Chapter 200: Viktor played me for a fool!

"Viktor played me for a fool!" Aliya shouted, her voice shaking with humiliation. "Again! He just wanted my blood. I don’t even know why!"

There was a brief silence. The guard frowned. Inside the room, Elena and Don Capri exchanged a look.

The amusement and embarrassment they might have felt disappeared almost immediately.

"Your blood?" Elena asked. "Yes!"

"I thought he finally started to see me differently." Elena stared at her.

"Are you serious?"

"What?"

"Can you not use your brain for one second when Viktor is around?" Aliya’s expression hardened. "Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid."

"Then stop acting stupid!"

"Elena!"

"All our plans could be ruined now!" Aliya’s anger faltered.

"What do you mean?" Elena stepped closer. "You just let Viktor take your blood."

"So?"

"So, what exactly do you think he’s going to do with it?" Aliya opened her mouth, then closed it.

"I don’t know."

"Exactly." Don Capri finally spoke. "Enough." Both women turned toward him. His face had gone unusually serious.

"Did you actually see him take the blood?" Aliya hesitated.

"No."

"Then how do you know he did?"

"I felt the needle." She rubbed the inside of her elbow.

"It was only a small prick. He told me he wanted a drop of my blood." Don Capri’s jaw tightened.

"And you gave it to him?"

"I didn’t know what he was doing!"

"You knew enough to blindfold yourself and lie on a bed."

Aliya’s face flushed. "That wasn’t," She stopped herself. Elena gave her a sharp look.

"Wasn’t what?" Aliya looked away. "I thought he wanted me." Elena let out a frustrated breath. "Unbelievable."

Aliya’s eyes flashed.

"Stop overreacting. It’s a few drops of blood. I’m not even sure he took anything. I felt a needle prick, but it could have been..."

"Been what?" Elena snapped. She folded her arms.

"His lips?" Aliya went silent. Even Don Capri looked away for a moment.

"Relax," Aliya said, still clinging to the fantasy in her head. "Maybe Viktor just likes a little pain. Perhaps seeing blood turns him on."

Don Capri was already reaching for his phone.

"Stop Viktor. Now," he ordered the moment the call connected. "He left recently. Make sure he doesn’t reach the hospital."

"Understood, boss." He ended the call and turned to Aliya.

"You stupid girl. I told you to be careful. Your obsession could get us all killed."

Aliya scoffed. "You’re acting like he’s going to run a DNA test on a few drops of blood." She crossed her arms, trying to sound confident.

"He won’t. Viktor already knows I’m Don Konstantin’s real daughter." Her voice faltered as she looked at Don Capri.

"I am, right, Dad?" Don Capri said nothing. The color had drained from his face. "No," he said quietly.

Aliya stared at him. "What?"

"You are not Don Konstantin’s daughter." The room fell silent.

Aliya shook her head slowly. "What are you talking about?"

"The real daughter of Don Konstantin carries the cure in her blood." Don Capri’s voice was low. "If Viktor gets that sample to a lab, they’ll discover the truth." Aliya’s lips parted.

"You mean..."

"They’ll know you’re not his daughter." She stared at him, the confidence disappearing from her face. "What have you done Daddy?"

Don Capri looked away.

"We had to save you somehow," he said, his voice cracking. "That was the only way."

Aliya stood frozen, finally understanding why everyone had been so afraid of Viktor getting her blood.

Aliya wiped furiously at her eyes. She tried to steady her breathing, but her thoughts were already moving faster than she could follow them.

The truth couldn’t get out. Not now. Not after everything they had done to protect the lie. She looked at Don Capri, then at Elena.

"What if Viktor finds out?" Neither of them answered. Aliya swallowed. Her mind began searching for a way out.

Money. She needed money. A lot of it. "If I get enough money from Don..." she started slowly.

Elena looked at her. Aliya rubbed her palms against the sides of her clothes.

"I can take the money and leave."

"Leave where?" Elena asked.

"Anywhere." Aliya’s voice became more desperate. "Somewhere far away. Another country. Somewhere the Don can’t demand a DNA test when he starts having doubt."

Don Capri remained silent. Aliya looked at him, waiting for reassurance.

