Chapter 2 - The Baby in the Closed Coffin
2
Liana did not remember sitting down.
One moment she was standing with Nico in her arms.
The next she was on the sofa, gripping the baby so tightly Matteo had to tell her to breathe.
“Liana.”
She stared at Nico’s face.
“Liana.”
“What?”
“You’re hurting him.”
She immediately loosened her hold.
Nico did not cry.
He looked up at her with calm, dark eyes.
Gabriel had looked at her like that.
Not similar.
Exactly like that.
The thought was impossible.
Dangerous.
Cruel.
Yet grief had taught Liana that impossible things still happened.
“My son is dead,” she whispered.
Matteo stayed standing across from her.
“Maybe.”
Her head snapped up.
“Don’t say that.”
“I’m not trying to give you hope.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Telling you we don’t know enough to bury any possibility.”
“I buried him.”
Matteo’s expression tightened.
Liana’s voice cracked.
“I watched them lower the coffin.”
“Did you see his body?”
The question struck harder than she expected.
“Yes.”
But she said it too quickly.
Matteo noticed.
“Did you?”
Liana looked away.
She remembered St. Augustine.
The white walls.
The smell of disinfectant.
Dr. Vale standing beside a nurse.
His carefully practiced expression.
Mrs. Graves, I’m so sorry.
There was nothing more we could do.
They had not allowed her into the operating room.
Afterward they had told her Gabriel’s condition was too traumatic.
She had begged.
She had screamed.
She had demanded to hold him.
Dr. Vale had explained that the emergency procedure had caused extensive swelling and discoloration.
He had recommended she remember Gabriel as he had been.
Eventually, devastated and sedated, Liana had agreed.
The funeral home had received the body directly from the hospital.
The coffin had remained closed.
“No,” she whispered.
Matteo’s eyes sharpened.
“I never saw him after surgery.”
Nico suddenly made a soft sound.
Liana looked down.
Matteo spoke more quietly.
“Who arranged the funeral?”
“The hospital social worker helped.”
“Name?”
“Caroline Moss.”
Matteo took out his phone again.
Liana grabbed his wrist.
“No.”
Both of them looked at her hand.
She immediately released him.
“Sorry.”
“What?”
“If you start digging loudly, whoever did this will know.”
Matteo studied her.
“You think like someone who has been afraid before.”
“My ex taught me.”
“Evan?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
Liana hesitated.
“Nothing I can prove.”
Matteo’s stare remained fixed.
“He disappeared two weeks before Gabriel was born.”
“You said that.”
“What I didn’t say was that three months later he came back.”
“Why?”
“He wanted Gabriel.”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“He had abandoned you.”
“I know.”
“What reason did he give?”
“He said he’d made a mistake. Said becoming a father scared him.”
“You believed him?”
“For about five minutes.”
“What changed?”
“He asked whether Gabriel had been tested.”
“For what?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Matteo became completely still.
“Repeat that.”
Liana swallowed.
“He asked if the hospital had done blood tests.”
“What hospital?”
“Gabriel was born at Mercy General.”
Matteo began pacing.
“Did Evan know your son’s blood type?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you?”
“O positive.”
Nico’s medical documents listed AB negative.
At least that was what Matteo had been told.
He looked toward the child.
“What blood type are you?”
“O positive.”
Matteo stopped.
His was AB negative.
His wife, Sofia, had been A negative.
Biologically, an O-positive child would be impossible for them.
But Nico was supposedly AB negative.
That difference mattered.
“Have you ever seen Nico’s blood test?”
Liana asked.
Matteo stared at her.
“No.”
“Then you only know what the record says.”
“Correct.”
Before he could continue, his phone buzzed.
A message appeared.
Marco had sent an address.
Caroline Moss.
The hospital social worker.
Matteo looked at the timestamp.
Then another message arrived.
SHE LEFT ST. AUGUSTINE 3 WEEKS AGO.
Liana noticed his face.
“What?”
“The woman who arranged your funeral resigned three weeks ago.”
Her heart pounded.
“When?”
“Two days before Gabriel died.”
The horror of the timeline settled between them.
Matteo called Marco.
“I want Caroline Moss found before sunrise.”
He paused.
“No contact. No threats. Just find her.”
Liana looked surprised.
Matteo noticed.
“You expected something else?”
“You’re Matteo Varric.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means people disappear when you’re angry.”
Something cold passed through his expression.
“Sometimes.”
Liana tightened her hold on Nico.
“But not tonight?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone used my son to hide a crime, I want answers before I want revenge.”
The sentence should have terrified her.
Instead, strangely, it made her trust him a fraction more.
Hours passed.
Matteo moved them into a smaller room upstairs near Nico’s nursery.
No one was permitted inside except a housekeeper named Teresa, who brought water and food.
Liana refused to leave Nico.
Every time Matteo tried taking him, the baby became restless.
Eventually Matteo stopped arguing.
At 3:41 a.m., Marco entered.
He was tall, broad-shouldered, with a scar above one eyebrow.
“Boss.”
Matteo stood.
“What?”
“We found Caroline Moss.”
Liana sat upright.
“Where?”
Marco glanced at her.
Matteo nodded permission.
“Bus station in Albany.”
“Running?”
“Looks like it.”
“Bring her.”
Marco hesitated.
“She’s scared.”
“Of us?”
