Chapter 4 - The Poisoned LineageDominic raised the detonator, his thumb shifting to the red toggle switch on the side.
“She tried to terminate the incubation three weeks ago,” he said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, dark rhythm. “She tried to destroy the data key to save you from your mother. That’s why Victoria locked her in this hole. That’s why she called you back—not to give you a family, but to force you to authorize the final extraction procedure. Only your biometric clearance as head of the family can initiate the neural harvest.”
My head was spinning. The room felt like it was spinning downward into an infinite abyss. Every memory I had with Grace—the quiet mornings in the villa, the tears she shed when I left for war, the way she held my hand when we talked about names for our baby—flashed through my mind like a burning film reel.
Was it all a lie? Every single touch? Every single word?
“Is it true?” I asked, my voice barely audible over the hum of the servers. I didn't look at Dominic. I looked straight into Grace’s weeping eyes. “Is any of it real?”
Grace slowly raised her head. The blood on her cheek had dried, leaving a dark, tear-stained track down her pale skin.
“The assignment was fake, Matteo,” she whispered, her eyes filled with an agonizing, raw honesty. “The mission was real. I was sent to trap you. I was sent to give your mother the absolute weapon to control the syndicate. But... the night you got shot in Milan... the night you stayed up until dawn just holding my hand because you thought I was afraid of the dark...”
She choked on a sob, her iron chains rattling as she tried to reach out to me.
“I destroyed the override codes,” she cried. “I altered the incubation process! I didn't let them turn the baby into a dead drive! I gave it... I gave him a real heart, Matteo! I used my own biological material to turn him into a real human child! He’s alive! He’s not just a machine anymore—he’s our son!”
Dominic’s face darkened instantly. “She’s lying! She’s trying to manipulate you again!”
“Check the scanner, Dominic,” Grace barked, turning her furious, tear-streaked face toward him. “Look at the secondary biometric readings! The neural drive was absorbed by the developing cellular tissue three weeks ago! The data isn't in a chip anymore... it’s encoded into his DNA! If you harvest him now, you get nothing but dead code!”
Dominic spat a curse, lunging toward the acrylic incubator to check the digital diagnostic screen mounted on its side.
That single second of distraction was all I needed.
I didn't draw my gun. I launched myself across the vault floor, slamming my shoulder directly into Dominic’s chest. We crashed into the heavy server racks, sending sparks flying through the air as metal panels tore loose from the frame.
The silver detonator flew out of his hand, bouncing across the floor and sliding under the hospital bed in the outer chamber.
Dominic snarled, driving a heavy elbow into my ribs. Pain flared through my side, but I barely felt it. The rage taking over my veins wasn't just the fury of a betrayed mafia don—it was the pure, feral instinct of a man whose family was being pulled apart by monsters.
I grabbed Dominic by his throat, slamming his head back against the steel server frame until the glass panel shattered into a thousand glittering shards.
“You should have stayed dead in Vienna!” I screamed, sinking my fingers into his jaw.
May you like
Dominic gasped for air, his eyes rolling back, but his right hand reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a small, double-barreled derringer pistol. He pressed it against my abdomen and pulled the trigger.
BANG.
