Chapter 6 - Luka's Dead Son
Luka sat across from me in the basement while rain struck the small ground-level windows.
He did not look like the man who had frightened hospital administrators.
He looked tired.
Older.
“My wife was named Sofia.”
He began.
“She was a nurse at Meridian’s private clinic.”
I said nothing.
“She believed they were helping people.”
“What changed?”
“She found restricted pediatric files.”
His voice tightened.
“Our son, Matteo, had been enrolled in monitoring without our consent.”
My stomach turned.
“How old was he?”
“Four.”
Luka looked at my sleeping daughter.
“They discovered Matteo carried a partial version of the marker.”
“From you?”
“My mother had been exposed to Meridian’s early treatment before I was born.”
He touched the tattoo on his wrist.
“That’s why I have this.”
“What happened to Matteo?”
Luka stared at the floor.
“They gave him something.”
“What?”
“An experimental compound.”
My hand flew to my mouth.
“He became sick.”
Luka continued.
“I took him to three hospitals.”
“Meridian blocked access to his records.”
My heart stopped.
“Like mine.”
“Yes.”
“Sofia tried to testify.”
He swallowed.
“She never made it.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
The same words used for my father.
“And Matteo?”
“He died six days later.”
I couldn’t speak.
Luka finally looked at me.
“Your father was the only person who tried to help.”
“He copied Matteo’s treatment records.”
“He told me Meridian had been searching for a stronger genetic carrier.”
“My mother.”
“Your family.”
I looked down at my daughter.
“Why didn’t you find me sooner?”
“Daniel made me promise.”
“To do what?”
“Stay away unless M-17 activated again.”
“So you watched me?”
“From a distance.”
Anger flared.
“How long?”
“Years.”
I stood too fast.
Pain shot through my abdomen.
Luka rose instinctively.
I pushed his hand away.
“You knew Ethan?”
“I investigated him.”
“And you let me marry him?”
“I found nothing connected to Meridian at the time.”
“Then you weren’t looking hard enough.”
The words hit him.
He accepted them.
“You’re right.”
My anger vanished as quickly as it came.
Not because I forgave him.
Because I realized he already blamed himself.
Mara entered carrying a folder.
“We have another problem.”
She placed a printed court filing on the table.
Ethan had requested emergency custody of our daughter.
On the grounds that I was mentally unstable.
“He’s using postpartum psychosis?”
I whispered.
Mara nodded.
“He claims you threatened to disappear with the baby.”
“I never said that.”
“Truth is not the priority.”
Luka read the filing.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
He pointed to a paragraph.
“The baby’s blood type.”
I looked.
O negative.
“So?”
Luka stood.
“Ethan is AB positive.”
Mara stared at him.
My heart began pounding.
“What does that mean?”
“It means depending on your blood type, something may not fit.”
“I’m O negative too.”
Mara’s face went still.
Luka slowly looked at me.
“Two O-negative biological parents cannot produce an AB-positive child.”
I blinked.
“My daughter is O negative.”
“Yes.”
“Then what are you saying?”
Luka turned the filing around.
Ethan’s lawyer had attached a hospital paternity lab.
It claimed Ethan was not the biological father.
I could barely breathe.
“That’s impossible.”
“I’ve never been with anyone else.”
Luka’s expression became dark.
“I believe you.”
“Then why does the test say that?”
Mara whispered the answer.
“Because someone wanted Ethan to believe the baby wasn’t his.”
My phone suddenly lit up.
A message from Ethan appeared.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID.
YOU LIED TO ME FOR NINE MONTHS.
And beneath it was a photograph.
A DNA report.
Someone had convinced my husband that my daughter belonged to another man.
May you like
And I suddenly understood why he had walked away.
But that still didn’t explain why he had brought his mistress with him.
