Chapter 12 - THE DEAD FATHER
Matteo stared at the transfer record.
“No.”
Agent Dana Pierce sat across from him.
“The account is active.”
“My father died.”
“We have a death certificate.”
“I attended the funeral.”
“So did you attend your mother’s.”
Matteo said nothing.
Liana watched from the library doorway.
The comparison was brutal.
Effective.
“What are you saying?” Matteo asked.
“We’re saying the account was accessed biometrically.”
“Fingerprint.”
“Yes.”
“Could have been stored.”
“Possibly.”
“Facial verification?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Pierce turned the tablet.
Security image.
An older man.
Gray hair.
Cane.
Partially obscured.
But unmistakably Alessandro Varric.
Matteo’s father.
Alive.
Liana saw something break across Matteo’s face.
Not grief.
Exhaustion.
“How many dead relatives do you have walking around?”
He looked at her.
She winced.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Valid question.”
Elena entered.
When she saw the image, she stopped.
“He was part of it.”
Matteo looked at her.
“You knew?”
“He visited Vittoria’s facilities.”
“My father told me he shut down her operations.”
“He lied.”
“That is becoming a family tradition.”
Alessandro had apparently lived abroad for six years under a false identity.
Vittoria controlled the trafficking network.
Alessandro controlled its finances.
Their separation had been strategic, not personal.
When investigators arrested Vittoria, Alessandro began liquidating assets.
Matteo stood.
“Where is he?”
Pierce shook her head.
“We don’t know.”
Matteo smiled without humor.
“I do.”
Thirty miles outside the city sat Varric Vineyards.
Alessandro’s favorite property.
Officially sold five years earlier.
Unofficially purchased by a trust controlled through the same shell company.
Agents surrounded the property.
Matteo insisted on accompanying them.
Liana objected.
“So you can personally collect another supposedly dead parent?”
“Yes.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Probably.”
“Dangerous.”
“Definitely.”
“You have two babies waiting here.”
He looked at her.
“Exactly.”
That answer stopped her.
Matteo was not going for revenge.
He was going because Alessandro remained a threat.
The vineyard was empty.
Almost.
Inside the main house they found Alessandro seated at the dining table.
No guards.
No escape attempt.
A glass of red wine beside him.
He looked at Matteo and smiled.
“My son.”
Matteo remained standing.
“You’re supposed to be dead.”
“So is your mother.”
“She’s in federal custody.”
“I know.”
“You sent her twenty million dollars.”
“She sent me.”
“Why?”
“To disappear.”
“Were you planning to?”
Alessandro lifted his glass.
“I’m tired.”
Matteo studied him.
“You killed Serena?”
“No.”
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
The word landed hard.
“You knew Vittoria ordered it.”
“Yes.”
“And did nothing.”
“She was your wife.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“She had collected evidence against us.”
“So you let her die.”
Alessandro drank.
“You grew soft.”
Matteo stepped forward.
Agents tensed.
Alessandro smiled.
“There.”
“That look.”
“You think violence separates us.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Choice does.”
Matteo stopped.
Liana’s words echoed.
Don’t become her to defeat her.
He turned toward Agent Pierce.
“Arrest him.”
Alessandro’s smile vanished.
“That’s it?”
Matteo looked at his father.
“Yes.”
“You don’t want revenge?”
“I want breakfast with my son tomorrow.”
For the first time, Alessandro had no response.
Agents cuffed him.
As they led him away, he turned.
“Nico isn’t yours.”
Matteo looked calmly back.
“Yes, he is.”
“Blood says otherwise.”
Matteo’s answer came without hesitation.
“Blood has caused enough damage in this family.”
That night, he returned home.
Nico was awake.
Elena handed him over.
Matteo held the baby against his chest.
Nico patted his collar.
Then bit it.
Matteo laughed.
Liana stood nearby with Elias.
“You chose breakfast.”
He looked up.
“Yes.”
“Good choice.”
The next morning they actually had it.
Eggs.
Coffee.
Baby cereal.
Elias slept through most of it.
Nico threw a spoon.
Matteo retrieved it three times before realizing the baby enjoyed watching him bend down.
Liana laughed.
Elena laughed.
Even Delia, now cooperating fully with investigators, smiled from the kitchen entrance.
For ten minutes, they almost looked like an ordinary family.
Then the doorbell rang.
A courier delivered one final package from Serena.
Scheduled nine months earlier.
To be delivered only if Vittoria and Alessandro were both publicly exposed.
Matteo opened it.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
And beneath it, a sealed DNA report.
Matteo unfolded Serena’s note.
His hands began shaking.
Matteo,
If you are reading this, then I failed to tell you myself.
I need you to forgive me for that.
Nico was never a mistake.
He was never a replacement.
I chose him.
And I chose you to be his father.
But there is one truth I could not risk putting into any digital record.
Elena was not the only person used in the program.
Your father ordered genetic samples taken from you years ago.
Nico’s biological father may not be who you think.
Matteo looked down at the DNA envelope.
Liana whispered, “Open it.”
He did.
The laboratory conclusion was one sentence.
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: 99.9987%.
May you like
Matteo stared.
Nico was his biological son after all.
