CHAPTER 92

The second quarter of Giny's letter, as translated—

“He said he wanted me to live a discrete life, after having his child. But I didn't know, that he would go as far as faking my death—

Every day that passed, I was faced with the painful realisation that my boy wasn't going to be normal

He couldn't maintain eye contact with me for more than a minute. I had a feeling something was wrong, but I didn't want to believe it

In school, he was the clown of the class. He was bullied. His teachers said his grades were bad. His attention span— terrible. He got frustrated, cried, made a mess when he was angry about it all

But he was my boy, my sweet boy

If it didn't get any worse than that, the man wouldn't have noticed—

Then he started talking to himself—”

One thing was certain, Blake Gray was in an infirmary. Judging by the timeframe of Giny's letter, she was killed way before she could watch him mature into a man

He was a child when they killed her. So if they were to assume that he was between the ages of five to eight, he would've spent about twenty years in an infirmary. There was no doubt about it. Everything their computer nerd said was true

The question was, which infirmary?

With the help of his grandfather, Donald had gained access to the database of all the infirmaries in Italy

With his grandfather's power, he could waltz into any infirmary of his choice. And demand an interview with one of the inmates

But he couldn't just do that

He had to be sure, at least by eighty percent, that the person he was going to interview was Blake Gray

The problem was in the nature of the mental illness. If for example, Donald was to talk to someone, an inmate whom he suspected to be Blake Gray —

There was no way of knowing if he was the one

The poor, confused boy would've grown into a poor confused man. And he would probably not remember his mother's name.

There was a chance of him having an identity crisis. If that didn't happen, and he was in a healthy enough state to know his true identity, then they would be extremely lucky

Nevertheless, the only true way of ascertaining his identity was true a DNA test

*****************

“I've collected the DNA samples, everything is set for the trip to Italy—”

Palmer said, as he adjusted his cufflinks. By ratting Luca out, he had elevated his status. He was simply enjoying the benefits

Donald had lost his spark, his hold on reality

Suddenly it felt like Palmer was the one controlling him, and not the other way round

Luca's administrative control had been reduced immensely. Arman was requested to pay a visit to Rufus Pavilochenki. They needed to know who he was loyal to

He dishonoured it by not showing up, it wasn't a surprise. Arman would always support Luca. He was placed in Rufus's blacklist instantly. And people who entered his list hardly survived.

Donald was just beginning to comprehend the results of their actions together. But it was too late to regret—

He was slowly getting what he wanted, the position of his dreams. But he wasn't nearly as happy as he had imagined he would be

“I'll join you in the jet shortly”

Palmer stood for a while, to study him. He walked a few steps closer, and whispered to him

“I don't like to leave loose strings hanging around—”

He placed a picture of Claire in Donald's hand

“She’s a threat to what we're doing. Just say the word, and she'll be gone”

“Palmer—”

Donald was getting visibly irritated

“We suspect she's receiving help from someone”

“Palmer!

You're not the boss here, you answer to my fucking orders, so when I say leave her—

Donald walked three steps closer to him, the difference in their height was made obvious. But Donald was undeterred

“When I say leave her, you leave her”

Maybe it was guilt, maybe he felt bad for what he did to Claire. Maybe at some point he realised he actually liked her

Or maybe he was beginning to realise that in the course of fulfilling his grandfather's plan, he was hurting people, a lot of people. And he was becoming someone he no longer recognised—

Palmer gave him a frown. The idea of mentally checking out Claire from the list of people he was excited to kill annoyed him

“Understood”