Chapter 4 - THE GRAVE WITH NO ANSWERS
Liana wanted to leave immediately.
Matteo refused.
“We don’t know who sent it.”
“My sister is alive.”
“Possibly.”
“She was photographed three days after Elias died.”
“That doesn’t mean she sent this.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
Liana shoved the photograph toward him.
“Nineteen years.”
Matteo said nothing.
“Nineteen years, Matteo.”
It was the first time she used his first name.
Neither noticed.
“My sister disappeared when I was twelve.”
“She may be twenty minutes away.”
“And you’re telling me to wait?”
“I’m telling you not to walk into a location chosen by someone who has already demonstrated access to my home.”
Liana froze.
The note had been hidden inside Maribel’s room.
Inside a guarded estate.
Somebody had entered.
Or somebody living there had hidden it.
Matteo turned to the guard.
“Lock the grounds.”
“Yes, sir.”
“No one leaves.”
“What about staff?”
“Especially staff.”
Liana stared at him.
“You’re locking everyone inside?”
“Until I know who placed that envelope.”
“You can’t imprison people.”
“I can close my gates for thirty minutes.”
“And then?”
“Then I find out who is lying.”
His phone rang.
Matteo glanced at the screen.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Varric.”
Silence.
Then a distorted voice.
“Do not open the grave.”
Matteo’s eyes changed.
Liana stepped closer.
“Who is this?”
The caller ignored him.
“Some dead children should remain dead.”
Liana heard every word.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
Matteo’s voice became ice.
“If you know who I am, you know threatening a child is a mistake.”
“No threat.”
“Then what?”
“A warning.”
The line went dead.
Matteo immediately called his security director.
“Trace it.”
Pause.
“Now.”
He disconnected.
Liana stared at him.
“What grave?”
Matteo looked toward her.
Neither needed to answer.
Elias.
Liana backed away.
“No.”
“Liana.”
“No.”
“Listen to me.”
“They buried the wrong baby.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Somebody just told you not to open his grave.”
“Which may be exactly what they want us to do.”
She looked at Nico asleep in her arms.
Her voice dropped.
“What if my son is alive?”
The question hit them both.
Matteo’s expression changed.
For all his control, he had no answer.
Liana sank onto the edge of the bed.
“I held him.”
Matteo remained standing.
“For three hours.”
She looked down.
“They kept saying his breathing was unstable.”
“They took him to the nursery.”
“I kept asking to see him.”
“A doctor came back later.”
“He said Elias had gone into respiratory arrest.”
“Then they changed the time.”
“What?”
“The first report said he died at 4:18.”
“The certificate said 1:37.”
“I noticed.”
“They said paperwork mistakes happen.”
“I was tired.”
“I had just given birth.”
“I had nobody.”
“So I signed whatever they put in front of me.”
Matteo sat across from her.
“Who arranged the burial?”
“The hospital gave me a list.”
“Which funeral home?”
“Mercer & Lane.”
“I know it.”
“Of course you do.”
Matteo ignored the tone.
“Did you see Elias after death?”
Liana shook her head.
“They told me it would be better to remember him alive.”
“Did you identify the body?”
“No.”
“Did anyone?”
She stared at him.
“I was his mother.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
Matteo stood.
He called someone.
“Wake Judge Brenner.”
Liana looked up.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting an exhumation order.”
She flinched at the word.
Matteo saw.
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
She wiped her face.
“Do it.”
The call lasted seven minutes.
Money was not mentioned.
Neither were favors.
Matteo simply gave facts.
Possible falsified medical records.
Anonymous threat.
Suspicion of fraudulent death certification.
When he ended the call, his expression was grim.
“Earliest legal access is tomorrow afternoon.”
“Too late.”
“It is twelve hours.”
“It has been twenty-two days.”
He understood.
But law was law.
For once, even Matteo Varric could not force dawn to arrive faster.
Nico woke around midnight.
He began crying again.
Liana held him.
The lullaby quieted him.
Matteo sat across the nursery watching.
The more Nico studied Liana, the more unsettled Matteo became.
At 1:12 a.m., his security director entered.
“Call was routed through three relays.”
“Origin?”
“Closest we got was inside the city.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
He handed Matteo a tablet.
“Gate footage.”
At 5:41 that afternoon, three hours before Liana first held Nico, a black sedan stopped outside the estate.
A woman stepped out.
She approached the pedestrian gate.
Pressed something through the mail slot.
Then left.
The camera caught only a partial profile.
Liana grabbed the tablet.
“Elena.”
Matteo replayed it.
The woman looked older than the hospital photo.
Thinner.
But the necklace was visible.
Liana stood so quickly Nico startled.
“She was here.”
Matteo checked the timestamp.
“Why didn’t security report her?”
His director looked uncomfortable.
“The gate camera never triggered an alert.”
“Why?”
“It was disabled remotely.”
Matteo’s eyes hardened.
“From where?”
“Inside the house.”
Silence.
Liana stared.
Somebody inside the Varric mansion had helped Elena approach unseen.
“Can you tell which terminal?”
“We’re checking.”
Nico touched Liana’s face.
She looked down.
His small fingers rested near her mouth.
And suddenly she remembered something.
The photograph in Maribel’s envelope.
DAWN.
NORTH CHAPEL.
The estate had a chapel.
She had seen it beyond the gardens when she arrived.
Stone walls.
Old bell tower.
North side facing the woods.
She looked at Matteo.
“Your chapel.”
“What?”
“The note doesn’t say a church name.”
Matteo stood.
Liana’s voice quickened.
“North chapel.”
“Maybe it means the north side of your chapel.”
He was already moving.
Three guards accompanied them outside.
The night air was cold.
Liana wrapped Nico in a blanket before Matteo ordered another guard to take the baby back to the nursery.
Nico cried the moment Liana handed him over.
She almost followed.
Matteo stopped her.
“We need answers.”
She nodded.
They crossed the garden.
The Varric family chapel stood dark beneath cypress trees.
Matteo unlocked the door.
Dust smelled heavy inside.
The chapel had not been used in years.
They searched the north wall.
Nothing.
One guard checked pews.
Another opened a storage cabinet.
Liana looked toward the altar.
A carved wooden Madonna stood beneath a stained-glass window.
Moonlight fell across the stone floor.
Then she saw it.
A white envelope beneath the statue.
Her name was written on it.
LIANA.
She picked it up.
Inside was a small brass key.
And another note.
THIS OPENS THE PLACE WHERE THEY KEPT US.
Matteo read over her shoulder.
“Us?”
Liana whispered, “Elena wasn’t alone.”
A floorboard creaked behind them.
Matteo spun.
One guard raised his weapon.
A figure stood in the chapel doorway.
Delia.
The housekeeper looked at the key.
Then at Liana.
Tears filled her eyes.
“I hoped you would never find that.”
Matteo stepped forward.
“You know what it opens.”
Delia nodded.
“Where?”
She looked toward the mansion.
May you like
“Beneath your mother’s old bedroom.”
And for the first time, Matteo Varric understood that the secrets inside his house had begun long before Nico was born.
