Chapter 13 - THE WOMAN MATTEO BURIED
13
Matteo stared at the photograph until the edges bent beneath his fingers.
Sofia.
There was no question.
Her face was partially turned away from the camera, but Matteo knew the slope of her shoulders, the dark waves of her hair, the gold bracelet on her wrist.
He had bought that bracelet in Florence during their fifth anniversary trip.
His wife had worn it every day.
Including the night she died.
Or the night Matteo had been told she died.
Liana stood beside him in Maribel Santos’s ruined apartment.
“You said your wife was killed.”
Matteo did not answer immediately.
Ten months earlier, Sofia Varric had supposedly died when her vehicle exploded on a private road outside the city.
The car had burned so completely that identification had depended on dental records.
Matteo had never seen her body.
His advisers told him he should not.
They said there was nothing recognizable left.
He had accepted it.
Because grief made people accept things they would question under any other circumstances.
Now he understood how badly he had been manipulated.
“I buried a coffin too,” Matteo said quietly.
Liana looked at him.
Two funerals.
Two empty truths.
Two people grieving bodies they had never truly seen.
Matteo took the photograph and turned it over.
Words were written across the back.
THE CHILDREN REMEMBER HER.
Beneath that sentence was an address.
Liana read it.
“Saint Armand Institute.”
Matteo knew the name.
A private neurological research center forty miles outside the city.
It had closed five years earlier after losing funding.
At least officially.
Within thirty minutes, Matteo had three vehicles moving toward the property.
Dominic protested.
“You should wait.”
“No.”
“We don’t know what’s inside.”
“That’s why I’m going.”
“You have Nico at home.”
Matteo’s expression tightened.
Nico had remained at the estate under the protection of three trusted men and Matteo’s aunt Elena.
For the first time since Nico’s birth, Matteo hated being away from him.
But if Eva was alive, there was no choice.
Liana sat beside him in the back seat.
“You think Sofia did this?”
“I don’t know.”
“She was in the picture.”
“I know.”
“She was standing over my daughter.”
Matteo turned toward her.
“I know.”
Liana’s voice sharpened.
“Stop saying that.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to tell me whether I’m walking into a building to find my child or the woman who stole her.”
Matteo had no answer.
So he gave her the truth.
“I don’t know who Sofia became before she disappeared.”
Liana looked toward the window.
Matteo continued.
“Our marriage had changed.”
“When?”
“After Nico arrived.”
“You mean after you thought Nico was born.”
That correction hurt more than Matteo expected.
“Yes.”
He rubbed a hand across his jaw.
“Sofia became protective of him in ways I didn’t understand. She wouldn’t let anyone photograph him. She fired nurses without explanation. She insisted Dr. Kane make every medical decision.”
“Did she ever tell you why?”
“No.”
“Did you ask?”
Matteo looked at her.
“Not enough.”
That was the truth he would have to live with.
The gates of Saint Armand Institute were chained shut.
Matteo’s men cut through them.
The main building stood behind overgrown trees.
Three stories.
Gray concrete.
Broken windows.
It looked abandoned.
But the security cameras mounted along the roof were new.
Matteo noticed immediately.
“So much for closed,” Dominic muttered.
They entered through the side.
Inside, the halls smelled of bleach.
Fresh bleach.
Lights flickered overhead.
Someone had been there recently.
Liana’s breathing changed.
Matteo glanced toward her.
“You can stay behind me.”
“No.”
“Liana.”
“My daughter might be here.”
He did not argue again.
They moved deeper.
Room after room appeared empty.
Hospital beds.
Cabinets.
Old monitors.
Then one of Matteo’s men called from farther down the hall.
“Boss.”
Matteo and Liana hurried toward him.
He stood in front of a steel door.
Fresh scratches marked the lock.
Matteo opened it.
Inside was a nursery.
Not abandoned.
Prepared.
Two cribs stood against the wall.
A rocking chair.
Baby formula.
Clean blankets.
Diapers.
Liana stepped inside.
Her eyes immediately found one crib.
A small knitted rabbit rested on the mattress.
She picked it up.
Her hands began shaking.
“I made this.”
Matteo stared at her.
“What?”
“For Eva.”
She pressed the rabbit against her chest.
“I made this when I was seven months pregnant.”
Someone had taken it with her daughter.
A monitor beside the crib flashed.
Matteo walked over.
The screen displayed medical logs.
SUBJECT A.
SUBJECT B.
Heart rate.
