Chapter 4 - Subject Fourteen
4
Matteo read the words until they stopped looking like English.
SUBJECT 14 - ALIVE.
Liana stood several feet away holding Gabriel—Nico to everyone who had known him in the Varric house.
The truth had changed his name.
It had not changed the way Matteo loved him.
That realization was painful in a way Matteo could not explain.
For nine months, he had woken at night when the child cried.
Changed diapers badly.
Walked endless hallways.
Learned exactly which song made him sleep.
He had memorized every expression.
Blood did not erase nine months.
But somewhere, his biological son might still be alive.
“Where was Vale’s car?” Matteo asked.
Marco enlarged the photograph.
“Hudson River access road near Piermont.”
“Cameras?”
“Working on it.”
“Fingerprints?”
“Lab team is processing.”
Liana looked at the bracelet.
“What does subject fourteen mean?”
Nobody knew.
Caroline Moss was brought back into the room.
The moment she saw the photograph, she sat down heavily.
“You recognize it,” Matteo said.
“Yes.”
“What does fourteen mean?”
Caroline looked at him.
“It means Nico was part of the study.”
“What study?”
“I told you I never had access to that level.”
“You know enough.”
She rubbed her hands together.
“There were categories.”
“What categories?”
“Compatibility. Immunity. Hereditary markers.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo slammed one hand against the table.
Gabriel startled.
Liana immediately turned the child away.
Matteo saw it.
His anger disappeared.
“Sorry.”
The apology surprised everyone, including him.
Caroline whispered, “I heard Dr. Vale mention regeneration once.”
Matteo stared.
“Regeneration?”
“Yes.”
“Meaning?”
“Cellular therapies. Rare disorders.”
Marco leaned forward.
“You’re describing experimental medicine.”
“I think so.”
“On infants?”
“I don’t know.”
Liana’s face went white.
Caroline shook her head.
“I swear.”
Matteo asked, “Who financed it?”
“I never knew the name.”
“You said powerful people.”
“They used a foundation.”
“What foundation?”
Caroline hesitated.
“The Saint Aurelia Foundation.”
Matteo knew it.
Everyone wealthy in New York knew it.
Saint Aurelia funded pediatric hospitals, rare disease research, scholarships, neonatal programs.
Its annual gala filled society pages.
Its board included senators, billionaires, hospital directors.
And one member of Matteo’s family.
His uncle.
Alessandro Varric.
Matteo went completely still.
Marco noticed first.
“Boss?”
Matteo said nothing.
Liana asked, “What?”
“My uncle sits on Saint Aurelia’s board.”
Silence.
Caroline looked terrified.
“I didn’t know.”
Matteo believed her.
That did not make it better.
Alessandro had raised Matteo after his father died.
He had stood beside him at his wedding.
He had held Nico after Sofia’s funeral.
He had told Matteo family was the only thing enemies could never replace.
Replace.
The word now sounded different.
Matteo called him.
Alessandro answered on the third ring.
“Nephew.”
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Stay there.”
A pause.
“That sounds ominous.”
“I’m coming.”
Matteo hung up.
Liana blocked the doorway.
“You can’t go alone.”
Matteo stared at her.
“You think I need protection?”
“I think you’re angry.”
“I am.”
“And angry people miss things.”
Marco almost smiled.
Matteo did not.
“What are you suggesting?”
“Bring me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“You’ve already lost enough.”
“So have you.”
That ended the argument.
Forty minutes later, Liana entered Alessandro Varric’s townhouse carrying Gabriel.
Matteo hated that she brought the baby.
She refused to leave him behind.
“I spent twenty-two days thinking he was underground,” she said. “I’m not letting him out of my sight.”
Alessandro greeted them in the drawing room.
He was seventy-one.
Silver hair.
Perfect suit.
Calm smile.
Then he saw Liana.
The smile vanished.
Only for a second.
Matteo noticed.
“You know her.”
Alessandro recovered.
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“I reacted because you arrived with a maid and a baby.”
Liana stared at him.
“I’ve seen you.”
Alessandro’s eyes shifted toward her.
“No, you haven’t.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
She searched her memory.
Then remembered St. Augustine.
The morning Gabriel died.
A man had walked past her near the private elevators.
Silver hair.
Dark coat.
A doctor had opened a restricted door for him.
“You were at the hospital.”
Alessandro’s expression hardened.
Matteo stepped forward.
“February seventh?”
His uncle said nothing.
“Answer.”
“I sit on the foundation board. I visit hospitals.”
“Convenient.”
Alessandro looked toward Gabriel.
“So you discovered the mix-up.”
Mix-up.
Liana felt physically sick.
Matteo’s voice became deadly quiet.
“You already knew.”
“I suspected.”
“Since when?”
Alessandro poured himself a drink.
“Matteo.”
“Since when?”
“Months.”
Matteo crossed the room.
Marco shifted near the door.
Alessandro raised one hand.
“Control yourself.”
