Chapter 12 - The Family They ChoseSix months later, Matteo Varric stood barefoot in the kitchen making pancakes badly.
That frightened everyone more.
He picked up the card.
Read it.
Placed it down.
Then said, “Lock every road.”
Victor was already moving.
Beth checked cameras.
“The window alarm was bypassed from inside.”
Liana stared.
“Again?”
Matteo looked at Rosa.
Rosa had arrived with the second vehicle fifteen minutes earlier.
Her face drained.
“It wasn’t me.”
“No one said it was.”
“You looked at me.”
“I’m looking at everybody.”
Beth shouted from the computer.
“I have movement.”
A camera near the lakeshore showed a figure carrying a bundled child toward a boathouse.
Matteo ran.
Victor followed.
They reached the dock as an engine started.
A speedboat pulled away.
Matteo raised his gun.
Victor grabbed the barrel.
“You hit Nico—”
Matteo lowered it.
The boat accelerated.
Beth arrived with keys.
“Second boat.”
Within minutes they were crossing the dark water.
Liana stayed with Rosa.
Matteo hated leaving her.
But he could not bring her into a gunfight.
Victor drove.
Beth tracked the boat through thermal imaging.
“Heading north.”
“To where?” Matteo asked.
“There’s an abandoned resort.”
Matteo knew it.
Closed ten years.
Half renovated.
Accessible by water.
They arrived twelve minutes later.
The speedboat was empty.
Inside the resort, emergency lights glowed.
Matteo entered with Victor.
Beth remained near the dock coordinating security.
A baby cried somewhere upstairs.
Matteo ran toward the sound.
Room 204.
Locked.
He kicked it open.
A crib stood in the center.
Inside was a baby.
But not Nico.
Matteo stopped.
The boy looked almost the same age.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
A crescent bruise behind one ear.
Victor whispered, “Julian.”
A speaker clicked on.
Dominic Varric’s voice filled the room.
“Hello, brother.”
Matteo stared toward the ceiling.
“Where is my son?”
“Safe.”
“Dominic.”
“You always did hate mysteries.”
“You touch him and I will burn down everything you own.”
Dominic laughed.
“There he is.”
Matteo picked up Julian.
The child was terrified.
Victor searched the room.
No explosives.
No traps.
Dominic continued.
“You have my son.”
Matteo froze.
“So Julian exists.”
“Yes.”
“Who is his mother?”
“Does it matter?”
“It will when she learns what you used him for.”
Dominic’s voice hardened.
“You took everything.”
“What?”
“Father gave you Chicago.”
“You left.”
“Because he chose you.”
“You tried to kill me twice.”
“And he still loved you more.”
Matteo looked at Julian.
A child born into hatred he had never created.
“You made a backup heir.”
“I made sure my son couldn’t be erased.”
“You fabricated records tying him to Nico.”
“I created options.”
“You killed Elena.”
“No.”
“Did you order it?”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
Matteo’s face went cold.
Dominic said, “Mother gave the order.”
Matteo stopped.
Victor looked at him.
“What?”
Dominic continued.
“She wanted Elena gone long before any of this.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena discovered what Mother did when we were children.”
Matteo stared.
“What did she do?”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“You still don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“You weren’t the first Matteo Varric.”
Silence.
Matteo’s heartbeat slowed.
“What does that mean?”
“Our mother had another son.”
Victor said nothing.
“He died at six months,” Dominic continued. “Father couldn’t accept losing his heir.”
Matteo’s mouth went dry.
“No.”
“Meridian replaced him.”
Matteo looked at Victor.
Victor looked horrified.
Dominic continued:
“You were born Matteo Russo.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“A child from another family.”
“No.”
“Mother spent her whole life terrified you’d learn.”
Matteo could barely breathe.
“You’re lying.”
“Ask Vale.”
Matteo remembered Vale’s strange hesitation.
Elena’s obsession with replacement identities.
Her refusal to tell him everything.
The Circle had not entered his family through Nico.
It had created Matteo himself.
Dominic said, “Elena discovered your original birth file.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
“That’s why Mother ordered Gideon to kill her.”
“And you?”
“I helped cover it.”
Victor raised his weapon toward the speaker as though he could shoot the voice.
Matteo said, “Where is Nico?”
“Bring Julian to the old marina.”
“What do you want?”
“My son.”
“And you give me mine?”
“Yes.”
Matteo looked down at Julian.
The baby reached for his shirt.
Another innocent child.
“No weapons,” Dominic said.
Matteo smiled coldly.
“You know better.”
“Then Nico dies.”
The speaker clicked off.
Victor said, “Trap.”
“Yes.”
“What do we do?”
Matteo held Julian closer.
“We give him his son.”
Victor stared.
“And trust him?”
“No.”
Matteo looked toward the window.
“We trust Liana.”
At the cabin, Liana listened as Beth explained the plan.
“No.”
Beth grabbed her shoulders.
“He needs someone Dominic won’t expect.”
“I’m a maid.”
“No.”
Beth looked at her.
“You’re the reason this case reopened.”
Liana stared.
Beth handed her Elena’s pendant.
“There’s a transmitter inside.”
Liana looked shocked.
“Elena built it?”
“I did.”
“You knew I had it all these years?”
“I gave it to you before I disappeared.”
Liana remembered.
Beth putting the necklace around her neck.
“Never take it off.”
She had thought it was sentimental.
It had been a beacon.
Protection.
Beth whispered, “I always knew where you were.”
Liana’s eyes filled.
“Then you could’ve come home.”
“If I came home, they would’ve killed you.”
Liana closed her eyes.
Then took the transmitter.
The exchange took place at dawn.
Dominic stood at the marina holding Nico.
Two armed men behind him.
Matteo approached with Julian.
Liana hid inside a maintenance building.
Victor and Beth positioned farther back.
Dominic smiled.
“Look at us.”
“Give me Nico.”
“Julian first.”
“No.”
Dominic laughed.
“Still arrogant.”
Matteo looked at his son.
Nico was crying.
Then the baby suddenly looked toward the maintenance building.
Liana was humming.
Three notes.
Soft.
Barely audible.
Nico stopped crying.
Dominic looked down.
Confused.
Matteo moved.
Everything happened at once.
Liana triggered the lights.
Victor fired.
Beth disabled one guard.
Matteo rushed Dominic.
Dominic stumbled.
Nico slipped.
Liana ran from hiding and caught him before he hit the dock.
Matteo tackled his brother.
They crashed through a wooden railing.
Dominic pulled a gun.
Matteo knocked it away.
Victor shouted.
Police sirens approached.
Dominic laughed through blood.
“You called cops?”
“Federal agents,” Beth said.
She stepped forward.
“For seven years, I’ve been building a case.”
Dominic’s smile vanished.
Beth held up her phone.
“Everything you said was recorded.”
Dominic stared at Matteo.
“You think this ends with me?”
Matteo looked at Nico safe in Liana’s arms.
“No.”
May you like
He stood.
“It ends with all of you.”
