Chapter 2 - The Missing Nurse
By midnight, the Varric estate had become a prison.
Every gate was locked.
Every vehicle was searched.
Every employee was ordered into the main dining room while Matteo’s security team checked bedrooms, service corridors, garages, storage rooms, and the wooded grounds surrounding the property.
Grace Holloway was nowhere to be found.
Her car remained parked behind the servants’ quarters.
Her phone lay on her nightstand.
Her purse was inside the closet.
But the woman herself had vanished.
Liana sat in an upstairs guest room with Nico asleep beside her.
Dr. Naomi Price had arrived forty minutes earlier.
She was in her early forties, with tired eyes, short dark hair, and the blunt manner of someone accustomed to emergencies.
She examined the marks behind Nico’s ear without saying much.
Then she ordered blood drawn.
Matteo stood by the window.
“What is it?”
Naomi removed her gloves.
“I don’t know yet.”
“That answer is becoming very expensive.”
She looked at him without fear.
“You called me because I don’t tell you what you want to hear.”
Matteo said nothing.
Naomi glanced toward Liana.
“You said your daughter had identical marks?”
Liana nodded.
“How old?”
“Four months.”
“And she died recently?”
“Twenty-two days ago.”
Naomi’s face softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Liana looked down.
“Her records said viral encephalopathy.”
“Did they perform a full autopsy?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I asked.”
Liana rubbed her hands together.
“They told me the cause was clear.”
Naomi’s eyes sharpened.
“Who told you?”
“Dr. Vale.”
Matteo turned away from the window.
Naomi looked at him.
“Adrian?”
“Yes.”
Naomi cursed quietly.
Liana looked between them.
“You know him?”
“He trained me.”
That answer made Liana’s stomach twist.
Naomi continued.
“He’s brilliant.”
She paused.
“He’s also ambitious enough to frighten me.”
Matteo folded his arms.
“Sofia hated him.”
Naomi looked toward the door.
“Sofia hated what he was doing.”
“What was he doing?”
“I never knew.”
“You knew enough to say that.”
Naomi’s jaw tightened.
“Your wife came to me eleven days before she died.”
Matteo went completely still.
“You never told me.”
“She made me promise.”
“She’s dead.”
“I know.”
“So your promise died with her.”
Naomi looked furious now.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Turn grief into permission to control every person in the room.”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
Liana expected one of the guards to react.
Nobody moved.
Naomi stepped closer to him.
“Sofia was afraid of someone close to you.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
“What did she ask you?”
“If a medication could be hidden in an infant’s bloodwork.”
Liana felt cold.
Matteo’s voice lowered.
“What medication?”
“She didn’t know.”
“Why didn’t you report this?”
“To whom?”
Naomi’s laugh held no humor.
“Half this city believed your family owned the police department.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“She thought Nico was being drugged?”
“She thought several children were.”
Liana stood so quickly the chair scraped across the floor.
“Ava.”
Naomi looked at her.
“My daughter could have been one of them.”
“I don’t know.”
“Bellmore.”
Liana’s voice rose.
“You know Bellmore.”
Naomi hesitated.
That was enough.
“What?”
Liana demanded.
Naomi exhaled.
“Bellmore ran a neonatal pain-management study two years ago.”
“What kind of study?”
“Experimental delivery systems.”
Matteo glanced at the marks behind Nico’s ear.
Naomi nodded slowly.
“Micro-needle patches.”
Liana felt as if the floor had moved.
“What do those look like?”
“Usually a cluster of tiny punctures.”
“Three?”
“Sometimes.”
Liana covered her mouth.
Matteo turned toward Naomi.
“Were they approved?”
“The early studies were.”
“Early.”
Naomi met his gaze.
“The later formula was never cleared for pediatric use.”
“What formula?”
“Velorin.”
The name meant nothing to Liana.
But Matteo reacted.
His expression changed so subtly she almost missed it.
“You know it.”
Naomi stared at him.
Matteo looked toward Rafe.
“Get Damian.”
Rafe nodded and left.
Liana stepped toward Matteo.
“What is Velorin?”
Matteo’s face had become unreadable.
“A pharmaceutical company my family invested in.”
Her stomach dropped.
“Your family?”
“Not me personally.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He looked at her.
“The Varric Foundation funded medical research.”
Liana gave a bitter laugh.
“A charity.”
“Yes.”
“My daughter may have died because of your charity?”
“We don’t know that.”
“My baby had those marks.”
Her voice broke.
“Your baby has those marks.”
Nico stirred.
Liana immediately lowered her voice.
Matteo looked at the child.
“I didn’t know.”
Liana wanted to hate him.
For one second, she did.
Then she saw the way he looked at Nico.
Not like a crime boss.
Not like a rich man.
Like a father who had just realized the walls around his child were not protection.
They were part of the danger.
A knock sounded.
Rafe entered.
“Damian isn’t answering.”
Matteo’s head turned.
“Where is he?”
“His apartment is empty.”
Naomi whispered a curse.
Liana looked at Matteo.
“Who is Damian?”
“My cousin.”
“That doesn’t answer me.”
Matteo’s eyes stayed on Rafe.
“He oversees the foundation.”
