Chapter 5 - The File Matteo Buried
Matteo could not speak.
Sofia looked at him.
Eight months of grief stood between them.
Then Matteo touched her face.
“You're alive.”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
He pulled her against him.
For a moment, nothing else existed.
Then Sofia saw Nico.
Her knees nearly gave way.
“My baby.”
Liana hesitated before handing him over.
Nico looked at Sofia.
He did not cry.
Sofia kissed his forehead again and again.
Matteo's relief lasted less than a minute.
Then anger arrived.
“You let me believe you were dead.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
“No, Matteo. I didn't.”
She showed him the blood.
“That's Evelyn's.”
Liana stepped forward.
“What happened?”
“Daniel shot her.”
“Is she alive?”
“I don't know.”
Matteo's expression hardened.
Sofia continued.
“Daniel discovered she had contacted you. He came here to destroy the records she brought.”
“What records?”
“The study.”
Liana stared at her.
“You knew my son?”
Sofia looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
“Did you experiment on him?”
“No.”
“Did you know he was being used?”
“Not until the end.”
Liana's eyes filled.
“The end?”
“The night he died.”
Liana turned away.
Sofia approached carefully.
“Eli saved Nico's life.”
Liana looked back.
“How?”
“His blood revealed what someone was putting into Nico.”
“What?”
“A compound designed to mimic a rare metabolic disorder.”
Matteo's face hardened.
“Why?”
“To make Nico appear genetically defective.”
“Why would anyone care?”
Sofia looked at him.
“Because of the Varric succession trust.”
Matteo understood before Liana did.
His father had created a trust controlling a massive portion of the family's legitimate businesses.
If Matteo died, Nico inherited.
Unless Nico was medically declared incapable.
Then control transferred to the next eligible Varric.
Daniel.
Matteo whispered, “He wasn't trying to kill Nico.”
“Not yet.”
“He was trying to disqualify him.”
“Yes.”
Liana felt sick.
“And Eli?”
Sofia's eyes filled.
“They gave Eli the compound to compare reactions.”
Liana stepped backward.
“No.”
“I tried to stop them.”
“You knew?”
“Only that night.”
“You could have called me.”
“I tried.”
“You could have gone to police.”
“Daniel owned people inside the hospital. He had people inside the police.”
Liana's grief turned into rage.
“My baby died because rich people were fighting over money.”
“No,” Sofia whispered. “Your baby died because one man decided children were acceptable collateral.”
Liana slapped her.
Sofia didn't move.
Matteo didn't interfere.
“I deserved that,” Sofia said.
“No. You deserve worse.”
“Probably.”
Nico began fussing.
Liana reached instinctively.
Sofia noticed.
Without resentment, she handed him back.
Nico settled immediately.
Sofia's expression broke.
“He remembers you.”
Liana stared.
“What?”
Sofia wiped her eyes.
“You held him before.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“At the hospital.”
Liana shook her head.
“I never saw Nico.”
“You did. You just didn't know it.”
Sofia opened a hidden folder on Matteo's computer.
A security video appeared.
Hospital nursery.
Liana entered.
She was wearing a patient's robe.
She looked exhausted.
A nurse handed her a baby.
Liana stared at the footage.
“I thought that was Eli.”
“It was Nico.”
Her breath caught.
“Why?”
“Someone switched their bassinets for forty-three minutes.”
“Who?”
Sofia enlarged the footage.
A nurse appeared.
Then another figure.
Daniel.
Liana covered her mouth.
Matteo leaned closer.
But the video showed something else.
Daniel wasn't switching the babies.
He was trying to switch them back.
Someone else had made the first exchange.
A woman entered the frame.
Sofia froze the image.
Matteo stared.
Liana whispered, “Who is she?”
Sofia's face turned white.
“My sister.”
Matteo slowly looked at her.
“You don't have a sister.”
Sofia closed the laptop.
May you like
“Yes, I do.”
“And she's been living inside this house under another name.”
