Chapter 4 - LUCA WAS NOT EMILY'S BIOLOGICAL SON
The DNA test hurt James in a way he did not expect.
Luca was not Emily’s biological child.
James had secretly hoped impossible biology would give him certainty.
Instead, the test returned no maternal relationship.
Luca cried when Rebecca explained.
“She was my mom.”
Rebecca said gently:
“That can still be true.”
James looked away.
The question changed.
Not:
Did Emily have a secret child?
But:
Why had she raised one?
Luca remembered being very small.
A woman named Hannah.
A fire.
Then Emily.
“Emma found me.”
“Where?” Mara asked.
“Near a bus place.”
Luca had been about two.
Emily took him in unofficially.
No school records under Whitmore.
No adoption.
No medical insurance.
She used different names.
Why?
Luca answered simply:
“She said bad people looked for us.”
Plural.
Us.
Not just her.
Then he remembered one phrase Emily repeated whenever they moved:
“If Victor finds the red book, we’re done.”
James looked at Mara.
The trial accounts.
A ledger.
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Maybe Emily had not disappeared because she wanted a new life.
Maybe she disappeared because she took evidence with her.
