything, had disappeared from Raphael’s guarded house twenty minutes earlier.
And Noel had disappeared with him.
