The DNA Report

Chapter 3 The Blood Drawn for Her

Sebastian dragged me out by the arm. He did not explain or loosen his grip until the elevator doors closed.

One man sat on either side of me during the silent ride to the Sterling estate.

The two men took me through a side entrance and into the ballroom. Music and too much perfume filled the room. Flowers covered every table.

The Sterlings had invited half the city to celebrate the daughter they claimed in public.

Chloe stood beneath the main chandelier in pale pink silk, with Sebastian and my parents around her.

A starburst brooch of diamonds and sapphires was pinned to her chest, bright under the crystal chandelier.

My father had once sworn that my mother’s brooch would remain in the family vault until their real daughter came home.

A guest lifted his champagne. “To Chloe, the one and only Sterling princess!”

Glasses rose across the room. Elias stood near Chloe with a hand at her chair. His smile held until he noticed me by the wall.

He looked at Sebastian’s grip on my arm, then back at the crowd.

Chloe shivered. Elias removed his cashmere shawl at once and settled it over her shoulders, taking time to fasten it at her throat.

He could have corrected the toast. He adjusted the shawl instead.

Across the room, Chloe looked straight at me. There was no pain in her face until she noticed Elias watching. Her hand rose to her chest, she gave one small gasp, and she folded neatly to the floor.

Guests shouted for a doctor.

Sebastian pointed at me. “This is your fault! You couldn’t leave her alone for one night?”

Elias reached her before anyone else. He lifted Chloe, held her against his chest, and forced a path through the crowd. “Call an ambulance!”

The chandeliers blurred into orange flame. Elias's back looked the same as he carried her away.

At the hospital, the Sterlings kept me in a waiting room that smelled of antiseptic. Sebastian guarded the door while my parents paced.

No one asked about the bruises his fingers had left on my arm.

Hours later, a doctor came through the double doors.

“Chloe had a severe cardiac episode. She’s stable, but she has internal bleeding. We need an immediate transfusion. She is AB-negative, and the blood bank is critically low.”

My family turned toward me.

I was AB-negative too.

“No. I won’t do it.”

My mother began to cry and caught my sleeve. “Aria, please. She’s your sister. Saving her is your duty.”

“She isn’t my sister, and I owe her nothing.”

Footsteps stopped at the waiting-room door. Elias looked first at the doctor, then at me. His shirt was wrinkled where Chloe had gripped it in the ambulance.

“Aria, I need you to do this.”

“No.” I watched him, waiting to see whether he would hear me.

His jaw tightened. That was my answer.

He turned to the doctor.

“Take what Chloe needs. I’ll take responsibility.”

Two nurses approached with a collection kit. Elias signed the order while another nurse pressed me back and cleaned my arm with alcohol.

Sebastian stayed at the door. I did not waste my strength fighting four people.

The needle entered my vein.

Blood moved through the clear tube, dark against the white sheet. Elias left before the bag was full and took his place outside Chloe’s door. Through the opening, I could see only his back.

I watched the red line in the tube until the room dimmed at the edges. This was the last thing he would ever take from me.