Chapter 11 - One Son for AnotherMatteo did not scream.
Gideon taught him to shoot.
To drive.
To recognize surveillance.
When Matteo’s own father became distant and brutal, Gideon had occasionally been the closest thing Matteo had to a second parent.
And Gideon had killed Elena.
Victor sat behind the wheel, staring at the photograph.
“No.”
Beth said nothing.
“My father loved Elena.”
“He worked for Meridian.”
“No.”
“Victor.”
“He hated doctors.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
Victor turned.
“You don’t know him.”
Beth’s voice stayed soft.
“I knew him better than you did.”
Victor’s hand tightened on the wheel.
Matteo understood that pain.
The discovery that somebody you loved had lived an entire second life was becoming a common disease among them.
“Proof,” Matteo said.
Beth removed a flash drive.
“Payments. Messages. Vehicle repair logs.”
Victor did not take it.
Matteo did.
“When did you learn?”
“Three months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Gideon was already dying.”
“That didn’t make him innocent.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because he wasn’t the one who ordered it.”
“Who did?”
Beth looked at Victor.
“Your father left a confession.”
Victor’s face changed.
“What confession?”
“He said the order came from someone inside the Varric family.”
Matteo’s blood chilled.
“My family?”
Beth nodded.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor restarted the SUV.
Nobody spoke for several miles.
They reached Lake Geneva just before sunrise.
The “cabin” was a modest wooden house hidden behind trees, nothing like Matteo’s estate.
Inside were computers, paper files, emergency supplies.
Beth had built a command center.
Liana stared.
“You lived here?”
“Sometimes.”
“For how long?”
“Six months.”
“You were forty miles away.”
“I know.”
Liana walked outside.
Beth started after her.
Matteo stopped her.
“Give her time.”
Beth nodded.
Victor inserted the flash drive.
Files appeared.
Payments to Gideon.
Messages using code names.
Repair receipts dated the day Elena died.
Then a video file.
Victor froze.
“That’s him.”
Gideon appeared on screen.
Thin.
Gray.
Clearly ill.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Victor, if you see this, then Beth finally decided you deserve the truth.”
Victor sat.
His father continued.
“I killed Elena Varric.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
“Not because I hated her. Because I was a coward.”
Gideon coughed.
“They told me if I refused, Victor would be exposed as the one who arranged Nico’s first exchange.”
Victor stood.
“That’s a lie.”
Gideon continued.
“I believed them. I believed they had forged enough evidence to destroy my son. Elena knew. She begged me not to obey.”
Matteo could barely watch.
“I damaged the brake line. Then I tried to undo it.”
Gideon looked down.
“I was too late.”
Victor’s face was wet.
“I spent the rest of my life trying to learn who gave the order.”
A pause.
“The person used the code name Monarch.”
Beth stopped the video.
Matteo said, “Who is Monarch?”
“We don’t know.”
Victor wiped his face.
“Find out.”
Beth pulled up a network map.
“I’ve narrowed it to five people.”
“Names.”
“Senator Halden. Adrian Vale. Samuel Orr.”
“And?”
Beth looked at Matteo.
“Your older brother, Dominic.”
Matteo stared.
“And the fifth?”
Beth hesitated.
“Your mother.”
Silence.
Matteo laughed.
It sounded empty.
“My mother has spent ten years in Tuscany.”
“Not continuously.”
“She barely leaves her villa.”
“She attended Bellrose board meetings remotely.”
Matteo remembered his mother disapproving of Elena.
Not because Elena lacked status.
Because she “asked too many questions.”
Victor said, “Dominic?”
Matteo’s brother had left Chicago four years earlier after a violent feud with their father.
He now ran legitimate shipping businesses in New York.
“He hated Elena,” Matteo said.
“Why?” Liana asked from the doorway.
Matteo looked at her.
“Because she convinced me to stop laundering money through his companies.”
Beth pulled another record.
“Dominic made six payments to Meridian Biomedical.”
Matteo stared.
“How much?”
“Eight million dollars.”
Victor whispered, “That’s not a donation.”
“No.”
“What did he buy?”
Beth looked at Nico.
“I think I know.”
She opened a genetic file.
Two names appeared.
Nico Varric.
And another child.
Julian Varric.
Matteo stared.
“Who is Julian?”
Beth looked horrified.
“According to this record…”
She scrolled.
“Your brother has a son.”
Matteo shook his head.
“Dominic has no children.”
Beth turned the screen.
“Then someone created one.”
The birth date matched Nico’s.
Same hospital.
Same time.
A fabricated twin record.
Liana whispered, “Why would someone create a second Varric baby?”
Victor answered.
“To inherit.”
Matteo’s father had left a trust controlling billions in real estate and shipping assets.
Succession depended on direct male descendants.
If Nico died…
And Dominic produced another legal Varric heir…
Matteo understood.
“This was never about Halden.”
Beth nodded slowly.
“Halden may have been camouflage.”
Matteo stared at the screen.
“The kidnapping.”
“They weren’t taking Nico out,” Liana said.
Her original question.
“They were bringing someone in.”
Beth’s face went pale.
“Another child.”
Matteo’s blood turned cold.
“A replacement.”
At that exact moment, Nico began crying in the other room.
Liana ran.
Matteo followed.
The crib was empty.
The window stood open.
May you like
On the blanket lay a card.
ONE SON FOR ANOTHER.
