Chapter 5 - The Name on the Birth File
Matteo ended the call without saying goodbye.
For several seconds, the study held only the quiet hum of the air conditioner and Nico's soft breathing.
Liana stared at him.
"She knew."
Matteo did not answer.
"Your mother knew Elena survived."
"That's what she said."
"How long?"
"I don't know."
"Ask her."
"She's coming here."
Liana laughed once, without humor.
"Great. We can all sit by the pool and discuss why my dead sister isn't dead."
Matteo's patience snapped.
"Do you think this is easy for me?"
Liana stared at him.
"Easy?"
Her voice dropped.
"I buried an empty coffin because somebody told my family there was nothing left to identify."
Matteo went still.
Liana's eyes filled, but her voice became steadier.
"My mother stopped sleeping."
"My father stopped speaking to anyone except the priest."
"I spent ten months believing my sister died alone in a fire."
She pointed toward the laptop.
"Now she is talking from your screen about your wife, your clinic, your family, and your child."
She took one breath.
"So no, Matteo, I am not worried about how easy this is for you."
He absorbed the blow in silence.
She had called him Matteo for the first time.
Not Mr. Varric.
Not sir.
Under different circumstances, he might have noticed more.
Now he only felt the truth of what she said.
"You're right," he said.
Liana blinked.
"My family has answers you should have had months ago."
Matteo reopened the laptop.
"And we're going to get them."
The third file was a scanned birth document.
Nico Varric.
Date of birth.
Weight.
Time.
Hospital.
Legal mother: Camila Varric.
Legal father: Matteo Varric.
Nothing unusual.
Then Matteo opened the second scan.
It was a laboratory chain-of-custody form.
His own name appeared under paternal sample.
Camila's name appeared under maternal sample.
But someone had drawn a red box around the specimen number.
Beside it, Elena had written: Wrong donor ID.
"What does that mean?" Liana asked.
Matteo zoomed in.
"The number attached to Camila's sample doesn't match."
"Match what?"
"The transfer record."
He opened the earlier file and compared the numbers.
They were different by one digit.
Small enough to look like a clerical error.
Large enough to point to a different person.
Matteo's mind moved quickly.
"If Elena's recording is accurate, someone substituted her genetic material and then changed the paperwork to make it look like Camila's embryo."
Liana's face tightened.
"Without Elena agreeing?"
"Yes."
"Without Camila agreeing?"
"Yes."
"And maybe without you agreeing?"
Matteo looked at her.
"Definitely without me agreeing."
She studied him for a moment, deciding whether she believed him.
Nico made the decision for her by reaching toward Matteo.
It was a small movement.
One open hand.
Matteo stared.
Liana gave the baby a gentle bounce.
"Go ahead."
She held Nico toward him.
Matteo hesitated before taking his own son.
The hesitation humiliated him.
Nico's mouth trembled.
Matteo held his breath.
"I'm not going anywhere," he whispered.
Nico whimpered once.
Then looked toward Liana.
She remained beside them.
The baby relaxed slightly.
Matteo felt something in his chest loosen.
"See?" Liana said.
"He knows you."
Matteo looked at her.
"He needs you standing there to tolerate me."
"For now."
"That's not reassuring."
"It's honest."
Matteo almost smiled again.
This time the expression made it halfway to his eyes before a knock interrupted them.
Rosa Alvarez entered without waiting for permission.
She was sixty-one, silver-haired, and normally impossible to rattle.
Now her face was pale.
She looked at Liana first.
Then Nico.
Then Matteo.
"Dominic left the property."
Matteo's expression hardened.
"How?"
"He used the service tunnel under the old garage."
"That tunnel was sealed."
Rosa looked at him.
"Apparently not."
Liana stepped forward.
"You told me about this job."
Rosa's eyes closed briefly.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you needed work."
"Don't."
Liana's voice cracked.
"My sister left a note under that baby's mattress saying to trust me if I came here."
Rosa looked toward the floor.
Matteo felt anger rise.
"You knew about Elena."
Rosa did not answer.
"How much?"
"Enough to be ashamed of how little I did."
Liana stepped closer.
"Is she alive?"
Rosa's mouth trembled.
"I don't know."
"My sister came into this house three weeks ago."
"I know."
Liana recoiled.
"You knew?"
Rosa nodded.
"I let her in."
Matteo's voice became dangerously quiet.
"You bypassed my security system."
"Yes."
"You allowed an unauthorized person into my son's room."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Rosa looked at Nico.
"Because she had been entering that room for months before you ever knew to be afraid of her."
Matteo stared.
Liana's face went blank.
"What?"
Rosa looked toward the hallway before sitting.
"I should have told you the first night Elena returned," she said.
Matteo's expression hardened.
"Why didn't you?"
"Because she made me promise not to."
"People keep making promises with my son's life in the middle."
Rosa flinched.
"She believed one wrong call could expose where she was staying."
Liana shook her head.
"She always did that."
Rosa looked at her.
"Did what?"
"Turn fear into a job she had to do alone."
Liana's voice softened.
"When our father got sick, Elena hid the bills from me because I was finishing high school. She sold her car and told me she wanted to walk more."
A painful smile touched her face.
"I found out later she used the money for his medication."
Rosa lowered her eyes.
"She loved you very much."
"I know."
Liana wiped a tear away.
"That doesn't mean she got to decide I couldn't help."
Matteo looked down at Nico.
Camila had tried to carry the investigation alone.
Marisol had hidden information because she believed knowledge would injure Matteo.
Matteo himself had rejected help after Camila died because accepting it felt like admitting failure.
Different motives.
The same pattern.
Love becoming control.
Protection becoming isolation.
He wondered how many tragedies in the house had begun with someone saying, I did it for you.
Liana looked at Rosa again.
"Did Elena tell you why she chose this house instead of coming home?"
"She said home was the first place Dominic would look."
"So she knew he was watching us."
"Eventually."
"And she still let me believe she was dead."
Rosa's eyes filled.
"She thought grief was safer than danger."
Liana stared at the floor.
"She was wrong."
No one argued.
Rosa pulled out a chair and sat as if her legs no longer trusted her.
"After Camila died, Nico stopped sleeping."
She looked at Matteo.
"You remember."
He did.
Those first weeks had been a blur of grief and screaming.
"Marisol brought in a night nurse," Rosa continued.
"A woman named Ana Morales."
Matteo frowned.
"I remember Ana."
She had worked nights for almost five months.
Quiet.
Competent.
Always gone before Matteo came downstairs in the morning.
He had met her only a handful of times.
Rosa looked at Liana.
"There was no Ana Morales."
Liana's hand flew to her mouth.
Rosa's eyes filled.
"It was Elena."
Matteo stared at her.
"My mother hired Elena to care for Nico?"
"No."
Rosa shook her head.
"Camila did."
The room fell silent.
Matteo's voice was barely audible.
"Camila was dead."
"Camila arranged it before the accident."
Rosa reached into the pocket of her apron and placed a brass key on the desk.
"She also left this for you."
Matteo recognized it immediately.
It belonged to the old greenhouse.
Rosa pushed the key toward him.
"She told me to give it to you only if Elena ever came back afraid."
Liana looked at the memory card.
"Three weeks ago."
Rosa nodded.
"Elena was terrified."
Matteo picked up the key.
"Of whom?"
Rosa looked toward the study door as if the answer might be standing on the other side.
May you like
Then she whispered one name.
"Dominic."
