Chapter 3 - The Camera That Didn’t BelongMatteo did not show fear.
Matteo had spent most of his adult life learning to recognize lies before they were fully spoken.
Liana Graves did not look like a liar.
That bothered him more than if she had.
Victor lowered his gun but did not holster it.
“What exactly are you suggesting?” he asked.
Liana glanced at Nico.
The baby remained pressed against her shoulder, one fist gripping the white collar of her uniform.
“I don’t know yet.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“That isn’t an acceptable answer.”
“I understand.”
“You walked into my house four days ago. My son behaves as if he knows you. You know a private lullaby my wife used to sing. You recognize a bruise connected to a kidnapping nobody outside this family knows anything about.”
Liana looked at him.
“And you think I arranged it?”
“I think everybody is guilty until I know otherwise.”
Nico stirred.
Matteo saw Liana’s expression soften instantly.
Not theatrically.
Not strategically.
She seemed to forget the guns entirely.
She whispered, “You’re okay, little moon.”
That phrase again.
Matteo felt Elena’s absence like a blade.
His wife had died six months earlier when her SUV went off a mountain road during a storm.
Officially, it had been an accident.
Matteo had accepted that because the alternative would have destroyed what remained of him.
Now he suddenly wondered what else he had accepted too quickly.
“Victor,” he said.
“Yes?”
“Seal the estate.”
Victor hesitated.
“All staff?”
“All staff. Nobody leaves.”
Liana stiffened.
Matteo looked at her.
“You’re coming upstairs.”
“With Nico?”
Matteo almost said no.
Then Nico sensed his father reaching for him and immediately tightened his grip around Liana.
His lower lip trembled.
Matteo stopped.
“Fine.”
They moved into Matteo’s private study.
It was a room few staff members ever entered—dark walnut shelves, leather chairs, bulletproof windows hidden behind silk curtains.
Victor locked the door.
Liana sat with Nico in an armchair.
Matteo remained standing.
“Start with your sister.”
Liana’s face changed.
“She was nineteen.”
“Name?”
“Bethany.”
“When did she disappear?”
“Seven years ago.”
Victor frowned.
“What does that have to do with Nico?”
“I don’t know,” Liana said. “But two nights before Beth vanished, she came home with a bruise behind her ear.”
Liana carefully moved her hair and pointed to the soft spot just behind her own left ear.
“It looked like someone had pressed something there.”
“A needle?” Matteo asked.
“Maybe. She wouldn’t tell me.”
“What happened next?”
“She became frightened. Paranoid. She kept checking the windows. She told me she’d seen something at work.”
“Where did she work?”
Liana hesitated.
“A private maternity clinic.”
Matteo’s pulse shifted.
“What clinic?”
“Bellrose Women’s Center.”
Victor looked sharply at Matteo.
Matteo knew the name.
Elena had received fertility treatments there before becoming pregnant with Nico.
“When?” Matteo asked.
“Seven years ago.”
“Doing what?”
“Records clerk.”
“What did she see?”
Liana stared down at Nico.
“She never told me. The night she disappeared, she said one sentence.”
“What sentence?”
“She said, ‘They don’t steal babies. They steal identities.’”
The room went silent.
Victor crossed his arms.
“You waited seven years to mention this?”
“To who?” Liana snapped suddenly. “The police? I did. They called her a runaway. I hired a private investigator with money I didn’t have. He disappeared three months later.”
Victor’s skepticism faded slightly.
Matteo walked toward the window.
“Why come here?”
“I needed work.”
“Don’t insult me.”
Liana’s eyes flashed.
“I didn’t know who owned this estate when I applied.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I knew the Varric name. Everybody does. I didn’t know your wife had been treated at Bellrose. I didn’t know anything about your son.”
Matteo turned.
“Then how did you know the lullaby?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer will eventually get you killed.”
Liana flinched.
Nico looked toward Matteo.
Matteo hated himself immediately.
He lowered his voice.
“Think.”
Liana closed her eyes.
“It feels familiar.”
“From where?”
“I don’t know.”
She hummed the three notes again.
Then stopped abruptly.
Her eyes opened.
“My sister.”
Victor leaned forward.
“What?”
“She hummed it.”
“When?”
“The week before she disappeared.”
Matteo’s skin prickled.
Liana continued slowly, recalling something buried beneath years of grief.
“She came into my room late one night. She was crying. She sat on my bed and hummed those same notes over and over.”
“Did she explain?”
“No.”
“Did she mention Elena?”
“No. Elena would’ve been…” Liana calculated. “What? In her twenties?”
“Twenty-six.”
“She never mentioned her.”
Matteo walked to the wall safe.
He entered the code.
From inside he removed a black evidence folder.
Victor stared.
“You kept it?”
“I keep everything.”
Matteo tossed it onto the desk.
Inside were photographs from the kidnapping.
The broken nursery window.
The dead guard.
The abandoned van.
Nico’s gray blanket.
A black plastic medical cap found beneath the crib.
Liana stared at one photograph.
Her breathing stopped.
“What?”
She pointed.
“Zoom that.”
Victor opened the digital file on Matteo’s computer.
Liana indicated the corner of the nursery photograph.
There, partially hidden beneath a chair, was a thin plastic tube.
Victor frowned.
“Police called it part of a feeding system.”
“It isn’t,” Liana said.
“You’re sure?”
“My sister used to bring discarded ones home from Bellrose when she was studying medical coding.”
“What is it?”
“A micro-infusion line.”
Matteo looked at Nico’s bruise.
“Behind the ear?”
“Sometimes.”
“For what?”
Liana swallowed.
“Sedatives. Hormones. Experimental medications. Anything requiring controlled microdoses.”
Victor typed rapidly.
The room filled with the low hum of the computer.
Then he stopped.
“Matteo.”
“What?”
“The toxicology report.”
Matteo approached.
Victor pulled up Nico’s blood work from the night of the kidnapping.
“There was an unidentified compound. Trace level. Hospital dismissed it as contamination.”
Liana leaned closer.
“Can you show me the chemical structure?”
Victor opened the attachment.
Liana went still.
“You’ve seen it?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“My sister wrote something in a notebook before she disappeared. A series of numbers and letters. I didn’t understand them.”
“Do you still have it?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
Matteo grabbed his coat.
Victor blocked him.
“Absolutely not.”
Matteo stared.
“Move.”
“If this is connected, whoever did it may know where she lives.”
Matteo looked toward Liana.
“Address?”
She told him.
Victor’s face tightened.
“What?”
Matteo demanded.
“That building burned down this morning.”
Liana stood so fast Nico startled.
“What?”
“Electrical fire. Six apartments damaged.”
“No.”
Her face collapsed.
“My things.”
Victor looked at Matteo.
Matteo understood immediately.
A coincidence was an event.
Two coincidences were a warning.
“Did anyone die?” Liana whispered.
Victor checked.
“No.”
She exhaled.
Then Matteo’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
He opened the message.
A photograph appeared.
Taken from somewhere inside his own estate.
It showed Liana holding Nico in the study.
Beneath it were eight words.
SHE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND THE CHILD.
Matteo slowly lifted his eyes toward the ceiling.
May you like
Someone was watching them.
From inside the house.
Related Stories
