Chapter 4 - Elena’s SecretMatteo shut the study door behind Rosa.
He had learned years ago that fear became dangerous only when other people saw it.
But Victor knew him too well.
“What is it?”
Matteo handed him the phone.
Victor’s face hardened.
Liana stood frozen.
“What does it say?”
Matteo turned the screen toward her.
She read the message.
Her hand tightened around Nico.
“Someone took that picture just now.”
“Yes.”
“From where?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
Victor was already scanning the room.
There were three estate cameras outside the study.
None inside.
Matteo had insisted on that after Elena once joked that she refused to live inside a prison with prettier furniture.
Victor inspected vents, shelves, smoke detectors.
Then he stopped beneath an antique brass clock.
He pulled it from the wall.
A pin-sized lens glinted inside the decorative frame.
“Wireless,” he said.
Matteo stared at it.
“How long?”
“No way to know without analysis.”
“Find out.”
Victor disconnected it.
Nico began fussing again.
Liana whispered into his hair.
Instantly, the baby calmed.
Matteo watched.
Every time.
The same response.
“Give him to me.”
Liana looked reluctant.
“He’s settled.”
“I’m his father.”
Something in Matteo’s tone ended the discussion.
She carefully transferred Nico.
The baby looked at his father, then reached back toward Liana.
Matteo felt an emotion he disliked admitting.
Jealousy.
Not romantic jealousy.
Something uglier.
His son had lost Elena.
Matteo had spent six months trying to be enough for two parents.
Now Nico had found comfort in a stranger within seconds.
“How does he know you?” Matteo asked again.
Liana’s eyes were wet.
“I wish I knew.”
Victor’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His expression shifted.
“Send it.”
“What?” Matteo asked.
“The apartment fire wasn’t electrical.”
Liana stared.
Victor continued.
“Fire department found accelerant in the stairwell.”
Her face went pale.
“They tried to burn my apartment?”
“Looks that way.”
“My sister’s notebook was there.”
Matteo’s gaze sharpened.
“Then someone wanted it destroyed.”
Liana shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t there.”
Victor stopped.
“You just said—”
“I lied.”
The room became dangerous again.
Matteo took one slow step toward her.
“Where is it?”
Liana swallowed.
“In a bank deposit box.”
“Why lie?”
“Because I’ve spent seven years learning what happens when I tell powerful men where evidence is.”
Victor almost smiled.
Matteo didn’t.
“That was your one free lie.”
“I understand.”
“We get the notebook tonight.”
“No.”
Matteo’s eyebrows lifted.
Liana pointed toward Nico.
“You have a spy inside your house. Someone photographed us in a locked room. If I walk into a bank with your people, whoever is watching will know exactly what we’re after.”
“She’s right,” Victor said.
Matteo looked at him.
Victor shrugged.
“I don’t enjoy it either.”
Matteo paced once.
Then stopped.
“You’re staying here.”
Liana stiffened.
“That wasn’t a request.”
“I have nothing.”
“You have a room.”
“You locked the estate.”
“For your protection.”
“Is that what you call it?”
Matteo’s eyes turned cold.
“I call it keeping you alive until I understand why someone burned your apartment hours after you entered my house.”
Liana looked away.
Nico made a sleepy sound.
Matteo glanced down.
The baby had reached toward the small silver chain around Liana’s neck.
“What’s that?”
She touched the pendant.
“My sister’s.”
“Show me.”
Liana hesitated.
Then removed it.
The pendant was an old silver oval, scratched from years of wear.
Matteo opened it.
Inside was a tiny photograph of Liana and another young woman.
Bethany.
Dark hair.
Bright smile.
And beside the photo, almost too small to notice, a sequence engraved into the metal.
E-17-6-3
Matteo stared.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor leaned over.
“Could be a locker code.”
“Or medical classification,” Liana said.
Nico suddenly grabbed the pendant.
He babbled.
Then laughed.
The sound stunned everyone.
It was the first time Matteo had heard his son laugh around a stranger since the kidnapping.
Nico pressed the pendant against his mouth.
Matteo gently removed it.
And saw something.
A faint symbol etched on the back.
A crescent moon crossed by a vertical line.
Matteo’s stomach turned.
He had seen it before.
“Victor.”
“I see it.”
Liana looked between them.
“What?”
Matteo carried Nico toward the safe.
He removed another item.
Elena’s hospital bracelet from the day Nico was born.
Matteo had kept it after her death.
On the inside of the plastic bracelet, barely visible beneath the faded barcode, was the same symbol.
Crescent.
Vertical line.
Liana whispered, “What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor photographed both.
Then Matteo noticed another detail.
“Your sister’s pendant.”
“What about it?”
“The engraving.”
He looked at Elena’s bracelet.
Below her patient ID was a secondary code.
E-17-6-3.
Liana stopped breathing.
“No.”
Victor looked stunned.
“That’s impossible.”
Matteo slowly raised his eyes toward Liana.
“Your sister disappeared seven years ago carrying a pendant with the same private code later placed on my wife’s maternity bracelet.”
Liana whispered, “Beth knew.”
“Knew what?”
“I don’t know.”
Nico suddenly began crying.
Not loudly.
Fearfully.
His eyes had shifted toward the study door.
Matteo followed his gaze.
The handle moved.
Slowly.
Victor drew his weapon.
The door opened.
A woman stood outside.
Nico’s longtime nanny, Rosa.
Her face was pale.
“Sir?”
Matteo watched Nico.
The baby screamed.
Rosa flinched.
“I heard crying.”
Victor stepped toward her.
“Why were you opening a locked door?”
“It wasn’t locked.”
Victor looked back.
It had been.
Rosa’s eyes moved toward Liana.
For half a second, the two women stared at each other.
Then Rosa whispered something.
“Beth?”
Liana’s face went white.
Matteo raised his gun.
“You knew her sister?”
Rosa looked as though she had just seen a ghost.
“No.”
“You said her name.”
“I made a mistake.”
“Wrong answer.”
Nico screamed harder.
Rosa backed into the hallway.
“Mr. Varric, please.”
Matteo followed.
“Where do you know Bethany Graves from?”
Rosa’s lips trembled.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because your wife made me promise.”
The words hit Matteo harder than a bullet.
“Elena knew Bethany?”
May you like
Rosa began crying.
“She knew everything.”
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