Chapter 2 - The Bloodline Revealed
The iron gates of the Ravenna estate—a sprawling fortress of stone and bulletproof glass tucked away in the dense woods of Lake Forest—swung open silently. The Rolls-Royce swept down the long, heated driveway, clearing the snow instantly.
Luca carried both girls inside himself, refusing to let his guards touch them. The warmth of the grand foyer hit them, and the girls began to shiver violently as the frost on their eyelashes melted into teardrops.
"Dr. Vance. Now," Luca ordered his butler, Arthur, without slowing down. "Bring him to my private quarters. And call Dr. Aris from the fertility clinic. Bring him by gunpoint if you have to."
Luca placed the girls on the plush velvet sofa in his private study. He knelt before them, gently unbuttoning their damp wool coats. Beneath the outerwear, they wore matching, simple cotton dresses. They were small, delicately built, but their eyes held an eerie, unyielding focus.
"What are your names?" Luca asked, his voice softer than any of his men had ever heard it.
"I’m Mia," the older one said, the one wearing the ring. "She's Cara. She’s five minutes smaller than me."
"Five minutes younger," Luca corrected gently, a strange knot forming in his throat. He looked at the ring on Mia's finger. The red string holding it in place was damp. With infinite care, he unknotted the string and slid the heavy platinum band off her tiny finger.
The alexandrite stone shifted from deep forest green to a bruised purple under the study’s chandelier light.
"Where did your mother get this, Mia?"
"Grandma gave it to her," Mia whispered, rubbing her bare finger. "Before Grandma went to sleep in the big box. She told Mama that one day, the man with the wolf would need it to remember who he belonged to."
Luca’s heart hammered against his ribs like a caged beast. Four years ago. His mother, Isabella Ravenna, had died of pancreatic cancer. Elena had been her primary hospice nurse—that was how Luca had met her. A pure, fierce woman completely untouched by the filth of the mafia underworld. They had fallen into a breathless, secretive romance. But then, Luca was told two devastating things in the span of a single week: a medical evaluation declared him permanently sterile from a childhood injury, and shortly after, Elena vanished without a trace, leaving behind a blood-stained scarf in an alleyway. He had assumed his enemies had killed her. He had assumed he was a man doomed to leave no legacy.
Within twenty minutes, Dr. Harrison Vance, the Ravenna family’s trusted physician, arrived. He took swab samples from Luca’s cheek and then from both Mia and Cara, his hands trembling slightly under Luca’s intense, predatory gaze.
"How long for the DNA profile, Harrison?" Luca demanded.
"I have the rapid PCR sequencer in the basement lab, boss," Dr. Vance stammered. "Two hours. But... Luca, your medical files from five years ago... the sterility diagnosis from Dr. Aris—"
"Find Aris," Luca growled to Marco, who stood like a shadow by the door. "If the DNA matches, Aris lied to me. And if he lied to me, find out who paid him to do it."
While they waited, Luca watched the twins eat warm chicken soup brought by the kitchen staff. They ate quietly, with perfect, practiced manners, though their eyes constantly tracked Luca's movements. They weren't afraid of him. They were studying him.
Exactly two hours later, Dr. Vance walked into the study. He didn't say a word. He simply placed a printed sheet of paper on the mahogany desk.
At the bottom of the page, highlighted in yellow, were the words: Probability of Paternity: 99.99%.
Luca stared at the paper. The world around him faded into a dull roar. He wasn't broken. He wasn't a dead end. He was a father.
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But the realization was instantly pierced by a cold, lethal rage. Someone had stolen five years of his daughters' lives. Someone had forced Elena into hiding.
"Boss," Marco murmured, stepping into the room, his face pale. "We went to Dr. Aris's clinic. It was torched. Aris was found dead in his apartment an hour ago. Executed. Romano style."