“Where is my son?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
Matteo grabbed his uncle by the collar.
Gabriel began crying.
Liana turned away.
“Matteo.”
He released Alessandro.
His uncle adjusted his jacket.
“This is exactly why Sofia didn’t tell you.”
Matteo froze.
“What?”
“She knew what you would do.”
“You spoke to her.”
“Of course.”
“About Vale?”
“Yes.”
“You knew she was investigating him.”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing after she died?”
Alessandro’s silence was answer enough.
Matteo’s face lost all emotion.
“Why?”
His uncle looked tired.
“Because your father began this.”
That sentence silenced the room.
Matteo stepped back.
“My father died twenty-one years ago.”
“Yes.”
“What did he begin?”
“The Varric Continuity Project.”
Liana felt Gabriel’s fingers tighten around hers.
Matteo stared.
“You’re lying.”
Alessandro went toward a locked cabinet.
Marco moved.
Matteo lifted a hand.
Let him.
Alessandro retrieved a thick folder.
He placed it on the table.
Photographs spilled out.
Children.
Dozens of them.
Babies.
Toddlers.
Older children.
Medical charts.
Blood types.
Genetic sequences.
And photographs of Matteo.
As a child.
As a teenager.
As an adult.
“What is this?”
Alessandro sat.
“Your father developed a hereditary blood disorder in his twenties.”
“I know.”
“He believed you inherited the risk.”
“I was tested.”
“With public medicine.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he didn’t trust the results.”
Alessandro pointed toward the files.
“He funded private research.”
“On children?”
“At first, family samples.”
“At first?”
“The research expanded.”
Matteo looked disgusted.
“You let them experiment on babies.”
“No.”
“You’re going to choose your next word carefully.”
“I stopped participating after your father died.”
“But you stayed on the foundation board.”
“To watch them.”
“Did a great job.”
Alessandro flinched.
Liana studied the photographs.
One picture caught her attention.
A hospital nursery.
Three bassinets.
Each had a number.
She pulled it closer.
“Matteo.”
He looked.
Bassinet fourteen contained a newborn.
Dark hair.
Tiny fists.
A label on the side.
VARRIC.
Matteo’s knees almost weakened.
“My son.”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
“That photograph arrived anonymously after Sofia died.”
“Why didn’t you give it to me?”
“I thought the child you had was Nico.”
“You knew there was another baby?”
“I didn’t understand the photograph.”
“You understood enough to hide it.”
Alessandro looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Liana turned the photo over.
An address was written on the back.
No.
Not an address.
Coordinates.
Marco entered them into his phone.
He looked up.
“Upstate.”
“Where?”
“An abandoned Saint Aurelia research facility near Lake George.”
Alessandro stood immediately.
“That building closed twelve years ago.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Apparently not.”
They left within ten minutes.
Alessandro insisted on joining.
Matteo almost refused.
Then decided he wanted him close.
During the drive, Liana sat in the rear with Gabriel.
Matteo watched the road.
“What happens if he’s there?”
Liana asked.
“My son?”
“Yes.”
Matteo’s hands tightened.
“I bring him home.”
“And Gabriel?”
The question hit harder.
Matteo looked in the mirror.
Gabriel slept against Liana.
“What about him?”
“He’s mine.”
“I know.”
“But you raised him.”
“I know.”
“What happens?”
Matteo looked back at the road.
“I don’t know.”
It was the first time she had ever heard him admit fear.
They reached the facility shortly after midnight.
The main gate was chained.
Marco cut it.
The building beyond looked abandoned.
Dark windows.
Peeling walls.
Dead landscaping.
But when they entered, Liana heard something.
A hum.
Electricity.
Marco found a hidden panel behind a wall.
A keypad.
Alessandro stared at it.
“I know that code.”
Matteo looked at him.
“How?”
“My brother used it.”
Matteo’s father.
Alessandro entered six digits.
The wall unlocked.
Behind it was an elevator.
The group descended three floors underground.
When the doors opened, lights flickered on automatically.
Liana covered her mouth.
Rows of medical rooms stretched ahead.
Not abandoned.
Clean.
Recently used.
On the wall hung dozens of photographs.
Children.
Each labeled with a number.
Matteo walked slowly.
Subject 6.
Subject 9.
Subject 11.
Subject 13.
Then—
Subject 14.
A photograph of a baby.
Matteo stopped.
His son.
Nico.
A date beneath the photograph showed it had been taken six weeks ago.
Alive.
Matteo touched the picture.
Then alarms began screaming.
Red lights flashed.
Marco shouted, “Someone knows we’re here!”
They moved down the corridor.
Doors began locking automatically.
At the far end, Liana saw a room through glass.
A crib.
Small toys.
A blanket.
And on the floor beside it—
a recent photograph.
Two baby boys together.
One was Gabriel.
The other was Nico.
May you like
Written beneath them were four words:
PHASE TWO REQUIRES BOTH.
