Chapter 5 - Sophia’s Final Recording
Emma cried herself to sleep in Sophia’s old room.
I sat beside the bed until her breathing slowed.
There were photographs everywhere.
Sophia holding Emma on her first birthday.
Daniel teaching her to ride a scooter.
Emma asleep beside a Christmas tree.
I had controlled businesses worth hundreds of millions.
Yet an ordinary family had protected my daughter while I lived three floors above them without knowing.
Lena appeared in the doorway.
“There’s another video.”
I covered Emma with the blanket.
“Where?”
“Sophia scheduled it to be released after Box 317 was opened.”
We went downstairs.
Marco waited in the reading room.
I almost ordered him out.
Then Lena said, “Sophia named him in the recording.”
Marco stiffened.
The screen came alive.
Sophia appeared.
She was thinner than I remembered.
“Lorenzo, if you’re seeing this, then Emma gave you the letter.”
I sat motionless.
“I’m sorry.”
Sophia took a breath.
“I wanted to tell you every day.”
Her voice weakened.
“Daniel and I discovered what happened at the clinic when Emma was six months old. By then, someone else had discovered it too.”
She explained the fertility clinic’s mistake.
My genetic material had been mislabeled and used during Sophia’s treatment.
Daniel had been furious.
Not because Emma wasn’t biologically his.
Because someone had begun watching them.
“Daniel wanted to tell you immediately,” Sophia continued. “I stopped him.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“Because the people watching us were connected to the Rossi family.”
Marco swore softly.
Sophia continued.
“I knew about your planned alliance. I knew what Emma’s existence could mean to people who measured family in contracts.”
Then she said something I never expected.
“Marco helped us.”
I turned.
Marco’s eyes were wet.
Sophia continued.
“He never knew Emma was your biological daughter. He only knew Daniel believed someone dangerous was monitoring us. Marco arranged a safe apartment and tried to convince Daniel to leave New York.”
I stood.
“You knew they were being followed?”
Marco nodded.
“Daniel made me promise not to tell you until he had proof.”
“And then he died.”
“Yes.”
“You should have told me.”
“I know.”
My voice rose.
“You should have told me!”
Emma appeared in the doorway.
Barefoot.
Holding Mr. Buttons.
Everyone froze.
“Are you fighting?”
I immediately lowered my voice.
“No.”
“You sounded like fighting.”
Marco crouched.
“I made a mistake, Emma.”
She looked at him.
“Did you say sorry?”
“Not yet.”
“You should.”
Marco looked at me.
“I’m sorry, Lorenzo.”
I said nothing.
Emma waited.
Apparently, silence was unacceptable.
“Well?”
Lena covered her mouth to hide a smile.
I exhaled.
“I heard him.”
Emma nodded.
“Okay.”
Then she climbed into my lap.
Sophia’s recording continued.
“One more thing, Lorenzo.”
I looked at the screen.
“Do not teach Emma to fear the world simply because you do.”
My jaw tightened.
“She deserves school. Friends. Birthday parties. Terrible cartoons. Too much ice cream. She deserves ordinary things.”
Sophia smiled faintly.
“And if the test confirms what Daniel and I already knew, she deserves her father.”
Emma looked up at me.
“What did Mommy say?”
I couldn’t speak for several seconds.
Then I answered.
“She said I’m supposed to buy you ice cream.”
Emma’s eyes widened.
“That was the important part?”
Lena laughed.
For the first time since Sophia died, so did I.
Then Lena’s phone vibrated.
She checked the message.
Her expression changed.
“The laboratory expedited the test under the court order.”
I stood with Emma in my arms.
“And?”
Lena turned the screen toward me.
Probability of biological paternity:
99.99%.
Emma watched my face.
“Am I yours?”
I looked at her.
“No.”
Her smile vanished.
I touched her cheek.
“You’re not mine like something I own.”
I swallowed.
“You’re my daughter.”
May you like
Emma wrapped both arms around my neck.
And for the first time in my life, I understood the difference.
