Chapter 6 - THE CHILD WHO WAS NEVER BURIED
-6-
For twenty-two days, Liana Graves had believed she had buried her son.
By midnight, she no longer knew whose child had been inside that tiny white coffin.
She sat motionless in Matteo Varric’s private study while rain struck the enormous windows overlooking the city. Nico slept against her chest, one small fist curled into the fabric of her borrowed cardigan.
Across the room, Matteo stood behind his desk with both hands pressed against the polished wood.
Neither of them spoke.
Dr. Samuel Hale’s words still seemed to hang in the room.
The blood test had been repeated twice.
Then a third time.
Nico Varric was not biologically related to Elena Varric.
Matteo’s dead wife.
And the hospital record showing Elena had given birth to him nine months earlier contained several impossible details.
A nurse’s signature belonging to a woman who had died six months before Nico was born.
A pediatrician who had been attending a medical conference in Boston that night.
And an infant identification number originally registered to another mother.
Liana Graves.
Matteo finally lifted his eyes.
“Say it again.”
Dr. Hale remained near the fireplace.
His normally confident voice was quiet.
“The hospital identification code assigned to Nico on the night of his birth was originally attached to Mrs. Graves’s file.”
Liana felt the room tilt.
“My file?”
“Yes.”
“But I gave birth eight months later.”
Dr. Hale hesitated.
“That is what your medical records say.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“What are you not saying?”
Hale looked toward Nico.
Then toward Liana.
“Someone edited both sets of records.”
Liana stopped breathing.
Matteo stepped around the desk.
“How extensively?”
“Enough that whoever did it had administrative access. Dates were altered. admission times changed. Blood samples reassigned.”
Liana pressed Nico closer.
“But why?”
Nobody answered.
Her voice rose.
“Why would anyone alter the records of two women who didn’t know each other?”
Matteo stared at the infant sleeping in her arms.
Perhaps, Liana realized, he already knew the answer he feared.
He walked toward the locked cabinet beside his desk.
From it, he removed a thin black file.
Liana had seen men carry weapons with less caution.
Matteo placed it on the table.
“What is that?”
“The investigation into Elena’s death.”
Liana looked up sharply.
Matteo opened the folder.
“My wife died eleven months ago.”
“I know.”
“The official report said her car left the road during heavy rain.”
His mouth hardened.
“I never believed it.”
Liana’s eyes moved across photographs, reports, maps.
Matteo continued.
“Elena had become frightened during the final months of her pregnancy. She wouldn’t tell me why.”
“You said Nico was nine months old.”
“He is.”
Liana frowned.
“Then Elena died after giving birth.”
Matteo shook his head slowly.
“Elena died before I ever met Nico.”
Silence.
Liana looked at him.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No.”
His eyes turned cold.
“It doesn’t.”
Matteo pulled another document from the file.
“My son was brought to me three days after Elena died.”
“By whom?”
“My mother.”
Liana stiffened.
Matteo saw it.
“My mother told me Elena had secretly delivered early because there had been threats against our family.”
“You believed her?”
“My wife was dead. I had spent seventy-two hours trying to discover who killed her. Then my mother walked into this house carrying a baby and told me he was my son.”
His voice broke almost imperceptibly.
“I wanted to believe something of Elena had survived.”
Liana looked down at Nico.
A terrible thought slowly formed.
“Did you ever do a DNA test?”
Matteo’s silence answered.
Liana stared at him.
“You didn’t.”
“I didn’t think I needed one.”
“Matteo…”
“I know.”
It was the first time she had called him by his first name.
Neither seemed to notice.
Dr. Hale quietly said, “There’s something else.”
Matteo turned.
Hale removed an envelope.
“I tested Nico against the sample we collected from Liana.”
Liana’s heart stopped.
Matteo’s face became unreadable.
Hale swallowed.
“The probability of maternity is 99.998 percent.”
For several seconds, the storm outside was the only sound.
Liana stared at him.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Nico stirred against her.
She stood too quickly.
“You’re wrong.”
“Liana—”
“No.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“My baby died.”