"Right, Dad?" Nothing. Her voice trembled. "If I’m far enough away, he won’t be able to find me. He won’t know the truth." Still, neither of them spoke.

Aliya’s eyes moved between them.

"Right?" The silence frightened her more than an answer would have. Outside the room, the guard hadn’t moved. His phone was still pressed against his ear. Don Capri’s voice remained on the line.

The guard slowly looked down at the phone. He hadn’t meant to hear any of this. But now he had. Every word. The blood. The cure. The lie about Aliya being Don Konstantin’s daughter.

He swallowed hard. Then he heard Aliya’s trembling voice from inside.

"I’m his real daughter... aren’t I?" The guard’s eyes widened. There was a long silence on the other end of his call. Then Don Konstantin finally spoke through the phone.

"Don’t let them see you." The guard froze.

He hadn’t realized until that moment that Don Konstatin was still listening.

And neither had anyone inside the room realized that the truth had already reached the one man they had spent so long deceiving. Don Konstantin had heard everything.

—

Viktor was already several miles away from the Capri mansion. For the first time that night, he allowed himself to think about what the blood sample could mean.

He kept one hand on the steering wheel while the other rested near the inside pocket of his jacket, where the small vial was secured.

He had done it. Somehow, he had managed to get Aliya’s blood without raising suspicion. And now he only had to get it to Sienna.

That thought kept him moving. After seeing Sienna at the hospital, Viktor had watched how hard she was pushing herself. She barely slept. She was surrounded by doctors and professors, trying to understand a virus that was killing people before they could find a way to stop it, and she ended up getting infected herself.

This blood sample could change everything. It could give them an answer. It could save her. His phone rang through the car. Marcus. Viktor answered through the hands-free system.

"Boss, are you alright?"

"I have it." Marcus went quiet for a second. "You got the sample?"

"Yes." Relief came through Marcus’s voice. "Good. I was starting to worry."

"It wasn’t that difficult." Viktor glanced at the road ahead.

"I’m almost at the gas station. Pick me up there. We’ll go straight to the hospital."

"Alright, I’ll," A deafening crash interrupted him. The sound exploded through the phone. Marcus pulled the phone away from his ear.

"Boss?" There was no answer.

"Boss!" On Viktor’s end, the world had turned into twisted metal and shattered glass. A truck had slammed into the side of his car at the intersection.

His vehicle spun before coming to a violent stop. For several seconds, Viktor couldn’t hear anything except the ringing in his ears.

He forced himself to move. His first thought wasn’t about the car.

It was the sample. He pushed the door open and stepped out, one hand braced against the damaged frame.

"Damn it." He reached inside his jacket. The vial was still there. His fingers closed around it. Relief lasted only a second. He looked around the road, trying to understand what had happened.

Traffic had begun slowing around the wreck. A driver behind the truck had stopped. Someone was already getting out of another vehicle to call emergency services.

Viktor stepped away from the car. He was still holding the sample. Then he heard an engine. He turned. A car was coming toward him far too fast.

Viktor moved instinctively. The vial slipped from his hand. It fell into a small cardboard case he had been carrying with the sample.

He reached for it. Too late. The speeding car hit the case and kept going. Viktor froze. He slowly looked down.

The cardboard was crushed beneath the tire marks. The small vial inside had shattered. Blood had spread across the broken glass on the asphalt. For a moment, Viktor simply stared. He dropped to one knee.

"No." He reached toward the broken pieces but stopped himself before cutting his hand. His breathing became heavier. The only thing that could help Sienna’s team understand what they were dealing with. And now it was gone.

His hand went to the back of his head as he stared at the blood soaking into the road.

His phone was still connected. Marcus had heard the crash. "Boss! Viktor!" Marcus was already moving.

The gas station wasn’t far from the intersection. He drove toward the noise as quickly as he safely could, scanning the road ahead. Then he saw the wreck. He pulled over and ran.

"Boss!" Viktor didn’t answer. Marcus reached him and stopped. Viktor was still kneeling beside the broken case. Marcus looked at the shattered vial.

He didn’t need to ask. He knew. Viktor had lost the sample.