Chapter 10 - THE BLOOD TEST
Z
The first bullet hit the coffee machine.
The second buried itself in the wall above the pie case.
Gabriel hit me before the third arrived.
Not punched.
Tackled.
Important difference.
We went down behind the counter hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs.
Samuel crawled toward the kitchen.
Leo fired through the broken front window.
Benny shouted something that sounded extremely rude.
Glass covered the floor.
“Stay down,” Gabriel said.
I pushed him.
“You’re on my ribs.”
“Good.”
“How is that good?”
“You’re alive enough to complain.”
Outside, tires screamed.
Then silence.
Leo stood.
“Gone.”
Gabriel didn’t move.
His body still covered mine.
“Gabriel.”
“One minute.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m considering murdering an entire city.”
“Productive.”
He looked down at me.
“You’re bleeding.”
I touched my cheek.
A small cut from glass.
“It’s nothing.”
His face said otherwise.
I grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Become him.”
He knew who I meant.
Daniel.
Gabriel closed his eyes briefly.
Then got off me.
Samuel had reached the kitchen.
He was on the phone.
“Federal response team. Now.”
Benny emerged from beneath a table holding a baseball bat.
Gabriel stared.
“What were you planning to do with that?”
Benny brushed glass from his shirt.
“Improvise.”
Leo laughed.
Nobody else did.
The attackers had fired from a stolen van.
Police found it six blocks away.
No prints.
No weapons.
No driver.
Professional.
Which meant the photograph wasn’t a random cruelty.
Somebody wanted us frightened.
Gabriel moved me to a secure apartment before midnight.
Not his mansion.
Not my place.
Somewhere nobody knew.
At least that was the theory.
Samuel came too.
I sat at a dining table under lights that were too bright while three men debated my DNA like I wasn’t there.
“We test it,” Samuel said.
Gabriel looked at him.
“No.”
I stared at Gabriel.
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t need to prove anything because some stranger leaves a photograph.”
“That’s not your decision.”
His jaw tightened.
I pointed at him.
“See? We’re already repeating old mistakes.”
Gabriel leaned back.
Samuel almost smiled.
Gabriel noticed.
“Don’t.”
Samuel’s smile disappeared.
I folded my arms.
“I want the test.”
Samuel nodded.
“Fine.”
Gabriel stood.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
He hesitated.
There it was.
Fear.
Not of Marcus.
Not of Evelyn.
Of what the answer might do to me.
“I don’t care who your biological father is.”
“That’s sweet.”
“I’m not trying to be sweet.”
“You rarely are.”
“Norah.”
“I care.”
That stopped him.
I looked at Samuel.
“For twenty-four years, my father was an empty line.”
Samuel lowered his eyes.
“Then I learned it was you.”
“I’m sorry.”
“And now maybe it isn’t.”
My throat tightened.
“I need one fact in my life that isn’t hidden inside somebody else’s strategy.”
Samuel nodded.
“I understand.”
Gabriel did not argue again.
The test was arranged through a private laboratory nobody connected to Samuel or Gabriel.
Samples from both of us.
Forty-eight hours.
Those were the longest two days of my life.
Evelyn disappeared.
Marcus remained a ghost.
Gabriel discovered that Vale had survived longer than anyone realized.
After leaving prison, Marcus apparently spent years in Canada.
Then Europe.
Then South America.
He built legitimate companies under other names.
Shipping.
Security.
Medical distribution.
That last one bothered me.
“Medical distribution?”
Gabriel nodded.
We were sitting in the safe apartment kitchen.
He had started cooking eggs.
Or attempting to.
“You’re burning those.”
“I know.”
“Turn the heat down.”
“I know.”
“You clearly don’t.”
He turned the heat down.
Progress.
“What kind of medical distribution?”
“Hospital supplies.”
My stomach tightened.
“Which hospitals?”
Gabriel looked at me.
Then toward the folder on the counter.
“No.”
“What?”
“You work at St. Anne’s.”
I grabbed the folder.
One company name appeared repeatedly.
VGM Clinical Supply.
St. Anne’s largest private supplier.
My hands went cold.
“They stock medication carts.”
Gabriel took the file.
“What?”
“Not drugs directly. IV tubing. syringes. diagnostic kits. Some pharmacy packaging.”
He was already calling Leo.
Within minutes, St. Anne’s security was contacted under a fake reason.
Nothing openly dangerous had happened.
But one detail appeared.
A temporary pharmacy technician had started work eleven days earlier.
Name:
Emily Vale.
No photograph in the quick file.
I knew before anyone said it.
Evelyn.
“She was inside my hospital.”
Gabriel’s face turned cold.
“Not anymore.”
“Don’t hurt her.”
He looked at me.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t need to.”
The DNA results came that evening.
Samuel sat across from me.
Gabriel stood near the window.
I opened the envelope.
Probability of paternity:
0.00%.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Samuel Bennett was not my biological father.
Samuel didn’t move.
I expected disappointment.
Relief.
Something.
Instead, he looked destroyed.
“I’m sorry.”
I laughed weakly.
“Why are you apologizing?”
“Because I wanted it to be wrong.”
That hurt more than I expected.
“So did I.”
He nodded.
For twenty-four years, Samuel had not raised me.
Had barely known me.
But in three months, he had become something.
Not father.
Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
But something.
Biology took nothing from that.
I reached across the table.
Samuel looked at my hand.
Then took it.
“You still showed up at my nursing ceremony.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“You still send me terrible coffee recommendations.”
“They’re excellent.”
“They’re terrible.”
He smiled.
I squeezed his hand.
“That part is real.”
Gabriel looked away.
He gave us the moment.
Later, after Samuel left, Gabriel found me on the balcony.
“You okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
I looked at him.
“That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then I won’t fill silence with something stupid.”
I leaned against him.
His arm came around me.
“Marcus Vale might be my father.”
“Yes.”
“You knew him?”
“No.”
“Your father did.”
“Yes.”
“Your mother?”
“Probably.”
I closed my eyes.
“My entire life keeps becoming connected to yours.”
Gabriel was quiet.
Then:
“I noticed.”
“That isn’t romantic.”
“Good.”
I smiled despite myself.
His fingers moved through my hair.
Then his phone buzzed.
Leo.
Gabriel answered.
“What?”
He listened.
His body changed.
“What happened?”
He looked at me.
“St. Anne’s.”
My heart stopped.
“What about it?”
“Someone entered the pharmacy storage level using your badge.”
“That’s impossible. I have my badge.”
Gabriel’s face hardened.
“Not anymore.”
I reached for my pocket.
Empty.
I had used it that morning.
Then remembered Evelyn bumping into me at Benny’s.
She hadn’t only left a photograph.
She had stolen my badge.
Gabriel was already moving.
“What did she take?”
Leo’s voice came through speaker.
“Nothing.”
Gabriel stopped.
“What?”
“She left something.”
“What?”
“A refrigerated transport box.”
I knew that type.
Biological samples.
Gabriel looked at me.
Leo continued.
“There’s a note.”
“What does it say?”
“Norah has three days to come alone.”
Pause.
“Or Marcus releases what Elizabeth Bennett died protecting.”
I stared at Gabriel.
“What did my mother protect?”
Nobody answered.
May you like
Then Leo read the final line.
“Ask Rosa why Norah was never supposed to be born.”