Hale stepped forward.
“The tests—”
“I held him.”
Her voice cracked.
“I held my son after they told me he was gone.”
Neither man moved.
Liana’s face twisted with pain.
“I kissed his forehead.”
The memory came back brutally.
The small hospital room.
The gray morning.
The nurse who had refused to turn on the bright lights.
The blanket wrapped tightly around a tiny body.
Liana had been weak from medication.
Her vision blurry.
She had touched one tiny cheek.
Cold.
She had cried until she could barely breathe.
“I buried him.”
She whispered the words.
“I buried my baby.”
Hale’s eyes changed.
“What medication were you given after delivery?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were you conscious when they first brought the infant to you?”
“Barely.”
Matteo looked at Hale.
“What are you thinking?”
The doctor answered slowly.
“If the records were manipulated, then we can’t assume the child shown to Liana was hers.”
Liana froze.
Matteo’s face drained of color.
Hale continued.
“The coffin was closed, correct?”
Liana nodded faintly.
“The funeral director said there had been complications.”
Matteo immediately reached for his phone.
Liana realized what he intended.
Her hand shot out.
“No.”
He stopped.
She was shaking.
“Don’t open that grave.”
“Liana.”
“Don’t.”
“If there is evidence—”
“That’s my son’s grave.”
Matteo came closer.
“What if it isn’t?”
That question destroyed her.
Liana covered her mouth.
A sob escaped.
Nico woke.
His eyes opened.
And almost immediately, he reached toward her face.
Liana stared at him through tears.
The baby touched her cheek.
Something deep inside her—something instinctive and older than logic—collapsed.
She kissed his tiny fingers.
Matteo turned away, giving her privacy that the room could not.
Then a soft knock sounded.
One of Matteo’s men entered.
His name was Dominic Russo, and unlike the other guards, he had known Matteo since childhood.
“Boss.”
Matteo looked at him.
“What?”
Dominic held a tablet.
“We found the nurse.”
Hale frowned.
“What nurse?”
“The woman listed on Liana’s delivery records.”
Liana turned sharply.
Matteo asked, “Where is she?”
Dominic’s expression was grim.
“She disappeared twenty-one days ago.”
The day after Liana’s son supposedly died.
Matteo’s eyes hardened.
“Name?”
“Cynthia Rowe.”
Liana suddenly felt cold.
She knew that name.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She whispered, “That wasn’t the nurse who cared for me.”
Dominic stared.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Liana’s breathing quickened.
“The nurse called herself Anna.”
Matteo glanced at Dominic.
“Find Anna.”
“I already started.”
Dominic hesitated.
“And there’s another problem.”
Matteo said nothing.
Dominic turned the tablet toward him.
A surveillance photograph filled the screen.
A woman leaving Saint Gabriel Medical Center on the night Liana gave birth.
She wore a nurse’s uniform.
Her face was partially turned toward the camera.
Matteo went completely still.
Liana saw his expression.
“You know her.”
Matteo did not answer.
“Who is she?”
His eyes remained fixed on the photograph.
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded unlike his own.
“That woman is Sofia.”
Liana waited.
Matteo raised his eyes.
“My mother’s private nurse.”
The door behind them opened.
Everyone turned.
A woman stood in the doorway.
Elegant.
Silver-haired.
Dressed in a cream silk robe.
Matteo’s mother, Isabella Varric.
Her gaze moved from Matteo…
to Liana…
and finally to Nico.
For a fraction of a second, fear crossed her face.
Then it disappeared.
“What are all of you doing awake?”
Nobody answered.
Isabella looked at the photograph on the tablet.
Her expression changed.
Matteo saw it.
“Mother.”
She looked at him.
“Tell me why your nurse was at Saint Gabriel the night Liana gave birth.”
Isabella’s face became perfectly still.
Then Nico made a small sound.
She looked toward him.
Not lovingly.
Not warmly.
She looked at Nico the way a person looks at evidence they believed had been destroyed.
May you like
And Liana understood something terrifying.
Isabella Varric already knew exactly whose baby she was holding.
