Chapter 9 - The DNA They Took in Secret
Julian’s office was searched through proper legal channels.
The blue blanket was recovered.
So were laboratory invoices.
The result stunned everyone.
They had tested Leo.
Not just against Carmine.
Against another DeLuca male.
Marco.
Carmine stared at the lab request.
“Why?”
Rebecca answered:
“To create ambiguity.”
The result showed Marco was not Leo’s father.
Of course.
But why order it?
Then another lab comparison appeared.
Vittorio.
Using an archived medical sample.
Leo matched as his biological grandson.
Again, expected.
So what were they looking for?
Rebecca found the internal email.
Julian:
If we can identify any anomaly in lineage, we create standing to delay.
Marco:
Anything works. We don’t need to win. We need six months.
There.
They never expected to prove Leo wasn’t Carmine’s child.
They needed noise.
Delay.
Freeze voting rights.
Revive the merger somehow.
Everything was tactical.
Then one lab technician admitted Julian asked whether samples could be mislabeled.
That turned stomachs.
No evidence the technician complied.
But the request mattered.
Helena finally understood how far her brother had gone.
“He would fake DNA?”
Rebecca looked at her.
“He already helped fake documents.”
She sat in silence.
Then:
“I didn’t know.”
Carmine almost laughed.
That phrase had become meaningless.
He asked:
“If Julian told you to take Leo somewhere for testing, would you have?”
Helena didn’t answer.
That answer was enough.
The divorce moved forward.
Carmine sought strict boundaries.
Helena requested contact with Leo.
Denied initially.
Not as punishment.
Because Leo’s welfare came first.
She had been a caregiver.
She had also threatened him with food, forced him to clean as punishment, participated in schemes affecting his trust, and removed an item for genetic testing.
Trust was gone.
Then Sofia’s parents became involved.
They had stayed distant after Helena entered the family.
Not by choice.
Helena told them Carmine wanted “space.”
Carmine stared when they showed him messages.
He had never asked for that.
Another isolation tactic.
Sofia’s mother, Evelyn, cried when she saw Leo.
He reached for her glasses.
She laughed.
For the first time in weeks, Carmine’s home sounded normal.
Then Evelyn told him something.
“Sofia was afraid of Helena.”
Carmine went still.
“What?”
“Not physically.”
“What then?”
“She said Helena asked too many questions.”
“About?”
“Your father’s trust.”
Same story.
Years earlier.
Sofia had noticed.
Vittorio had noticed.
Carmine hadn’t.
That guilt returned.
Evelyn touched his hand.
“You were working.”
“That’s not an excuse.”
“No.”
She didn’t lie to make him feel better.
Then:
“But being late to the truth is not the same as choosing the lie.”
That stayed with him.
Carmine stopped asking:
How could I have missed it?
And started asking:
What does Leo need now?
The answer was simple.
Stability.
No adult shouting near him.
No using him as evidence.
No treating him like a beneficiary first and a child second.
Carmine reduced travel.
He moved trust decisions entirely to independent professionals.
He sold one of the luxury cars.
Not the disputed one.
A different one.
When Helena heard, she called.
“You’re dismantling everything we built.”
Carmine answered:
“We didn’t build Leo’s trust.”
Silence.
“My father and Sofia did.”
That was the truth Helena hated most.
She had spent years trying to become central.
But the strongest protections around Leo came from people who acted before she ever arrived.
Then Marco made one final attempt.
He claimed Carmine was wasting corporate assets by refusing the merger.
Shareholders should remove him.
That might have worked if the board still trusted Marco.
They didn’t.
The independent review showed his conflicts.
The vote failed.
Marco lost his board seat.
Carmine kept his.
Then Marco sent him a private message.
You always were Dad’s favorite.
Carmine stared.
There it was.
Not strategy.
Resentment.
Same poison as Helena.
Different family.
He replied:
This was never about Dad choosing me.
Then deleted the rest.
No need.
Marco would face consequences through the corporate and legal processes.
Carmine had a son to raise.
Then Rebecca called.
The full lab chain showed something Helena didn’t know.
Julian hadn’t paid for the secret DNA testing.
Someone else did.
The billing account belonged to—
Marco’s wife.
Caroline DeLuca.
Carmine went silent.
May you like
She had never appeared in any plan.
Until now.
