Chapter 17 - The First Baby
Her name had been Rosa Varric.
Six months old.
Lorenzo’s daughter.
Twenty-seven years earlier, Vittorio Varric needed Calder’s money.
Calder needed access to infants for an early neurological compound.
Vittorio gave him Rosa.
Lorenzo had not consented.
He had been told his daughter was receiving treatment for seizures.
She died after three doses.
Vittorio covered it up.
Lorenzo disappeared.
Years later, he resurfaced beside Calder.
“Why would he work for the man who killed his daughter?”
Liana asked.
Gabriel answered.
“Because Calder convinced him Vittorio was responsible.”
“He was.”
“Yes.”
“But Calder made himself the ally.”
Matteo understood.
“He turned Lorenzo against the family.”
“And used him.”
Gabriel nodded.
Liana stared at Ava’s photograph.
“Then why target my daughter?”
No one knew.
Until Emily asked to speak again.
She had been quiet for hours.
Now she looked shaken.
“Lorenzo chose Ava.”
Liana stared through the glass.
“Why?”
“Her name.”
“What about it?”
“Graves.”
Liana frowned.
Emily continued.
“Your father was Daniel Graves.”
“Yes.”
“He worked for Vittorio.”
Liana stopped breathing.
“No.”
“He was a driver.”
“My father repaired elevators.”
“Afterward.”
Liana stared.
Her father had died when she was fourteen.
A quiet man.
Gentle.
Never spoke about his life before she was born.
Emily continued.
“Daniel drove the vehicle that transported Rosa to Calder’s first clinic.”
Liana felt sick.
“He didn’t know.”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I truly don’t know.”
Emily leaned forward.
“But Lorenzo believed he did.”
Liana stood.
“He killed Ava because of something my father might have done twenty-seven years ago?”
“He chose her for the trial.”
Emily corrected.
“The final murder was different.”
“Who changed her IV?”
Emily looked away.
“Lorenzo.”
Liana’s hands curled.
“He wanted Matteo to eventually discover it.”
“Why?”
“To make a Varric feel what he felt.”
“But Ava wasn’t Matteo’s child.”
“No.”
Emily looked at her.
“She was yours.”
Liana stared.
“He wanted two families tied to Vittorio to lose children.”
The cruelty was almost impossible to process.
Lorenzo had turned grief into inheritance.
He had passed pain forward.
Liana looked through the observation window.
Matteo stood outside.
A man whose father’s sins seemed to stretch into every room.
She understood something then.
The easiest ending would be revenge.
Lorenzo killing Matteo.
Matteo killing Lorenzo.
Another grave.
Another child growing up inside the same story.
No.
It had to stop.
Liana returned to Matteo.
“Lorenzo wants you angry.”
“I know.”
“He wants you to become Vittorio.”
“I know.”
“He wants Nico to grow up with the same family story.”
Matteo looked at her.
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’m ending the Varric organization.”
Everyone froze.
Gabriel stared.
“What?”
Matteo looked toward Helen.
“I’ll give your investigators everything.”
“Accounts.”
“Properties.”
“Names.”
Rafe stepped forward.
“Matteo.”
He raised a hand.
“No.”
Rafe stopped.
“For years I told myself the legitimate companies made us different from my father.”
Matteo said.
“But I kept the same system.”
“Secrets.”
“Fear.”
“People too frightened to challenge me.”
He looked at Liana.
“That is how Damian hid.”
“How Vale operated.”
“How Sofia died.”
He turned to Helen.
“I cooperate completely.”
Helen studied him.
“You understand that could put you in prison.”
“Yes.”
Liana looked at him.
Nico.
He might lose years with his father.
But Matteo seemed to know something now.
Keeping himself free through lies would only rebuild the cage.
Helen nodded.
“I’ll document the offer.”
Matteo looked at Gabriel.
“You wanted the family clean.”
Gabriel gave a sad smile.
“I wanted a family.”
Matteo looked away.
A nurse entered.
“Nico is awake.”
They went to him.
The baby sat supported by pillows.
Still pale.
But alert.
He saw Matteo.
“Da.”
Matteo smiled.
Liana’s heart broke and healed at the same time.
Nico reached toward her too.
“Li.”
She froze.
Matteo looked at her.
Nico stretched both hands.
“Li.”
Liana approached.
She kissed his forehead.
“Hi, little man.”
For one dangerous second, she imagined Ava at nine months.
What her voice might have sounded like.
What words she might have tried.
Then Liana pulled herself back.
Nico was not Ava.
Loving him did not require pretending he was.
Her phone buzzed.
A message.
Unknown number.
A photograph appeared.
Lorenzo.
Standing beside Ava’s grave.
The image had been taken minutes earlier.
Underneath:
COME ALONE.
Liana’s blood went cold.
Another message followed.
OR I DIG HER UP.
Matteo saw her face.
“What?”
