Chapter 12
The DNA results came back two days later.
Serena was Rocco and Alina’s daughter.
I was there when Detective Hall told them.
Not because I belonged.
Because Serena asked me to stay.
She had not slept.
None of them had.
Alina sat on one side of the room.
Rocco on the other.
Serena stood near the window, arms wrapped around herself.
When Hall said the match was confirmed, Serena made no sound.
Alina covered her face and cried.
Rocco closed his eyes.
Serena turned toward them slowly.
“So my whole life was stolen.”
Alina stood.
“I tried to keep you.”
Serena flinched.
Rocco said, “Let her be angry.”
Alina stopped.
Serena looked at him.
“Are you angry?”
His laugh was painful.
“I am made of it.”
“At me?”
“Never.”
That broke her.
She cried so suddenly it looked like it hurt.
Alina did not rush her.
Rocco did not rush her.
I stayed by the door.
Serena came to me first.
She buried her face against my shoulder and sobbed.
I held her because there was nobody else she trusted yet.
Across the room, Alina cried harder.
Not from jealousy.
From understanding.
That day, the club closed indefinitely.
Police searched every office.
Every account.
Every old hotel room below.
They found records of illegal adoptions, forged trusts, and payments to judges.
Dominic’s father had built a prison under a palace.
Dominic had inherited both.
And used them.
My name appeared in the news as “the waitress who exposed Vale Club.”
I hated it.
I had not exposed anything.
May you like
I had given seven coins to an old man.
But sometimes the smallest mercy opens the biggest door.
