Chapter 10 - The Summer HouseThe old Varric summer house stood on a cliff above the frozen river.
Its windows were boarded, its stone walls stained black by years of rain, and its gardens had grown into a tangled forest. Yet the blue light in the top window remained steady. Someone was inside.
Matteo parked beneath the trees and cut the engine.
“No one moves until I say,” he whispered.
Liana looked at the house. “The woman is singing.”
“It may be a recording.”
“She knows my song.”
“That makes it more likely to be a trap.”
Mara’s small hand found Liana’s. “It isn’t a recording.”
“How do you know?”
“She sings when the babies cry.”
Matteo loaded his weapon. Elena took the medical case. Mrs. Bell emerged from the trunk with a bruised shoulder and an expression of grim determination.
“I was too old to be hiding in luggage,” she muttered.
“You were too loud,” Matteo said.
They approached the house through the snow. The front door was unlocked. Inside, dust covered the floor, but fresh footprints led toward the staircase.
The lullaby continued.
Liana knew every note. She had sung it to Nora before she was born. It was not a song from the radio or a nursery book. Liana’s mother had created it, and Liana had changed the final line after her mother died.
No one else should have known it.
They reached the top floor. The blue light came from a room at the end of the hall. The door stood open.
Inside, a woman sat beside a bassinet.
Liana stopped.
The woman turned.
She was pale and painfully thin. A scar curved along her jaw. Her dark hair hung to her waist.
Sofia Varric.
Matteo’s gun lowered.
“No,” he whispered.
Sofia stood slowly. She looked older than the photograph, but her eyes were the same.
“Hello, Matteo.”
He crossed the room in a blur. For one terrible second, Liana thought he would embrace her. Instead, he stopped inches away, shaking as if touching her would make her vanish.
“You’re alive.”
“Barely.”
“I buried you.”
“No. You buried a story.”
The bassinet began to move.
Liana stepped toward it. Sofia reached out.
“Wait.”
“Is there a baby inside?”
“There are two.”
She lifted the cover.
One infant slept beneath a pink blanket. A second lay beside her, smaller and wrapped in blue.
Liana saw the violet mark beneath the blue blanket.
Her knees nearly failed.
“Nora.”
The baby stirred.
Liana covered her mouth to hold back a cry. Every part of her recognized the child—the tiny crooked finger, the pale birthmark on her wrist, the soft whimper that had once woken Liana at dawn.
“She’s alive,” Liana said.
Sofia’s eyes filled with tears. “Kessler kept her because her records were easy to erase. She was supposed to be transferred to another family tonight.”
Liana reached for her daughter, but Sofia held up a hand.
“She has the compound in her system. If you frighten her, her heart may stop.”
Liana froze.
“Then tell me what to do.”
“Sing.”
Liana began the lullaby.
Nora’s eyes opened.
The baby turned toward her voice.
Liana continued singing as she lifted her daughter. Nora’s fingers curled around her thumb. The grief that had lived inside Liana for twenty-two days broke apart so completely that she almost collapsed beneath its joy.
Matteo looked at the second baby. “Who is the other child?”
Sofia’s face tightened. “A replacement.”
“For Nico?”
“For the child you were told died.”
Matteo looked toward the hallway. “The body in the car.”
“Was a baby from the archive. Dante used the crash to make you believe Nico was dead. Then he placed the real Nico in your nursery and convinced everyone you had survived a tragedy.”
“Why?”
“Because he needed you unstable. Grieving men make predictable decisions.”
“He wanted my companies.”
“He wanted the Violet Archive. Your companies were only the key.”
Sofia turned to Liana. “Dante plans to release the compound’s records tomorrow. He will sell the identities of every child in the archive to the highest bidder.”
“How many children?” Liana asked.
“Ninety-two.”
Liana looked at Nora. “What about the others?”
“Some are hidden. Some are in families who do not know their children were switched. Some are dead.”
Matteo’s voice became quiet. “Why did you let me believe you died?”
Sofia’s expression cracked. “I tried to reach you. Dante had men watching the estate. Every message I sent disappeared. When I escaped, Kessler told me you had ordered the crash.”
Matteo flinched.
“He showed me forged documents,” Sofia continued. “He said you had chosen the business over us. I believed him until I found the recordings.”
Liana looked around the room. “Where are they?”
Sofia pointed toward a piano covered by a sheet.
“Inside.”
Mrs. Bell hurried to it and found a hidden compartment beneath the keys. Inside were drives, ledgers, and a sealed envelope addressed to Liana.
Liana opened it.
The letter was from Sofia.
“You do not know me,” it began, “but I have heard you sing to Nora through the hospital wall. I heard her answer you. I knew then that your child had been selected. If I could not protect her, I promised myself that I would at least make sure someone remembered her name.”
Liana pressed the letter to her chest.
The house lights suddenly came on.
A slow clap echoed from downstairs.
Dante’s voice rose through the stairwell.
“Family reunions are so touching.”
Sofia’s face went white.
Matteo moved to the door. “How did he find us?”
Mrs. Bell looked at the blue light above them.
“The house has a transmitter.”
The blue light blinked.
Nico began screaming in Elena’s arms. Nora started screaming too. Within seconds, every baby in the room was crying.
The sound became unbearable.
Sofia grabbed Liana’s shoulders. “The frequency. He is using the monitor frequency.”
Liana understood. The sound was not merely a signal. It was the trigger that caused the children to panic.
She began singing.
One by one, Nora and Nico quieted.
Sofia stared at her. “Your voice breaks the conditioning.”
“Then I’ll keep singing.”
Matteo looked down the stairs. “We need to get out.”
“There is a tunnel under the kitchen,” Sofia said. “It leads to the river.”
They moved quickly. Liana carried Nora, Elena carried Nico, and Matteo stayed behind them. Dante’s men entered the top floor as they reached the stairwell.
Gunfire shattered the walls.
Matteo returned fire while Sofia pulled open a hidden door behind the kitchen shelves. The tunnel beyond smelled of ice and earth.
They rushed inside.
Behind them, Dante shouted, “You can’t save all ninety-two!”
Matteo looked back through the closing door.
“I only need to save one tonight.”
Liana held Nora closer.
May you like
But on the far side of the tunnel, a red light began to flash.
Someone had already reached the river exit.
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