The room went silent.
Naomi stepped forward.
“Matteo.”
He lifted a hand.
“Not yet.”
“Not yet what?”
“Don’t make a conclusion before we have evidence.”
Naomi looked toward Nico.
“You have an infant with unexplained punctures.”
She pointed toward the medical case on the table.
“You have unlabeled medication hidden in the nurse’s room.”
She looked at Liana.
“You have another dead infant with the same marks.”
Her voice lowered.
“And your cousin who manages the company connected to the experimental drug has disappeared on the same night.”
Matteo’s face became cold.
“I said not yet.”
Liana understood then.
He wasn’t protecting Damian.
He was protecting himself from believing it.
Matteo walked to the door.
“Rafe.”
“Yes.”
“Pull every security recording from the last thirty days.”
“The nursery camera hasn’t worked in three weeks.”
Matteo stopped.
“What?”
Rafe’s expression tightened.
“Grace reported a wiring fault.”
“Who repaired it?”
“She said Damian sent someone.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
Just for a moment.
Then he opened them.
“Find the technician.”
“Yes.”
“And bring Beatrice.”
The housekeeper arrived minutes later.
She looked older than she had that afternoon.
Matteo placed the threatening note on the table.
“Who had access to the nursery tonight?”
“Almost anyone on the upper floor.”
“Who knew Liana was hired?”
Beatrice hesitated.
“Everyone in domestic staff.”
“Who recommended her?”
Silence.
Liana looked at Beatrice.
“What?”
Matteo noticed too.
“Who recommended her?”
“I did.”
Liana frowned.
“You didn’t know me.”
Beatrice looked at her.
“No.”
“Then why did you hire me?”
The older woman’s hands tightened.
Matteo moved closer.
“Beatrice.”
Her eyes filled with fear.
“I saw her name before.”
Liana’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Where?”
Beatrice looked at the photograph of Sofia on the nightstand.
“In Mrs. Varric’s papers.”
Nobody spoke.
Liana stared at her.
“What papers?”
“A notebook.”
Beatrice swallowed.
“She kept names.”
“Whose names?”
“I didn’t understand at the time.”
Beatrice looked at Liana.
“But after your application came across my desk, I remembered yours.”
Liana stepped toward her.
“My name was in Sofia Varric’s notebook?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did she write it?”
“Before she died.”
Liana almost laughed from shock.
“That was eight months ago.”
“I know.”
“My daughter was alive eight months ago.”
Beatrice nodded.
The room seemed to shrink.
Matteo’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Where is the notebook?”
Beatrice looked at him.
“I hid it.”
“Where?”
“After Mrs. Varric died, someone searched her room.”
“Who?”
“I never saw.”
“But they didn’t find the notebook.”
“No.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“Get it.”
Beatrice did not move.
“Now.”
The older woman’s face had gone pale.
“I can’t.”
Matteo stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because three weeks ago, when Nico started screaming, I went to check the hiding place.”
Her voice trembled.
“It was gone.”
Liana’s skin prickled.
“Who knew where you hid it?”
“No one.”
Matteo’s eyes sharpened.
“Where was it?”
“Inside Sofia’s music box.”
Everyone looked toward the photograph of Sofia.
Then Matteo slowly turned toward the nursery across the hallway.
The wooden music box sat beneath the window.
He crossed the hall.
Liana followed with Nico.
Matteo lifted the lid.
A gentle melody began playing.
Beatrice stood in the doorway.
“There’s a false panel underneath.”
Matteo turned the box over.
He pressed along the base.
Click.
A narrow compartment opened.
It was empty.
Except for one thing.
A small black memory card.
Rafe leaned closer.
“Was that there before?”
Beatrice shook her head.
“No.”
Matteo picked it up.
Liana’s pulse quickened.
“Can we read it?”
Rafe took the card.
“I’ll use an isolated laptop.”
Ten minutes later, everyone crowded around a screen in Matteo’s office.
The memory card contained one file.
A video.
The timestamp showed it had been recorded nine days before Sofia died.
Matteo’s face went blank when his wife appeared on the screen.
Sofia sat inside a car.
Rain tapped against the windshield.
Her hair was pulled back.
She looked exhausted.
And terrified.
“Matteo.”
Her recorded voice filled the office.
“If you’re watching this, then either I finally found the courage to tell you everything…”
She looked over her shoulder.
“…or I ran out of time.”
Matteo did not breathe.
Sofia continued.
“This is not about your enemies.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“It’s about your family.”
Liana felt Nico move against her chest.
Sofia leaned closer to the camera.
“They’re using children.”
Matteo’s hands curled into fists.
“I found medical records that should not exist.”
Sofia said.
“Babies enrolled without parental consent.”
Liana’s vision blurred.
Sofia continued.
“Adrian Vale is involved.”
Naomi closed her eyes.
“And Damian knows.”
Matteo’s face changed.
Then Sofia said something that made Liana’s knees nearly give out.
“There is one mother I need to find before they reach her baby.”
Sofia looked down at a piece of paper.
“Her name is Liana Graves.”
Liana stopped breathing.
On the video, Sofia looked directly into the camera.
May you like
“Her daughter’s name is Ava.”
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