Chapter 11 - The Person Who Wanted Me Hurt
The fake paternity report came from DeLuca Medical Genetics.
Matteo ordered a full audit.
Access logs led to one employee.
Name:
Daniel Cho.
Age fifty-three.
Senior legal-medical liaison.
I knew him.
Not well.
He had handled paperwork after Matteo became my guardian.
College forms.
Health insurance.
Trust documents.
Always polite.
Always invisible.
He had been inside my life for twenty-two years.
Matteo stared at the name.
“Daniel would never.”
I almost laughed.
That sentence had become dangerous.
Daniel Cho agreed to meet.
No running.
No lawyer at first.
We sat inside Matteo’s office.
I was home from the hospital under strict monitoring.
Victor remained in custody.
Helena too.
Raul cooperating.
Nora under protection.
Lucia staying with Teresa.
Gabriel… somewhere I wasn’t ready to see him.
Daniel looked at me.
“You found the access logs.”
“Yes.”
“I expected you would.”
“Why?”
“Because Anthony had to fall.”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“You provoked Victor.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
My hands shook.
“You knew what he might do?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I believed he would confront you. Leave. File for divorce.”
“He beat me unconscious.”
Daniel’s face broke.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
Then he did something unexpected.
He cried.
Quietly.
“I miscalculated.”
I hated him.
Maybe more than Helena.
Because Helena was a monster and knew it.
Daniel believed he had reasons.
“Who are you?”
He looked at Lucia’s photograph on the table.
“Your mother’s lawyer.”
Twenty-two years ago.
Before the crash.
Lucia hired him secretly to dismantle the trust.
After she disappeared, Daniel tried continuing her work.
Anthony discovered him.
Threatened his family.
So Daniel went underground inside the DeLuca organization.
Stayed close.
Collected evidence.
Waited.
For decades.
“Why now?”
“Because your pregnancy activated the succession.”
He knew time had run out.
Once the child was born, Anthony could restructure assets through guardianship litigation before Lucia’s amendment surfaced.
Daniel needed everyone exposed.
Anthony.
Helena.
Raul.
Victor.
Dr. Cole.
All at once.
So he planted the false paternity report.
He expected Victor to confront Helena about the inconsistency.
Instead, Victor turned on me.
“You used me as bait.”
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
I stood.
Matteo moved in case I fell.
I didn’t.
I slapped Daniel.
Once.
Hard.
“You don’t get forgiveness because your plan worked.”
“I know.”
Then he handed me a drive.
“Everything I collected.”
Names.
Accounts.
Judges.
Doctors.
Trustees.
Two senators.
Three police commanders.
Financial crimes spanning decades.
Enough to finish the network.
Then:
“There’s one more file.”
He looked at Matteo.
“About Elena’s childhood.”
I didn’t want another secret.
But secrets don’t care what people want.
Video from twenty years earlier.
A security camera in Matteo’s old townhouse.
Six-year-old me sleeping on a couch.
Matteo, young, arguing with someone.
A woman.
Helena.
I stopped breathing.
Helena had visited me after my parents’ “deaths.”
Matteo shouted:
“You will never touch her.”
Helena replied:
“She’s mine.”
My stomach turned.
Biologically.
Yes.
Then Helena said something else.
“Anthony promised me the girl.”
Matteo answered:
“Lucia raised her. Elena belongs to Lucia.”
Then Helena whispered:
“You don’t understand. Elena remembers the crash.”
I stared at the screen.
I didn’t.
Did I?
Matteo asked:
“What does she remember?”
Helena looked toward sleeping six-year-old me.
Then said:
“She saw who drove Lucia off the road.”
My entire body turned cold.
I had always been told I was home with a sitter that night.
May you like
According to Helena—
I had been in the car.
