Chapter 11 - The Man Who Wore Matteo’s FaceThe river tunnel ended at a steel grate.
Beyond it, black water moved beneath a bridge. Snow blew through the gaps, covering the frozen ground in white.
Matteo reached the grate first. He looked through it and immediately stepped back.
“Vehicles,” he whispered.
Dante had anticipated the exit.
Sofia pressed her back against the wall. “There is another way.”
“Where?”
“The maintenance ladder.”
She pointed upward. A rusted ladder disappeared into darkness.
“It leads to the old courthouse.”
“How do you know?” Liana asked.
“I used it when I escaped.”
Elena checked Nico. “He is deteriorating again.”
Liana held Nora and looked at both babies. Nora was awake, her eyes fixed on Liana’s face. Nico had become almost silent.
“We have to move.”
Matteo lifted Elena’s medical case and climbed first. The ladder groaned beneath his weight. Sofia followed, then Liana, then Elena with Nico. Mrs. Bell helped Mara.
Halfway up, gunshots exploded below.
Men had entered the tunnel.
Matteo reached down and grabbed Liana’s hand, pulling her upward. She climbed with Nora against her chest while the baby’s blanket snagged on a rung.
“Leave it,” Matteo said.
“It was hers.”
“Leave it.”
Liana tore the blanket free.
They reached the top and fell into an abandoned courtroom. Dust coated the benches. A broken judge’s seal hung above the empty witness stand.
Matteo locked the trapdoor beneath them.
Dante’s men began pounding from below.
“We need the police,” Elena said.
“Half the police department works for Dante,” Matteo replied.
“Then call someone you trust.”
Matteo took out the memory card and placed it in an old courtroom computer. The monitor flickered to life. Sofia’s recordings filled the screen: hospital transfers, forged signatures, payments, and interviews with frightened nurses.
One face appeared repeatedly.
Matteo’s.
The image showed him entering St. Agnes at night, carrying a black case.
Liana looked at him.
“That is not you.”
“I know.”
The face was almost identical, but the man wore Matteo’s family ring on his right hand instead of his left.
“Dante,” Sofia said from behind them. “He used the footage to make everyone believe Matteo authorized the transfers.”
Matteo stared at the screen. “How long?”
“For years.”
“You knew he was alive,” Sofia said. “You knew he was taking children, and you said nothing?”
“I knew my brother was corrupt. I did not know how far he had gone.”
“You never asked.”
“I thought fear would keep the family safe.”
Sofia’s voice broke. “Fear is what gave him the family.”
The trapdoor shook.
Mara began to cry. Liana hummed the lullaby while opening Nora’s blanket. A small metal tag had been sewn into the hem.
The tag carried an address.
“What is that?” Matteo asked.
“A location,” Liana replied.
Sofia read it. “The old Varric bank.”
“Dante’s central archive,” Matteo said.
Elena stepped toward him. “If the records are there, we can expose everything.”
“The bank has armed guards.”
“So does your house.”
“And you are carrying two sick infants.”
Liana looked up from Nora. “We are not leaving the other children behind.”
Matteo met her eyes. “I can get you out of the city.”
“You can get us out. The records stay.”
“The records can be copied.”
“And the children?”
He had no answer.
Sofia approached the courtroom window. Far below, Dante’s men surrounded the building. Dante stood among them, looking up at the broken windows.
He raised a loudspeaker.
“Matteo! Bring me Sofia and the maid. I will let the babies live.”
Liana stepped away from the glass.
“He wants me because of the song.”
“He wants Sofia because she knows the archive,” Matteo said.
“And he wants Nico because he is proof the compound worked.”
Sofia looked toward Liana. “He wants Nora because she is the one subject he failed to control.”
“Why?”
“Because she remembers you.”
Nora reached one small hand toward Liana’s face.
The trapdoor began to split.
Matteo examined the courtroom. “There is one exit.”
“Where?”
He pointed to the judge’s bench. Behind it, a narrow door led into a series of municipal tunnels.
“We need to reach the bank before Dante.”
Sofia shook her head. “He is already there.”
“Then we go anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because he believes he is hunting us.”
Matteo lifted his weapon.
“He has forgotten what it feels like to be hunted.”
They escaped through the judicial tunnels as the courtroom doors exploded behind them.
For the first time, Liana saw Matteo move without fear. He was not running from Dante. He was moving toward him.
But when they reached the tunnel junction, Matteo stopped.
On the wall, written in fresh red paint, were four words.
LIANA, ASK HIM ABOUT YOUR FATHER.
Her grip tightened around Nora.
“What does Dante know about my father?” she asked.
May you like
Matteo did not answer.
And that silence told her everything.
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