Chapter Three The Road No One Chose #3
“What if we are related?”
His face tightened.
“Then I will love you enough to let you go.”
The sentence broke both of them.
Naomi looked down.
Lucas crossed the room.
He stopped an arm’s length away.
“I don’t want that.”
“Neither do I.”
“But if the truth demands it—”
“Stop.”
Naomi closed the distance and pressed her face against his chest.
Lucas wrapped his arms around her.
No kiss.
No desperation.
Just grief for a possibility neither wanted.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you.”
She gripped his shirt.
“I’m angry at everyone.”
“I know.”
“At Amara.”
“I know.”
“At Joseph.”
“I know.”
“At Hudson.”
“Completely understandable.”
She laughed through tears.
Lucas kissed her hair.
“Especially Hudson.”
His attempt at humor worked just enough.
Naomi looked up.
“We’re still going to Spain.”
“Yes.”
“Even if the result—”
“Yes.”
She stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because whatever happens to us, Elias and Mercer still have people in danger.”
Naomi nodded.
That was why she loved him.
Even while waiting to learn whether their future might disappear, Lucas was thinking about who else needed saving.
Joseph would have liked him.
Maybe he already had.
At 4:36 p.m., Commander Ross entered the study holding the results.
Naomi stood.
Lucas stayed beside her.
Hudson waited in the adjoining room.
No one sat.
Ross looked directly at Naomi.
“The paternity comparison is complete.”
Her heart pounded.
“Tell me.”
“Hudson Taylor is not your biological father.”
Naomi nearly collapsed.
Lucas caught her.
She buried her face against him.
His arms closed around her.
Relief moved through both of them so violently it almost hurt.
Naomi laughed.
Then cried.
Then laughed again.
Lucas kissed the side of her head.
“Thank God.”
Naomi pulled back.
“What about Lucas?”
Ross almost smiled.
“There is no close biological relationship between you.”
Naomi kissed him.
She didn’t care who watched.
Lucas held her face and kissed her back with every ounce of fear they had spent six hours containing.
Anthony cleared his throat.
“Congratulations on not being related.”
Naomi laughed against Lucas’s mouth.
Lucas looked toward him.
“Only you could make that sentence sound festive.”
Anthony lifted his coffee.
“I adapt.”
Naomi turned back toward Ross.
The relief faded as another truth returned.
“If Hudson isn’t my father…”
Ross nodded.
“The paternal markers are consistent with the Serrano-Taylor branch.”
Naomi stared.
“Mateo.”
“We cannot confirm without his DNA.”
“But he is the most probable biological father.”
Silence.
Naomi looked toward the photograph of Serrano.
The man who murdered Joseph.
The man who kidnapped her mother.
The man who hunted her work.
The man who threatened Lucas.
May have given Naomi half her blood.
Her relief turned into something cold.
“No.”
Lucas touched her hand.
Naomi looked toward Hudson.
He stood in the doorway.
His expression carried something unexpected.
Not fear.
Not disgust.
Grief.
“For what it’s worth,” Hudson said quietly, “blood has already caused enough damage in this family.”
Naomi looked at him.
“You think I care that he may be my father?”
“I think you will.”
“Then you don’t know me.”
Hudson nodded.
“Perhaps not yet.”
Naomi looked toward the Spain route.
“If Serrano is my biological father, he knows.”
Ross agreed.
“Likely.”
“Then the invitations, the surveillance, the portfolio—”
Lucas finished.
“May never have been only about Joseph’s evidence.”
Naomi’s anger sharpened.
“He wants me.”
Hudson’s eyes darkened.
“As an heir.”
Naomi looked toward the Bluebird files.
Elias wanted her as successor to the Covenant.
Serrano may want her as blood heir.
Amara had hidden her.
Mercer had taught her.
Joseph had prepared her.
Every powerful person in her life had attached a role to her name.
Naomi looked down at her engagement ring.
Then at Lucas.
“No.”
He frowned.
“No what?”
“I’m not becoming anybody’s heir.”
Her voice strengthened.
“Not Elias’s.”
“Not Serrano’s.”
“Not the Bluebird’s.”
She looked toward the map of Spain.
“If I take responsibility for anything, it will be because I choose it.”
Lucas smiled slowly.
“That sounds like the woman I met in the museum.”
Naomi looked at him.
“That woman nearly stepped on your foot.”
“She changed my life.”
She took his hand.
Commander Ross gathered the files.
“We leave for Edinburgh in two hours.”
Naomi looked toward Amara’s photograph.
Her biological mother had summoned her to Spain.
Serrano may be waiting as the father Naomi never wanted.
Elias wanted a successor.
Mercer wanted control.
The House of the Bluebird wanted something from her too.
Naomi buttoned her coat.
This time, she was going to them.
Not as an heiress.
Not as a daughter seeking approval.
Not as the frightened woman everyone assumed blood could control.
She was going as Naomi James.
And when the House of the Bluebird finally opened its doors, every person inside would learn the same lesson Lucas had discovered the first day they met.
Naomi did not become smaller simply because someone else wanted more room.
She took up exactly the space she chose.