Chapter 38
The test had been completed six months earlier.
The names were partially hidden, but the conclusion remained visible.
Probability of biological maternity: 99.98%.
Sofia’s hand flew to her mouth.
“Who ordered this?”
Marco shook his head.
“We don’t know.”
“Whose DNA was tested?” I asked.
He pointed to the covered lines.
Victor entered the room.
His face was pale.
“I know one of the samples,” he said.
I stood.
“Whose?”
He looked at Sofia.
“Yours.”
Then he looked at me.
“And the other sample came from a blood donation Hannah made three years ago.”
The room fell silent.
I stared at the hospital bracelet in my hand.
Baby Girl Moretti.
Hannah.
My mother’s voice echoed inside me.
There are truths more dangerous than lies.
Sofia took one step toward me.
“You said Elena was my mother,” I whispered.
“She was,” Victor said.
“That report says otherwise.”
“No,” he replied quietly. “It says Sofia gave birth to you.”
I looked at Sofia.
Her face had collapsed into wonder and disbelief.
I backed away.
“Then who was Elena?”
Victor’s eyes moved to the old bracelet.
“That is the part someone has spent twenty-six years making sure none of us could answer.”
On the windowsill, Lily’s silver locket clicked open by itself.
A tiny compartment, loosened by the warmth of the room, shifted beneath the hinge.
Something slid onto the floor.
Not a photograph.
A second hospital bracelet.
This one bore Elena Rossi’s name.
May you like
And beneath it, in faded ink, were four words:
MOTHER OF BABY ANNA.
