Chapter 4 - The Woman in the Hospital Photograph
Matteo pulled Liana behind him.
“Stay down.”
A gunshot cracked somewhere upstairs.
Nico startled.
Liana pressed his head against her chest.
The mansion erupted.
Footsteps.
Shouting.
Doors slamming.
Matteo opened a hidden panel beside the study shelves.
“Inside.”
Liana stared at the narrow passage.
“What about you?”
“Inside.”
She obeyed.
Matteo followed and locked the panel.
Emergency batteries illuminated a staircase.
“This house has tunnels?”
“My grandfather had enemies.”
“You have enemies.”
“I inherited some.”
Despite everything, Liana almost laughed.
She didn't.
They descended.
Nico had become strangely calm again.
Matteo noticed.
“He trusts you.”
Liana looked down.
“He doesn't know me.”
“Apparently that doesn't matter.”
It mattered to Liana.
Too much.
At the bottom was a reinforced room.
Matteo entered a code.
Lights activated.
Security monitors covered one wall.
Several screens were dead.
Two remained functional.
On one, armed guards searched the foyer.
On another, someone moved through the nursery.
Liana leaned closer.
A woman.
Dark hair.
Thin.
White blouse.
Matteo stopped breathing.
“Sofia.”
He touched the screen.
The woman turned toward the camera.
The image pixelated.
Then vanished.
Matteo stood frozen.
Liana had never seen a powerful man look so defenseless.
“Was it her?”
“Yes.”
“Could it be old footage?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
He pointed.
A broken lamp lay beside the nursery door.
“I broke that yesterday.”
Liana looked at the blank screen.
“She's here.”
Matteo reached for the safe.
Inside were documents, cash, passports, and a pistol.
He took only the pistol.
Liana's eyes moved to an envelope.
SOFIA.
Matteo saw her looking.
“She left it before she died.”
“You never opened it?”
“I opened it a thousand times.”
He handed it to her.
Inside was a short handwritten note.
If anything happens to me, don't trust the story they give you.
Liana looked up.
“You had this?”
“I thought she meant our enemies.”
“Maybe she meant your family.”
Matteo looked away.
His phone suddenly regained signal.
Thirty-seven alerts arrived.
One was from an unknown number.
A video.
He opened it.
Sofia appeared.
Alive.
Older.
Frightened.
“Nico is not sick,” she said. “Someone is making him sick.”
Matteo gripped the phone.
The recording continued.
“If Liana Graves is in your house, listen to her. Her son was never supposed to die.”
Liana covered her mouth.
Sofia looked directly into the camera.
“And Matteo—Daniel knows why.”
The video ended.
A timestamp appeared.
Recorded two hours earlier.
Liana stared at Matteo.
“She knew my name.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
A knock sounded against the reinforced door.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Two.
Matteo raised the pistol.
“Who?”
A woman's voice answered.
“Matteo.”
He went completely still.
Liana knew the voice.
She had heard it in the hospital.
Matteo unlocked the door.
Sofia Varric stood outside.
May you like
Alive.
And there was blood all over her hands.