“No.”
That changed the room.
“Who?”
“She keeps repeating one name.”
Liana’s skin prickled.
“Whose?”
Marco looked at Matteo.
“Dr. Vale.”
By 5:10 a.m., Caroline Moss was seated in Matteo Varric’s private library.
She was fifty-three, thin, exhausted, and trembling badly enough that the glass of water in her hands rattled.
Liana sat opposite her with Nico asleep against her chest.
The moment Caroline saw Liana, she began crying.
“Oh God.”
Liana’s heart stopped.
Caroline covered her mouth.
“Oh God, no.”
Matteo moved between them.
“You know her?”
Caroline stared at Liana.
“I’m sorry.”
Liana stood.
“For what?”
Caroline sobbed harder.
“Please.”
“For what?”
Matteo’s voice became sharp.
“Answer her.”
Caroline looked at Nico.
Then at Liana.
“You weren’t supposed to work here.”
“What does that mean?”
“I checked your employment file.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Liana stared.
“I only started yesterday.”
“I know.”
“Why would a hospital social worker check where I work?”
Caroline shook her head violently.
“I’m not a social worker anymore.”
“Then what were you?”
Caroline looked toward Matteo.
“A monitor.”
Matteo’s expression darkened.
“For whom?”
“Dr. Vale.”
Liana stepped closer.
“Monitor what?”
“Families.”
“What families?”
Caroline shut her eyes.
“Babies.”
The room seemed to lose oxygen.
Matteo approached.
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“How many?”
“Dozens.”
Liana nearly dropped into the chair.
Caroline continued.
“Some were premature. Some had rare blood types. Some had congenital conditions. Some were perfectly healthy.”
“What did Vale do to them?”
Caroline shook her head.
“I never saw everything.”
“You saw enough.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Caroline looked at Nico.
Then whispered the words none of them were prepared to hear.
“Replacement.”
Matteo’s face became stone.
“Explain.”
“Dr. Vale ran a private network.”
“What kind of network?”
Caroline’s voice shook.
“Children were moved between families.”
Liana stared.
“No.”
“Sometimes illegally adopted. Sometimes hidden.”
“No.”
“Sometimes substituted.”
Liana’s knees weakened.
“For dead babies?”
Caroline began crying again.
“Yes.”
Nico woke and shifted against Liana.
She barely noticed.
Matteo’s hand closed around the back of a chair.
“What happened to Nico?”
Caroline stared at the floor.
“I don’t know which child he originally was.”
Originally.
The word sliced through the room.
Matteo stepped closer.
“You know something.”
Caroline nodded.
“Your wife found out.”
Everything stopped.
“Sofia?”
“She discovered Dr. Vale’s program.”
“When?”
“Before Nico was born.”
Matteo’s face tightened.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“She tried.”
“No.”
“She was afraid.”
“Of me?”
“Of what would happen if the people behind Vale knew you knew.”
“Who was behind him?”
Caroline shook her head.
“I never saw them.”
Matteo leaned over her.
“Think very carefully before you lie.”
“I’m not lying.”
“Then tell me what Sofia discovered.”
Caroline looked at him.
“Your wife learned that Vale wasn’t merely selling babies.”
“What was he doing?”
“He was tracking bloodlines.”
Liana’s stomach twisted.
“What does that mean?”
Caroline wiped her eyes.
“Certain children were worth more.”
“Why?”
“Genetics.”
Matteo went silent.
“Whose genetics?”
Caroline looked toward Nico.
“Yours.”
Matteo did not react.
That frightened Liana more than anger would have.
Caroline continued.
“Sofia believed someone had been collecting biological samples from members of your family for years.”
“For what purpose?”
“I never knew.”
“You expect me to believe someone built an operation around my family’s DNA?”
“No.”
Caroline’s face collapsed.
“I expect you to understand that your wife died because she discovered it.”
Matteo froze.
Officially, Sofia Varric had died from catastrophic hemorrhaging during childbirth.
Caroline shook her head.
“She didn’t die because of complications.”
Liana tightened her arms around Nico.
Caroline whispered:
“They killed her.”
Matteo’s voice dropped to almost nothing.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is becoming dangerous.”
“I swear.”
Caroline reached into her coat.
Marco immediately stepped forward.
She stopped.
“It’s paper.”
Matteo nodded.
Caroline removed a folded document.
She held it toward Liana.
“What is it?”
“Your son’s cremation authorization.”
Liana stared at it.
“My son wasn’t cremated.”
Caroline looked up.
“I know.”
Liana took the paper.
A handwritten number appeared beneath Gabriel Graves’s name.
C-7714.
“What is that?”
Caroline whispered:
“It was Dr. Vale’s internal transfer code.”
Liana’s vision blurred.
“Transfer where?”
“I don’t know.”
She shook her head desperately.
“But Gabriel Graves was never listed as deceased in Vale’s private ledger.”
Liana’s entire body turned cold.
“What was he listed as?”
Caroline closed her eyes.
“Transferred.”
Silence.
Nico opened his eyes.
Liana stared down at him.
Caroline continued.
“There’s one more thing.”
Nobody moved.
“The body in Gabriel’s coffin wasn’t Gabriel.”
Liana stopped breathing.
May you like
Caroline’s next words shattered the last piece of the life she thought she understood.
“There was never a baby inside that coffin at all.”