Medication.
Sleep patterns.
Responses to sound.
Behavioral reactions to female caregivers.
Matteo read one line twice.
Subject A demonstrates acute distress when separated from Subject B after prolonged paired exposure.
Nico had not been crying because he was sick.
He had been crying because he remembered Eva.
The babies had been together.
Long enough to bond.
Then someone separated them.
Liana whispered, “That’s why he calmed down with me.”
Matteo turned.
“What?”
“My smell.”
She looked stunned.
“If Eva was with Nico… and Eva smelled like me…”
Matteo finished the thought.
“Nico recognized something familiar.”
Liana sat down.
The truth was worse than any disease.
Nico’s cries had been grief.
Infant grief.
The sound of a child searching for someone taken away.
A door slammed somewhere below.
Everyone froze.
Matteo raised one hand.
His men moved immediately.
Footsteps echoed.
Fast.
Running.
Matteo followed.
Down the hall.
Past a stairwell.
Toward the rear wing.
A figure disappeared around the corner.
“Stop!”
The person kept moving.
Matteo rounded the corner and stopped.
A woman stood at the end of the corridor.
Thin.
Pale.
Dark hair falling around her shoulders.
Liana reached the corner behind him.
Matteo’s voice vanished.
“Sofia.”
The woman began crying.
Matteo took one step forward.
“You’re alive.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
“What?”
“No, Matteo.”
She backed toward a door.
“You don’t understand.”
Matteo’s face hardened.
“Then explain it.”
Sofia looked toward Liana.
Her eyes immediately found the knitted rabbit in Liana’s hands.
Her expression broke.
“Oh, God.”
Liana moved closer.
“Where is my daughter?”
Sofia covered her mouth.
Liana shouted, “WHERE IS EVA?”
Sofia whispered, “Alive.”
Liana nearly collapsed.
Matteo caught her arm.
“Where?”
Sofia began crying harder.
“She was alive when I saw her yesterday.”
“Yesterday?”
“Yes.”
Liana stumbled forward.
“Take me to her.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
Sofia looked toward Matteo.
“Because Kane moved her.”
Matteo’s face went cold.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Sofia shook violently.
“I tried to stop him.”
Matteo stared.
“You worked with him.”
“At first.”
Liana’s expression changed.
Matteo asked, “What did you do?”
Sofia closed her eyes.
“When Nico was born—”
“He wasn’t born to you.”
Sofia looked down.
“No.”
The corridor went silent.
Matteo took another step.
“Whose child is he?”
Sofia whispered something almost too quiet to hear.
Matteo’s face changed.
“Say it again.”
She raised her eyes.
“Nico is my sister’s son.”
Matteo stopped moving.
Sofia’s younger sister, Alessandra, had died eleven months earlier.
Supposedly from complications after a private surgery overseas.
Sofia continued.
“She discovered what Kane was doing.”
“What was he doing?”
“Running illegal neonatal trials.”
Matteo felt the room tilt.
“He was testing early neurological conditioning. Attachment disruption. Stress responses. Memory formation.”
Liana stared in horror.
“On babies?”
Sofia nodded.
“He needed children whose disappearances could be controlled.”
Matteo’s voice became deadly.
“And my name gave him protection.”
“Yes.”
Sofia wiped her face.
“Alessandra found out. She threatened to expose him.”
“What happened?”
“Kane killed her.”
Matteo closed his eyes briefly.
“Nico?”
“He took Nico before anyone knew Alessandra had delivered.”
“And you?”
“I agreed to pretend he was mine.”
Matteo looked at her as though she were a stranger.
“You brought a stolen child into my house.”
“I thought I was saving him.”
“You lied to me every day.”
“I know.”
“And Eva?”
Sofia looked at Liana.
“Kane needed another child close to Nico’s age.”
Liana’s face emptied.
“He chose my daughter?”
Sofia nodded.
“Because you were alone.”
The cruelty of those words nearly stopped the room.
No powerful family.
No husband.
No wealth.
No one Kane thought could fight back.
Liana whispered, “He chose her because nobody would care.”
Sofia shook her head.
“I cared.”
“After you helped steal her?”
“I didn’t know until later.”
Liana stared at her.
Then Sofia said something that changed the entire shape of the nightmare.
“Eva wasn’t originally Subject B.”
Matteo frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Sofia looked toward the nursery.
“There were others.”
“How many?”
May you like
Sofia whispered:
“Twenty-three.”
