Chapter 18 - The Envelope Derek Feared
I stared at him.
“You already know Grace isn’t yours.”
“This isn’t about Grace.”
My hand stopped.
Luka stood behind me.
“What is it about?”
Derek looked at him.
“My father.”
The independent lab had tested more than paternity.
Because of the conflicting genetic profiles, the court had authorized kinship analysis among Derek, Nathan, Victor, and Grace.
The envelope contained the entire relationship map.
Derek was shaking.
“Emma, if you open that, my father is finished.”
I almost laughed.
“Why would I care?”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
He looked toward my mother.
“Elena’s crash.”
My father stood.
“What does DNA have to do with it?”
Derek whispered,
“Victor isn’t my father.”
Silence.
“What?”
“My mother told me once.”
“Before she died.”
“She said Victor couldn’t have children.”
The world seemed to stop.
Nathan.
Derek.
All of it.
“If Victor was infertile…”
Luka said slowly.
“Then Nathan isn’t his biological son either.”
Derek nodded.
I looked at the envelope.
“Who is?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
I opened it.
Derek closed his eyes.
The first page confirmed Nathan as Grace’s biological father.
The second excluded Derek.
The third changed everything.
Victor Holloway was genetically unrelated to both Derek and Nathan.
Their biological father matched a stored reference profile.
Moretti Biomedical founder:
ANTONIO MORETTI.
Luka’s father.
Luka sat down.
“No.”
Derek stared at him.
The truth became unbearable.
Luka and Nathan were biological half-brothers.
Grace was Luka’s niece.
She was still a direct descendant of Antonio Moretti.
Still legally connected to the Moretti succession line.
But through Nathan.
Not Luka.
Victor had spent decades trying to steal Moretti bloodlines while unknowingly raising two Moretti sons as his own.
The irony would have been almost funny if it had not destroyed so many lives.
Then came the final page.
A historical DNA analysis.
Elena.
Antonio.
Samuel.
And me.
My mother was not merely Antonio’s adopted daughter.
She was his biological daughter from a relationship before his marriage.
The adoption story had been created to hide the scandal.
That meant Elena was Luka’s biological half-sister after all.
My stomach turned until I remembered the crucial fact.
Luka was not Grace’s father.
Nathan was.
But Nathan was also Elena’s half-brother.
Which meant—
No.
The laboratory notes saved me from the horror.
Nathan and Derek were not Antonio’s sons biologically.
Their matching profile came from another Moretti.
Antonio’s brother.
Marco Moretti.
Victor’s wife Claire had carried Marco’s sons.
Nathan and Derek were Luka’s first cousins.
Not my uncles.
Elena was Antonio’s daughter.
Luka was Antonio’s son.
Nathan was Marco’s son.
Grace’s parents—Nathan and me—were first cousins once removed.
Still a genetic relationship.
Unknowingly created through reproductive fraud.
I nearly collapsed.
The lab noted no identified major recessive overlap beyond Luka’s unrelated cardiac marker, which Grace did not carry.
Relief and horror mixed together.
Derek was crying.
I finally understood why he begged me not to open the envelope.
The DNA map did not merely expose Victor.
It proved his entire empire had been built around a bloodline that was never his.
It proved Claire had been involved with Marco Moretti decades earlier.
It proved Victor’s obsession had been personal.
Jealousy.
Humiliation.
Revenge.
He had not targeted the Moretti family simply for money.
He had spent thirty years punishing them because his wife loved one of them.
And Derek had spent his life trying to please a man who was not his father.
He remained on his knees.
“I destroyed my family for him.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
“You destroyed your family because of the choices you made.”
He lowered his head.
“You’re right.”
That was the first time he stopped blaming Victor.
And it was the first moment I believed Derek might someday become someone better.
Not for me.
May you like
Too late for that.
But perhaps for himself.
