Chapter 8 - What Happened to Sofia Varric
Daniel collapsed.
Matteo caught him before he hit the floor.
“Who shot you?”
“Elena.”
“Where is Aaron?”
Daniel struggled to breathe.
“She moved him.”
“Where?”
“Old maternity building.”
Liana was already moving.
Matteo grabbed her.
“You're not going alone.”
“My husband is there.”
“And someone wants Nico.”
Sofia took the baby.
“I'll stay.”
Liana hesitated.
Nico reached toward her.
Her heart twisted.
Then she kissed his forehead.
“I'll come back.”
Matteo and Liana left with two guards.
Daniel went with them despite his wound.
During the drive, he told the truth.
Eight months earlier, Sofia discovered Elena's plan.
Elena staged Sofia's crash.
Daniel arrived first.
He found Sofia alive and helped Evelyn move her.
The coffin was empty.
“Why didn't you tell Matteo?” Liana asked.
“Because Elena had threatened Nico.”
Matteo stared ahead.
“You should have trusted me.”
Daniel laughed weakly.
“You would have burned the city down.”
“Maybe.”
“And Nico would have been caught in the fire.”
They reached the abandoned maternity building.
Inside, the power was off.
Liana called Aaron's name.
A sound came from upstairs.
They followed it.
Room 219.
Matteo opened the door.
Aaron sat inside.
Alive.
Liana ran to him.
For a moment she could only touch his face.
“You're alive.”
He held her.
“I tried to come home.”
“Why didn't you?”
“They told me they would kill you.”
“Eli is dead.”
Aaron froze.
He hadn't known.
Liana felt him collapse against her.
“No.”
She cried with him.
There was no time for explanations.
A timer suddenly beeped.
Matteo saw wires beneath the bed.
“Move!”
They ran.
The explosion shattered the room behind them.
Outside, Aaron revealed what Elena wanted.
Not money.
Not even control of the trust.
Evidence.
Aaron had copied every payment connected to the illegal study.
The copy was hidden somewhere only Liana could access.
“Where?”
He looked at her wedding ring.
“The inscription.”
Liana removed the ring from her necklace.
Inside were numbers she had always thought were their wedding date.
They weren't.
They were coordinates.
Matteo entered them into his phone.
The location appeared.
A cemetery.
Liana's face drained.
The coordinates pointed directly to Eli's grave.
They drove there before dawn.
The grave looked untouched.
Matteo ordered his men to dig.
Liana stood beside Aaron, unable to watch.
Then a shovel struck wood.
They opened the small coffin.
Liana cried out.
It was empty.
Inside lay a waterproof drive.
And beneath it was a photograph.
Two babies.
Nico.
And Eli.
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On the back, someone had written:
ONLY ONE OF THEM WAS BORN A VARRIC.
