CHAPTER 12
The DNA Results
The laboratory courier arrived at 6:17 the following morning.
He wore an ordinary gray coat.
No security detail.
No insignia.
Nothing about him suggested he carried information capable of destroying one of Boston's most powerful families.
Marco met him at the front gate.
"Identification."
The courier handed over three forms of ID without complaint.
Marco checked every one.
Only then did he accept the sealed silver envelope.
Across the front, stamped in red, were four words:
CONFIDENTIAL – GENETIC ANALYSIS
Marco didn't open it.
Instead, he walked directly to Dante's study.
Dante was standing by the fireplace when Marco entered.
"The results are here."
Neither man spoke for several seconds.
Marco placed the envelope on the desk.
"Do you want me to stay?"
Dante nodded once.
"Yes."
He broke the seal.
Inside were six pages.
The first explained the testing procedure.
The second listed laboratory certifications.
Dante skipped directly to the conclusion.
His eyes stopped moving.
Marco watched his expression carefully.
"What is it?"
Dante slowly handed him the report.
At the bottom of the page, beneath several scientific tables, one sentence stood alone.
Probability of paternity: 0.0000%. Charles Sterling is excluded as the biological father of Aria Sterling.
Silence filled the room.
Not surprise.
Certainty.
The evidence had finally caught up with the truth.
Marco lowered the report.
"So..."
"He knew."
Dante nodded.
"He always knew."
Marco leaned against the desk.
"Twenty-three years."
"He abused her."
"Controlled her."
"Used her in political negotiations."
"And she wasn't even his daughter."
Dante's voice became dangerously quiet.
"To Charles..."
"She never needed to be."
"She only needed to be useful."
Dr. Anthony Morelli entered moments later.
He reviewed the report carefully before removing his glasses.
"The science is conclusive."
"No possibility of laboratory error?"
"None."
"The samples were independently verified."
He looked directly at Dante.
"Whatever secret Charles Sterling has been protecting..."
"It began the day Aria was born."
Across the estate...
Aria sat beneath the glass roof of the greenhouse.
Snow covered the gardens outside.
Inside, the white roses continued to bloom.
She wrote another page in her journal.
Sometimes I wonder who I might have become if my mother had lived.
Would I still be afraid of loud voices?
Would I laugh more?
Would I still apologize for everything?
She paused.
Then added another sentence.
Am I still the same person if everything I believed about my life was a lie?
She stared at the words for a long time.
Almost as though she already sensed the answer waiting upstairs.
Dante found her an hour later.
She looked up immediately.
The expression on his face told her everything.
"The results came back."
She slowly closed her journal.
"I know."
"You know?"
"I don't know the results."
She smiled sadly.
"I just know something changed."
Dante sat beside her.
The greenhouse was quiet except for the gentle sound of water flowing through the fountain.
He handed her the report.
"I think you should read it yourself."
Her hands trembled.
She looked at the final page.
Read the conclusion once.
Then again.
And again.
The words refused to change.
Charles Sterling is excluded as the biological father.
Her breathing became shallow.
"I..."
She couldn't finish.
The paper slipped from her fingers onto the bench.
"So..."
"My whole life..."
She looked at Dante.
"He knew."
Dante nodded.
"Yes."
She laughed softly.
A broken sound.
"So every time he said..."
"'You're not worth loving.'"
"'You're a mistake.'"
"'You ruined my life.'"
She closed her eyes.
"He wasn't speaking as a father."
"No."
"He was speaking as a man protecting a secret."
Tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
"I don't know whether to feel relieved..."
"...or heartbroken."
"You don't have to choose."
He answered gently.
"You can feel both."
She stood and walked slowly toward the roses.
"My mother knew."
"I'm certain she did."
"Then why didn't she tell me?"
Dante thought carefully before answering.
"Maybe..."
"She wanted to."
"But never got the chance."
Aria rested one hand against the glass.
Snowflakes drifted quietly beyond it.
"I spent twenty-three years trying to earn love..."
"...from someone who never intended to give it."
She smiled bitterly.
"What a waste."
Dante stood beside her.
"No."
She looked at him.
"You survived."
"That's never a waste."
Later that afternoon...
Marco's phone rang.
One of the Rossi investigators.
"We found the doctor."
Marco straightened immediately.
"The obstetrician?"
"Yes."
"Dr. Helen Brooks."
"She's alive."
Marco looked toward Dante.
"Where?"
"A retirement community in coastal Maine."
"She disappeared nineteen years ago."
"And?"
"She didn't disappear."
"She was paid to disappear."
Dante took the phone.
"This is Rossi."
The investigator continued.
"Dr. Brooks refuses to speak over the phone."
"But she said something before hanging up."
"What?"
A pause.
"She said..."
"'If Aria is alive...'"
"'Tell her I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to her mother.'"
The line went silent.
Dante immediately turned to Marco.
"Prepare the helicopter."
"We're leaving?"
"In one hour."
Marco nodded.
"I'll assemble a team."
"No."
Dante looked toward the greenhouse.
"This time..."
"I'm taking Aria."
When Dante told her, Aria looked startled.
"Maine?"
"I think someone there has been waiting twenty-three years to meet you."
"Who?"
"The doctor who delivered you."
She felt her heart skip.
"She remembers me?"
"I believe she remembers your mother."
Aria hesitated.
"What if..."
"...she tells me something I don't want to hear?"
Dante smiled gently.
"Then we'll face it together."
She looked at him for several seconds.
Then quietly nodded.
"For the first time..."
"I don't want to run away from the truth."
Meanwhile...
Inside the Sterling mansion...
Charles slammed the DNA report onto his desk.
One of his informants had photographed every page.
Vivian stared at him in disbelief.
"It's over."
Charles remained silent.
"They know."
Still no answer.
Finally she whispered,
"Who is Aria's father?"
Charles walked to the window.
His reflection stared back at him.
Older.
Harder.
More tired than he had ever admitted.
"The only man..."
He said quietly.
"...I was never able to destroy."
Vivian frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Charles closed his eyes.
"It means..."
"...our time is running out."
That night...
The Rossi helicopter lifted into the snowy sky.
Below them, Boston disappeared beneath clouds.
Aria sat beside the window, clutching her mother's letter.
She had read it so many times the folds were beginning to wear thin.
Dante sat across from her.
Neither spoke.
Words weren't necessary.
For the first time in her life...
She wasn't traveling toward another prison.
She was traveling toward the truth.
Far away, in a quiet seaside cottage in Maine...
An elderly woman stood beside her window.
Dr. Helen Brooks.
She had been expecting this day for more than two decades.
On the table beside her rested a small locked wooden box.
Inside were the original birth records...
A faded photograph...
And a second birth bracelet.
Not one.
Two.
As she looked toward the snow-covered road leading to her home, she whispered to herself,
"Evelyn..."
"I've kept my promise as long as I could."
May you like
"But tomorrow..."
"...your daughter will finally learn why there were two babies in that delivery room."
