Chapter 5 - THE ROOM BENEATH THE HOUSE
Vittoria Varric’s bedroom had been sealed for twelve years.
Matteo had ordered it closed after her funeral.
No staff entered.
No furniture was moved.
Even the curtains remained exactly as they had been the last morning his mother supposedly walked out of the house alive.
The room smelled of cedar and dust.
Liana stood near the doorway while Matteo crossed to the fireplace.
Delia pointed toward the Persian rug.
“Move it.”
Two guards pulled it aside.
Beneath was nothing except polished hardwood.
Matteo looked at Delia.
“There’s no door.”
“There wasn’t supposed to be.”
She knelt.
Her fingers found a small indentation near the hearth.
She pressed.
A square section of flooring released.
Underneath sat an old iron lock.
Liana held up the brass key.
It fit.
The mechanism opened with a deep metallic click.
One guard lifted the hatch.
Cold air rose from below.
Stone stairs descended into darkness.
Matteo looked at Delia.
“How long has this been here?”
“Before you were born.”
“You knew?”
“I discovered it after your mother disappeared.”
“You said she died.”
“I repeated what your father ordered everyone to say.”
Matteo’s stare hardened.
“My father knew she survived?”
Delia’s silence answered.
Matteo descended first.
Liana followed despite his objection.
At the bottom was a narrow corridor.
Three doors.
The first opened into a storage room.
Old ledgers.
Boxes.
Medical supplies.
The second contained a bed.
A sink.
A wall-mounted camera.
Liana stared.
Someone had lived there.
Or been kept there.
There were scratches along the inside of the door.
Matteo saw them too.
His face became unreadable.
The third room was locked.
Liana tried the brass key again.
It opened.
Inside were shelves filled with patient files.
Hundreds.
All from Saint Aurelia Medical Center.
Matteo swore under his breath.
Liana moved closer.
Names.
Dates.
Photographs.
Pregnancy records.
Adoption documents.
Blood tests.
Some folders were decades old.
“What was she doing?”
Delia stood at the doorway.
“Buying futures.”
Matteo turned.
“Explain.”
“Your mother believed bloodlines were assets.”
“That means nothing.”
“It means exactly what it sounds like.”
Delia’s voice trembled.
“She arranged children.”
Liana felt sick.
“For whom?”
“Families who could pay.”
“Adoptions?”
“Sometimes.”
“And other times?”
Delia looked at the floor.
“Children disappeared.”
Liana grabbed a shelf.
Matteo stepped toward Delia.
“You knew this?”
“Not then.”
“When?”
“After Vittoria vanished.”
“You found this room and said nothing for twelve years?”
“Your father threatened my children.”
“You don’t have children.”
“Not anymore.”
Matteo stopped.
Delia’s eyes filled.
“My son was twenty-three.”
“He disappeared two weeks after I asked questions.”
“I never saw him again.”
The anger in Matteo’s face changed.
Not gone.
Recalibrated.
Liana began scanning labels.
G.
Graves.
Her breath caught.
She pulled one folder.
ELENA GRAVES.
The file was thick.
Too thick.
Liana sat on the floor.
First page.
Age seventeen.
Date of intake.
Nineteen years earlier.
Occupation: applicant for domestic services.
Liana covered her mouth.
The job interview.
Elena had gone to an employment agency.
The agency had been connected to Saint Aurelia.
The next page listed medical testing.
Blood type.
Genetic screening.
Fertility assessment.
Liana went cold.
“They tested her.”
Matteo crouched beside her.
“Why?”
Liana turned the page.
A photograph of Elena.
Seventeen years old.
Terrified.
Another document.
SUBJECT APPROVED.
Liana’s vision blurred.
“Subject?”
Matteo took the page.
His jaw tightened.
Further pages documented pregnancies.
Not one.
Three.
The first pregnancy occurred when Elena was eighteen.
Outcome: female infant.
Transferred.
Second pregnancy, age twenty-one.
Male infant.
Transferred.
Third pregnancy, age twenty-six.
Termination recorded.
Liana began shaking.
“They kept her.”
Matteo said nothing.
“They kept my sister for years.”
Delia whispered, “Not always here.”
Liana looked up.
“What?”
“There were other locations.”
“Why didn’t she escape?”
“She tried.”
“You knew?”
“Only later.”
Liana turned pages faster.
Addresses.
Medication.
Payments assigned to shell companies.
Then an entry twelve years earlier.
SUBJECT REMOVED FROM PROGRAM BY V.V.
Liana looked at Matteo.
“Your mother removed her?”
“Or moved her.”
Another page.
Elena had received a new identity.
Helena Graveson.
Employment: private nursing assistant.
Employer: Serena Moretti.
Liana stopped.
“Serena’s maiden name.”
Matteo read it.
His wife had known Elena before they married.
Years before.
“Serena hired her.”
Liana whispered, “Maybe Serena helped her.”
Matteo kept reading.
The final documents were recent.
January.
Nico’s birth.
September fourteenth.
Liana’s delivery.
Her own name appeared.
Liana recoiled.
“No.”
Matteo took the file.
Saint Aurelia admission.
Liana Graves.
Male infant.
Healthy.
Birth weight seven pounds, nine ounces.
No respiratory distress.
Liana stared.
Healthy.
Her son had been healthy.
The report beneath it had been overwritten.
A second version listed respiratory failure.
Death.
Matteo turned another page.
TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION.
Infant code: G-47.
Destination field blank.
Liana could not breathe.
“My baby didn’t die.”
Matteo looked at her.
The truth was now printed in black ink.
Her son had been taken.
Liana made a sound that barely resembled a human voice.
She covered her face.
Matteo reached toward her.
Stopped.
Then placed a hand on her shoulder.
Liana looked up.
“Find him.”
“We will.”
“No.”
Her voice became fierce.
“You find him.”
“I will.”
“You have people.”
“Yes.”
“You have money.”
“Yes.”
“You have connections.”
“Yes.”
“Then use all of it.”
Matteo’s eyes locked with hers.
“I will burn every connection I have if that is what it takes.”
Liana believed him.
Then Delia whispered, “There’s something else.”
Neither wanted there to be.
Delia pointed toward the bottom shelf.
A red folder.
NICO VARRIC.
Matteo removed it.
Inside was a genetic report.
His name.
Serena’s name.
Nico’s name.
PATERNITY PROBABILITY: 0.00%.
Matteo did not react.
Not visibly.
Liana stared.
Nico was not Matteo’s biological son.
Another result.
MATERNITY PROBABILITY: 0.00%.
Serena was not Nico’s biological mother either.
The room went silent.
Matteo turned the page.
A handwritten note appeared.
DONOR MOTHER: E.G.
Liana’s blood froze.
E.G.
Elena Graves.
She looked at Matteo.
“Nico is Elena’s son.”
Matteo stared at the paper.
Liana whispered, “That’s why he recognized me.”
Her voice.
Her face.
Her song.
Her blood.
Nico had never met Liana.
But something in her reminded him of the woman who had carried him.
The woman who had perhaps held him.
The woman who had vanished.
Matteo closed his eyes.
For nine months, he had believed Nico was the last piece of Serena left in the world.
Now a document beneath his own home claimed neither of them shared blood with the child.
His phone vibrated.
A security alert.
He looked at the screen.
Nursery door opened.
Unauthorized entry detected.
Matteo ran.
Liana was one step behind him.
They reached the main floor.
Then the stairs.
The nursery guard was unconscious in the hallway.
The crib was empty.
Liana screamed Nico’s name.
On the mattress lay one white card.
Matteo picked it up.
Four words.
May you like
BRING THE GRAVES FILE.
COME ALONE.
