Chapter 5 - The Lie in the BloodThey did not stop until they reached the old wine cellar beneath the east wing.
Matteo slammed the iron door behind them and turned the lock. Liana stood against the wall, Nico clutched to her chest, while the baby’s cries echoed around the barrels and stone arches.
“You knew,” she said.
Matteo’s breathing was controlled, but his face was not. A thin line of blood ran from his temple where a piece of flying glass had cut him.
“Knew what?”
“That Sofia might have been carrying another man’s child.”
“I knew Kessler would use any lie that could hurt me.”
“That was not your face when he said it.”
Matteo stepped closer. “You were not there when Sofia was pregnant.”
“No. I was at St. Agnes with my own baby.”
“Then you don’t know what happened.”
“I know you looked afraid.”
The words struck him. Matteo glanced at Nico. The baby had begun to calm again, his small body relaxing in Liana’s arms.
“Sofia and I had problems,” Matteo said. “She believed I had cheated on her. I hadn’t. But she found records showing that Nico’s blood type didn’t match mine.”
Liana’s eyes narrowed. “What is your blood type?”
“O negative.”
“And Nico?”
“AB positive.”
The answer hung between them.
“That is impossible,” Liana said.
“Not if Sofia was AB positive.”
“Was she?”
“A positive.”
Liana looked down at Nico. “Then he cannot be yours.”
“That is what Sofia believed.”
“And you?”
Matteo’s jaw tightened. “I believed the records had been altered.”
“Did you ever have a DNA test?”
“The night Sofia died, I was supposed to receive the results.”
Liana waited.
“They were in the car with her.”
The meaning reached her slowly. “The case file said everything burned.”
“The car burned. The file did not.”
“Then where is it?”
Matteo looked toward the locked door.
“In the hands of the person who arranged the crash.”
Nico began fussing again. Liana adjusted the collar of his shirt and saw the violet mark. It was darker than before, almost bruised.
“He said the mark was a delivery point,” she said. “What did they put in your son?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have to stop saying that.”
“I am trying to keep you alive.”
“You are trying to keep the truth from me.”
Matteo’s expression turned cold. “You think I brought you into that room because I wanted to hide something?”
“I think powerful men have a habit of deciding what poor women are allowed to know.”
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he removed a second phone from inside his jacket and made a call.
“Bring me the private medical records,” he ordered. “All of them. Mine, Sofia’s, Nico’s. And find out whether Adrian Kessler left the estate.”
He ended the call.
“Who was that?” Liana asked.
“My sister.”
“You trust her?”
“Less than I trust you.”
“You have known me for two hours.”
“And you haven’t tried to kill me.”
The cellar door shook.
Both turned.
“How did they find us?” Liana whispered.
Matteo drew his gun. “There are more tunnels than I knew about.”
The door shook again. Then a voice called from the other side.
“Mr. Varric, it’s Mrs. Bell. Open the door.”
Matteo did not move.
“Mrs. Bell?” Liana asked.
“She was in the foyer when the house locked down.”
“Maybe she escaped.”
“Maybe.”
The voice came again. “Please, sir. I’m alone.”
Matteo approached the door and looked through the narrow inspection slot. His face changed.
“What do you see?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why did you stop breathing?”
Matteo turned off the cellar lights. He pointed toward a stack of empty barrels. Liana crouched behind them with Nico. Matteo waited beside the door.
The lock clicked.
The door opened three inches.
A hand pushed through. The hand held a knife.
Matteo seized the wrist and yanked. A man in a gray security uniform stumbled inside. Matteo drove him into the wall, disarmed him, and pinned him by the throat.
Liana recognized him.
He was one of the guards assigned to the nursery.
“Where is Mrs. Bell?” Matteo demanded.
The guard smiled through clenched teeth. “You’re already too late.”
Matteo pressed the gun beneath his chin.
“Where?”
“The baby monitor.”
Matteo’s eyes sharpened.
“What about it?”
“It wasn’t transmitting from the nursery.”
The guard’s smile widened.
“It was transmitting from inside the baby.”
Liana felt the room tilt.
Matteo struck him across the face. “What did you put in Nico?”
The guard spat blood. “Ask your brother.”
Matteo’s fist stopped.
“Which brother?”
“The one who told Sofia the truth.”
Before he could say more, the guard convulsed. A tiny blue capsule appeared between his teeth. He bit down.
Matteo tried to force his mouth open, but the man’s body went limp within seconds.
Liana stared at the dead guard.
“Poison,” Matteo said.
“He said your brother.”
“I have one.”
“Name?”
“Dante.”
Matteo lifted the guard’s sleeve. Beneath it, just above the wrist, was the crescent symbol.
Nico released a sudden piercing scream.
The sound came not from fear this time, but pain. His tiny back arched, and his hands shook.
Liana lowered him onto a barrel and unbuttoned his shirt. The violet mark beneath his ear had spread down his neck like a thin branching vein.
“He’s having a reaction,” she said.
“To what?”
“The drug.”
“We need a doctor.”
“Not Kessler.”
“My sister is a pediatrician.”
“Can she reach us?”
Matteo looked at the dead guard. “If Dante knows what is happening, he will stop her.”
Liana lifted Nico. “Then we go to her.”
“The entire house is compromised.”
“You said you wanted to keep me alive.”
“I do.”
“Then keep your son alive first.”
Matteo looked at her. Something in his face softened—not weakness, but surrender to a truth he could no longer command away.
“There is a private clinic beneath the old train station,” he said. “My sister can meet us there.”
“And Dante?”
“If he is behind this, he will come after us.”
“Good.”
May you like
Liana pressed Nico against her heart.
“Then he can hear what his lies sound like when they break.”
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