Chapter 8 - The Dead Man at the Party
Alexander Ashford had watched Tyler pour wine over me.
He had watched his own son—or the man everyone believed was his son—humiliate me.
And done nothing.
Franco located his medical practice.
Empty.
Apartment emptied too.
Rebecca claimed she had no idea Alexander Hale was her supposedly dead husband.
I did not believe her.
Neither did Giovanni.
But Giovanni was dealing with another collapse.
His father’s reputation.
Sofia admitted Lorenzo knowingly financed the first phase of the trial.
When complications emerged, he initially helped suppress them.
Only later did guilt consume him.
“Your father wasn’t innocent,” Sofia told Giovanni.
“I spent twenty years believing he died because he tried to expose them.”
“He did.”
“That doesn’t erase what came before.”
“No.”
It was the first time I saw Giovanni look lost.
Not powerful.
Not feared.
Just somebody’s son.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He laughed bitterly.
“For what?”
“Discovering your parents were human.”
He looked at me.
“Is that what we’re calling this?”
“Until we know worse.”
He smiled despite himself.
Then Franco arrived.
Margaret had been located.
A traffic camera captured her entering an abandoned Ashford research building with Alexander.
We drove there with police.
The building was empty.
But Mom had left something deliberately.
Her hospital bracelet.
Beside it was a flash drive.
One video.
Margaret appeared on-screen.
“If Hannah is watching this, then Alexander probably knows I copied the final ledger.”
She looked terrified.
“Twenty-eight years ago, Ashford Biotech wasn’t only hiding failed treatment data. Alexander discovered a rare genetic marker associated with unusually strong response to the drug.”
She swallowed.
“I carried that marker.”
So did I.
“They wanted long-term family data. I refused.”
Then came the part that shattered everything.
“Rebecca was pregnant at the same time.”
Tyler.
“She became obsessed with whether her child carried the marker too.”
Why?
Mom looked off-camera.
“Because Rebecca had already discovered Alexander might not be Tyler’s biological father.”
Giovanni stopped breathing.
I looked at him.
Mom continued.
“Lorenzo was.”
Silence.
Tyler Ashford was Giovanni’s half brother.
That explained why both families had protected the secret.
But Mom wasn’t finished.
“Lorenzo believed Tyler was his son.”
Giovanni whispered:
“My father knew?”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
Mom’s recording continued.
“But Alexander switched the paternity samples.”
Why?
“To make Rebecca believe Lorenzo was Tyler’s father.”
Giovanni stared at the screen.
“So Tyler isn’t?”
The video ended.
One final file appeared.
A DNA report.
Tyler Ashford.
Paternal match probability.
The comparison name was encrypted.
Then my phone rang.
Rebecca.
I answered.
She was crying.
“Hannah, listen carefully.”
“Where’s my mother?”
“With Alexander.”
“Is Tyler Lorenzo’s son?”
Rebecca whispered:
“No.”
“Then whose?”
May you like
She said:
“That’s why Alexander took your mother.”
