Chapter 13 - WHAT SERENA CHOSE
The explanation took hours.
Years earlier, Vittoria and Alessandro had secretly collected Matteo’s reproductive material during a surgical procedure.
They intended to guarantee an heir if Matteo refused the marriages they selected for him.
Elena’s pregnancy with Nico had been created through that stored material.
She had never known the father.
Matteo had never known his samples existed.
Vittoria had engineered Nico before Serena ever became pregnant.
When Serena’s own baby died, the network placed another child with her temporarily.
Later, Serena discovered Nico.
Matteo’s biological son.
Elena’s biological son.
A child created by people who saw human beings as family assets.
Serena could have exposed everything immediately.
Instead, she made a choice.
She protected Nico.
She brought him into the Varric home.
She made Matteo his father in every way before he knew biology had already done the same.
Liana sat with Serena’s letter.
“She knew this would matter to you.”
Matteo looked uncomfortable.
“It shouldn’t.”
“But it does.”
He stared toward Nico.
“Yes.”
Liana nodded.
“That doesn’t make you a bad person.”
“It makes me hypocritical.”
“No.”
“It means after saying blood does not define fatherhood, you’re relieved to discover blood agrees with you.”
Matteo almost smiled.
“That is irritatingly accurate.”
“I have a talent.”
Elena’s reaction was more complicated.
She learned that the pregnancy had been intentionally forced through medical manipulation.
It reopened old wounds.
But when she held Nico that evening, she refused to allow Vittoria’s choices to define him.
“You were never their plan,” she whispered.
“You were always yourself.”
Matteo heard from the doorway.
Later, Elena approached him.
“He has two biological parents.”
“Yes.”
“And one mother who chose him.”
“Serena.”
“Yes.”
Elena took a breath.
“I don’t want him to grow up believing she was less his mother because I gave birth to him.”
“He won’t.”
“I want pictures of her in his room.”
“They already are.”
“I want him to know what she did.”
“He will.”
“And I want to be part of his life.”
Matteo nodded.
“Every day if you want.”
Elena stared.
“You mean that?”
“I lost twelve years believing my mother was dead.”
“You lost nineteen years with your sister.”
“Nico loses nobody else if I can prevent it.”
Elena cried.
She hugged him unexpectedly.
Matteo froze.
Then awkwardly hugged her back.
Liana saw from the hallway.
Something inside her shifted.
For weeks she had viewed Matteo as powerful.
Dangerous.
Controlled.
But now she saw the harder thing.
A man actively choosing not to become what raised him.
That required more strength than intimidation ever had.
The criminal investigation continued.
Vittoria and Alessandro were denied bail.
Saint Aurelia faced dozens of civil lawsuits.
Serena’s archive helped identify forty-seven questionable infant transfers across twenty-five years.
Not all could be undone.
But the network was finished.
Matteo sold several family holdings linked to it.
The money funded legal assistance and reunification counseling for affected families.
Reporters called it image repair.
Matteo did not respond.
Liana asked why.
“Because if I answer every person who misunderstands me, Nico will finish college before I finish talking.”
She smiled.
Elias grew stronger.
His cheeks filled.
He began sleeping four-hour stretches.
Liana did not.
One night Matteo found her in the kitchen at 3:30 a.m.
“You’re awake.”
“So are you.”
“Nico believes sleep is a conspiracy.”
“Elias believes three-thirty is breakfast.”
Matteo poured coffee.
Liana raised an eyebrow.
“At three-thirty?”
“This is no longer coffee.”
“It’s medical treatment.”
She laughed.
They sat across from each other.
For the first time, no emergency hung between them.
No kidnapping.
No threatening call.
No secret door.
Just two tired people with babies upstairs.
Matteo looked at her.
“What happens when the investigation ends?”
“I get an apartment.”
“You can stay.”
Liana looked at him.
“As what?”
He hesitated.
Not maid.
Not guest.
Not exactly family.
Yet.
“Whatever makes you comfortable.”
“That sounded unusually uncertain.”
“I’m trying something new.”
“What?”
“Not controlling every outcome.”
“How terrible.”
“Awful.”
She smiled.
Then became serious.
“I can’t live here forever because I’m afraid.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
“That’s why I might stay a little longer.”
Matteo looked at her.
Neither needed to define what had just changed.
Upstairs, Nico cried.
Elias answered seconds later.
Liana sighed.
“They coordinate now.”
Matteo stood.
“Strategic alliance.”
“They are related.”
“Unfortunately.”
They walked upstairs together.
At the nursery door, Liana stopped.
A photograph of Serena hung beside Nico’s crib.
She looked at it.
“Do you ever feel guilty?”
“For what?”
“For laughing.”
“For surviving.”
“For maybe wanting a life after her.”
Matteo did not answer immediately.
“Yes.”
Liana nodded.
“So do I.”
He understood.
Her guilt was Elias.
She had mourned him.
Buried him.
Then held Nico and felt something living again before learning Elias was alive.
Grief had become tangled with love.
Matteo touched the nursery doorframe.
“Maybe surviving isn’t disloyal.”
Liana looked at him.
“No.”
“Maybe not.”
Nico threw his pacifier.
May you like
The moment broke.
They laughed quietly and entered.