She showed him.
His eyes hardened.
“No.”
Liana stared at the photograph.
A man who had already violated Ava’s life was now standing over her grave.
“He wants me.”
“He wants me through you.”
“Then we give him what he thinks he wants.”
Matteo shook his head.
“Absolutely not.”
Liana looked toward Nico.
“This ends before he comes for him again.”
Helen stepped closer.
“We can set surveillance.”
Liana nodded.
“I go.”
Matteo stared.
“Liana.”
“You said you were ending the old way.”
“Yes.”
“Then trust someone else to make a choice.”
That stopped him.
He hated it.
She could see that.
But he nodded.
They prepared the cemetery.
Hidden officers.
Cameras.
No visible weapons.
Liana entered alone.
Ava’s grave sat beneath a maple tree.
Lorenzo stood beside it.
Older than Matteo.
Same dark eyes.
He held a shovel.
Liana stopped ten feet away.
“Put it down.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“You look like your father.”
“You never knew my father.”
“I knew enough.”
“You murdered my daughter.”
His smile faded.
“Yes.”
The word hit like a blade.
No denial.
No excuse.
Liana’s hands shook.
“Why?”
“Because people like Vittorio only understood blood.”
“He was dead.”
“His family wasn’t.”
“So you killed Ava.”
“I chose a Graves.”
Liana felt tears.
“She was four months old.”
“So was Rosa when Vittorio handed her over.”
“That wasn’t Ava.”
Lorenzo’s face twisted.
“Pain doesn’t care whose child it is.”
“Yes.”
Liana whispered.
“That is exactly why you should have.”
He stared.
“You know what your problem is?”
She continued.
“You wanted Matteo to become you.”
Lorenzo’s eyes hardened.
“You wanted him to lose a child.”
“You wanted another father angry enough to burn the world.”
“You wanted proof your grief made sense.”
She stepped closer.
“But all you proved was that you became the man who killed Rosa.”
Lorenzo’s face changed.
“Shut up.”
“You became Vittorio.”
“Shut up.”
“You chose someone else’s baby.”
He reached into his coat.
Officers moved.
Liana froze.
Lorenzo pulled out a small injector.
“Do you know what this is?”
She stared.
“Velorin.”
“The final formulation.”
He said.
“What do you want?”
“Nico.”
“No.”
“Then Matteo watches you die.”
Liana stared at the injector.
“You think that hurts him more than losing his son?”
Lorenzo smiled.
“No.”
“I think watching another innocent person pay for his family finally teaches him.”
He stepped forward.
Then a voice came from behind Liana.
“No.”
Matteo.
Liana turned.
He had ignored the plan.
Of course he had.
Lorenzo smiled.
“Little prince.”
Matteo stopped several yards away.
“You wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“I’m here.”
Lorenzo pointed the injector at Liana.
“Drop your weapon.”
Matteo slowly removed it.
Placed it on the ground.
“Kick it away.”
He did.
Lorenzo’s eyes filled.
“Do you know what your father did to my daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what he told me afterward?”
Matteo shook his head.
Lorenzo’s voice broke.
“He said Varric men don’t cry over weakness.”
Matteo stared.
Lorenzo laughed and cried at the same time.
“So I stopped crying.”
“You didn’t.”
Matteo said.
“You just made everyone else do it for you.”
Lorenzo’s hand trembled.
Officers remained hidden.
Waiting.
Liana saw it.
A chance.
But Matteo shook his head almost imperceptibly.
Not yet.
He spoke again.
“My father hurt you.”
“He destroyed me.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m sorry.”
Lorenzo stared.
Matteo continued.
“But Liana did nothing.”
“Ava did nothing.”
“Nico did nothing.”
“Rosa did nothing.”
Lorenzo’s face twisted.
“Don’t say her name.”
“Rosa.”
Lorenzo screamed.
He lunged.
Liana moved.
Matteo moved faster.
The injector fell.
A shot rang out.
Lorenzo dropped.
Liana screamed.
Helen emerged from behind a stone wall.
Lorenzo clutched his shoulder.
Alive.
Matteo stood over him.
For one second, Liana saw the old Matteo.
The feared man.
The son Vittorio raised.
He could have picked up the gun.
Could have finished it.
Lorenzo looked up almost hopefully.
“Do it.”
Matteo stared.
Then stepped back.
“No.”
Lorenzo laughed weakly.
“Coward.”
Matteo looked toward Ava’s grave.
“No.”
He said.
“Father raised cowards.”
Then he turned away.
Police cuffed Lorenzo.
Liana stood beside Ava.
Her knees gave out.
She touched the grass above her daughter.
“It’s over.”
She whispered.
But behind her, Helen received a phone call.
Her expression changed.
It wasn’t over.
Not yet.
Dr. Adrian Vale had escaped custody.
May you like
And he had taken the one surviving dose of Project N with him.
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