Chapter 4
"This family is already destroyed," Michael stated, his voice devoid of all warmth.
With a powerful, muscular surge of his broad shoulders, Michael stepped forward and violently shoved his father aside. The older man stumbled backward, his back hitting the hallway wall with a heavy thud. Michael kicked the oak door open with his polished dress shoe, the heavy wood slamming hard against the interior wall of the study.
The room was bathed in the warm, dim light of a single desk lamp. The walls were lined with dark leather-bound books and expensive artwork, but Michael’s intense gaze locked immediately onto the center of his massive mahogany desk.
Sitting directly under the lamp was a thick, manila envelope bearing the seal of a highly classified private investigative firm in Geneva. The top of the envelope had been jaggedly torn open. A stack of official medical documents and a handwritten letter were spilled carelessly across the leather blotter.
Michael set Renee down gently into a large leather armchair near the door.
"Stay right here, sweetheart," Michael whispered softly. "Do not move."
Renee nodded, her pale-blue lace dress sinking into the dark leather. She clutched the matching bow on her dress, her big expressive eyes watching him fearfully.
Michael crossed the room in three long strides. He reached the desk and snatched up the torn envelope. He recognized the seal instantly. Six months ago, he had hired the Swiss firm to trace the origins of Renee’s closed adoption, wanting to secure her medical history and ensure no distant relatives could ever attempt a legal extortion against his billionaire estate.
He picked up the first page of the medical report. It was a certified DNA analysis.
Michael’s eyes scanned the complex genetic markers, flying down the page to the final, bolded conclusion at the bottom. His heart stopped. The air vanished from his lungs. The tailored navy-blue suit suddenly felt suffocatingly tight across his chest.
Probability of Paternity: 99.9%.
Michael stared at the words, his mind violently rejecting the reality. He was Renee’s biological father. It was medically, undeniably proven. But he had adopted her through a private agency in Boston six years ago, entirely single, having been told she was an abandoned orphan.
He dropped the medical report and picked up the handwritten letter attached to it. It was a confession from the director of the Boston adoption agency, addressed directly to Michael.
Mr. DeLuca. The substantial bribe paid by your parents, Anthony and Carmen DeLuca, has kept this secret buried for six years. They forced Elena to surrender the child. They told her you had authorized it. They told her you never wanted the baby.
Elena.
May you like
The name hit Michael with the force of a freight train. Elena was the only woman he had ever truly loved, a brilliant, beautiful artist he had planned to marry seven years ago. She had vanished overnight without a trace, leaving a heartbroken Michael to bury himself in the family empire.
Carmen and Anthony stood trembling in the doorway of the study, watching the exact moment their son realized they had stolen the love of his life and orchestrated the abandonment of his own biological child.
