Chapter 5 - THE GIRL CALLED DAISY
The recording was not live.
A timestamp showed it had been created two days earlier.
Gabriel expected us to find the church.
He wanted Vincent to see the second child.
Daisy appeared approximately six years old. Her face resembled Sophie so closely that the image might have shown the same child under different lighting.
Vincent watched without moving.
“What is this?” he asked Dominic.
“Carlo believed heirs should never exist as single points of failure.”
I looked at him.
“Say that like she is a child.”
Dominic lowered his eyes.
“He created replacement identities.”
“If Sophie died, Daisy would take her place?”
“Possibly.”
Vincent turned.
“You knew my father made children interchangeable?”
“I knew he created duplicate records. I did not know they belonged to living children.”
The video continued.
Gabriel knelt beside Daisy.
“Who is your father?”
The girl answered without hesitation.
“Vincent Moretti.”
“Who is your mother?”
“Claire Dawson.”
My chest tightened.
“Where does your mother live?”
“In heaven.”
“What will happen when Vincent sees you?”
“He will remember me.”
The child had been trained.
Every answer arrived too quickly.
Gabriel looked into the camera.
“Sophie was raised in luxury and weakness. Daisy was prepared for survival. One child carries the name. The other carries the design.”
Vincent shut off the screen.
“What design?”
Dominic opened a medical cabinet.
Inside were genetic reports comparing Sophie, Daisy, Claire, me, and several unnamed men.
Both children shared nearly identical maternal DNA.
Their paternal results had been intentionally removed.
One note appeared repeatedly.
VINCENT RESPONSE PRIORITY.
The children were not created only to inherit money.
They were built to influence Vincent.
Carlo knew his son distrusted most adults.
A child who resembled Claire could become the only person capable of controlling his decisions.
Sophie had become real to Vincent because he raised her.
Daisy had been trained to imitate the same emotional bond without ever meeting him.
Gabriel wanted to replace love with a prepared instrument.
A telephone rang inside the underground room.
Vincent answered.
Gabriel spoke live this time.
“You found her photograph.”
“Where is the child?”
“Safe.”
“Bring her to me.”
“Which one?”
Vincent’s expression became lethal.
“You have ten seconds to explain.”
Gabriel laughed softly.
“Sophie left your residence six minutes ago.”
Vincent called security.
No answer came from the secure room.
He tried Eleanor’s private protection officer.
No answer.
The Moretti residence cameras showed the caregiver opening the door for a physician.
The man displayed valid authorization from Vincent’s own medical office.
He entered carrying a small examination case.
Four minutes later, the feed went dark.
When security restored the room, Sophie and the physician were gone.
The black ring remained on the bed.
Vincent closed his eyes for one second.
Then the man everyone feared disappeared.
A father remained.
Gabriel continued through the phone.
“One daughter is inside the city. One is outside it. You may recover only one tonight.”
“Touch either child and no place in this country will hide you.”
“You still speak like power belongs to threats.”
“What do you want?”
“Carlo’s central archive.”
“It was destroyed.”
“No. Eleanor has it.”
Vincent looked toward his mother.
Eleanor’s face lost color.
Gabriel heard the silence.
“Ask her about the chapel beneath Lake Geneva.”
The call ended.
Vincent turned.
“What did you hide?”
Eleanor sat on the edge of the surgical bed.
“Your father prepared a sanctuary in Wisconsin.”
“For what?”
“For the children he called continuity assets.”
I hated the phrase.
Eleanor continued.
“After Carlo died, I found the archive. Names. birth records. financial identities. I sealed it beneath the family chapel.”
“Why not destroy it?”
“Because some children had been placed with families. Destroying the archive would erase the only proof of who they were.”
“You could have told me.”
“You had just buried Claire. You were becoming the head of the family. I believed the truth would destroy your judgment.”
Vincent laughed once.
“You protected me by allowing the system to continue.”
“I stopped every active payment I could find.”
“Gabriel still had access.”
“I did not know.”
The difference did not absolve her.
She had preserved a dangerous system in secret and assumed secrecy was control.
Dominic examined the church records.
A recent transfer listed two locations.
Sophie had been moved toward an industrial property near the Chicago River.
Daisy remained near Lake Geneva.
The times were designed so Vincent could not reach both before midnight.
He called every loyal team he still trusted.
Loyalty had become impossible to measure.
Gabriel controlled old access codes. Any guard could receive a false order appearing to come from Vincent.
I looked at the map.
“The river property is ten minutes from Belladonna.”
“Gabriel expects me to choose Sophie,” Vincent said.
“Because she is your daughter.”
“He wants the archive unprotected.”
Eleanor stood.
“I will go to Wisconsin.”
“No.”
“The chapel opens only through my biometric access.”
“Then Gabriel needs you alive.”
“For now.”
Dominic looked toward me.
“Daisy may respond to Brielle.”
“Why?”
“She was trained using Claire’s recordings and Brielle’s childhood photographs.”
The girl might believe I was her mother, aunt, or intended guardian.
Gabriel had designed emotional keys for every person involved.
Vincent made the decision.
He would recover Sophie near the river.
Eleanor and Dominic would travel with a security team toward Lake Geneva.
I would go with them.
Before leaving, Vincent stopped beside me.
“If you see Claire.”
“I bring her home.”
“No.”
His eyes held mine.
“You ask whether she wants to come.”
The correction mattered.
Claire had spent years being moved, hidden, and protected without consent.
Even now, we could not make another decision over her body.
I nodded.
Vincent placed a small pistol on the table.
“Do you know how to use it?”
“No.”
“Then do not carry it.”
He handed me a compact emergency beacon instead.
“Press this and every Moretti team still loyal to me receives your location.”
“How will I know who is loyal?”
“You will not.”
He walked away before I could answer.
Eleanor and I left for Wisconsin in a black vehicle driven by a guard named Julian Cross.
Dominic sat restrained in the rear seat.
Twenty minutes outside Chicago, Julian received a route change through the dashboard.
The order carried Vincent’s encryption.
Dominic leaned forward.
“Do not follow it.”
Julian looked in the mirror.
“It came from Vincent.”
“No. Gabriel duplicated the old key.”
The new route led away from Wisconsin and toward an abandoned medical facility.
Julian slowed.
Then locked every door.
Eleanor looked toward him.
“Which man do you serve?”
Julian removed a small needle from the center console.
May you like
“Whichever one still has my son.”
Continue to the next part: Brielle is trapped inside a moving vehicle with a compromised guard while Sophie and Daisy remain in separate hidden locations.
