Chapter 8 - THE SHEPHERD'S LIST
-8-
Dominic Russo had protected Matteo Varric for seventeen years.
He had taken a bullet for him in Brooklyn.
He had carried Matteo’s father’s coffin.
He had stood beside Matteo at Elena’s funeral.
Now he stood in Matteo’s study holding proof that his own family had been connected to the organization that stole Liana’s child.
Matteo looked at him for a long time.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
“I didn’t know about the babies.”
“You had that coin.”
“My father gave it to me when he was dying.”
Matteo’s voice remained flat.
“And told you to kill me.”
“If you reopened Elena’s case.”
“And you never thought to mention this?”
Dominic’s eyes lowered.
“I thought he was delirious.”
Matteo crossed the room.
Dominic did not move.
They stood inches apart.
“If I discover you knew anything—”
“You’ll kill me.”
Dominic nodded.
“I know.”
Liana watched from the sofa with Nico sleeping against her.
Violence no longer frightened her the way it once had.
The truth frightened her more.
Matteo stepped away.
“Tell me everything your father said.”
Dominic breathed slowly.
“He said Elena found the Shepherd’s List.”
Isabella stiffened.
Matteo noticed.
“What list?”
She answered reluctantly.
“A ledger.”
“What was in it?”
“Children.”
Liana’s throat tightened.
Isabella continued.
“Birth mothers. Recipient families. Payments. Medical staff. Judges who sealed records.”
Matteo stared.
“How many children?”
“Hundreds.”
Liana closed her eyes.
Dominic said, “My father claimed Elena copied it.”
Matteo looked toward the file on his desk.
“She never gave me anything.”
“Maybe she hid it.”
“For eleven months?”
“She died before she could tell you.”
Matteo turned to Isabella.
“Where would Elena hide something from me?”
A strange sadness passed over Isabella’s face.
“She trusted you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“She also knew your house better than anyone.”
Matteo looked around the study.
Then something changed in his expression.
He walked toward the fireplace.
Above it hung a large oil painting of the Varric family estate in Sicily.
Elena had hated that painting.
She had once called it “the ugliest expensive thing in Manhattan.”
Matteo had refused to remove it because his father loved it.
Elena had laughed.
Then, one week before her death, she had suddenly insisted the painting be professionally cleaned.
Matteo reached behind the frame.
His hand stopped.
Dominic stepped closer.
“What?”
Matteo pulled out a tiny black memory card taped beneath the wooden edge.
Nobody breathed.
Isabella whispered, “Elena.”
Matteo inserted the card into an isolated computer.
The screen filled with folders.
Photos.
Scanned birth certificates.
Bank transfers.
Hospital logs.
Hundreds of names.
Liana covered her mouth.
Matteo scrolled.
Some transactions dated back twenty-eight years.
Others were less than a month old.
The network had never ended.
It was still operating.
Then Liana saw a folder.
GRAVES, LIANA.
“Stop.”
Matteo did.
She stood.
Her knees felt weak.
“Open it.”
Inside were photographs of her.
Leaving the grocery store.
Standing outside her apartment.
Attending prenatal appointments.
Sleeping beside a hospital window.
Liana’s hand flew to her mouth.
“They watched me.”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
There was also a financial document.
SUBJECT 84-17.
PLACEMENT FEE: $750,000.
RECIPIENT FAMILY: PENDING.
STATUS: DIVERTED BY E.V.
Matteo stared.
E.V.
Elena Varric.
Liana began crying silently.
Elena had stopped them.
Whatever else had happened afterward, Matteo’s wife had interfered.
She had saved Nico from being sold.
Then another file appeared.
DIVERSION FAILURE.
It contained a photograph.
Elena standing in a parking garage.
Beside her was Sofia.
Between them, a man in a dark coat.
His face was partly visible.
Dominic went white.
Matteo turned.
“You know him.”
Dominic whispered, “Yes.”
“Who?”
“My father.”
The room went still.
Dominic stared at the photograph as though it had reached through the screen and struck him.
“My father met Elena.”
Matteo’s gaze sharpened.
“When?”
“Two nights before she died.”
Isabella sank into a chair.
Matteo opened the next image.
Dominic’s father handed Elena an envelope.
The next file was an audio recording.
Matteo pressed play.
Static.
Then Elena’s voice.
“If something happens to me, Lorenzo’s son cannot know until the child is safe.”
Another voice.
Dominic’s father.
“He will tear the city apart.”
“He has to.”
“You’re asking him to destroy his father’s legacy.”
“No.”
Elena’s voice became clear.
“I’m asking him to decide whether he wants to inherit it.”
The recording ended.
Matteo sat motionless.
Liana watched him.
For all his reputation, power and brutality, in that moment he looked like a son discovering the foundation of his entire life was rotten.
Matteo reopened the directory.
There were dozens of encrypted folders.
Dominic pointed.
“That one.”
A folder titled SHEPHERD.
Password protected.
Matteo tried Elena’s birthday.
Nothing.
Their wedding date.
Nothing.
Then Liana noticed the clue beneath the password field.
FIRST CRY.
She looked at Nico.
“What time was he born?”
“I don’t know.”
“The real time.”
Matteo searched Liana’s original medical chart.
The altered version listed 3:11 a.m.
But a photograph in Elena’s file showed a wristband.
Nico Graves.
1:47 A.M.
Matteo typed 0147.
The folder opened.
Inside was one document.
THE SHEPHERD IS NOT ONE MAN.
A second line appeared.
IT IS A TITLE.
Matteo scrolled.
Each generation had a Shepherd.
The position transferred after death or retirement.
Liana felt sick.
“So killing one person wouldn’t stop it.”
“No.”
Dominic leaned toward the monitor.
“There.”
A list of initials.
Former Shepherds.
L.V.
Matteo’s father.
Then P.R.
Then A.C.
Then the current name.
M.V.
Nobody moved.
Matteo stared at the letters.
Liana looked at him.
“M.V.”
His face slowly hardened.
“No.”
Isabella stood.
“What is it?”
Matteo turned toward her.
“Who else in this family has those initials?”
Nobody answered.
Because they all knew.
There was only one.
Matteo’s uncle.
Marcello Varric.
The man who had raised Matteo after Lorenzo’s death.
The man Matteo called his second father.
The man who had delivered the eulogy at Elena’s funeral.
The man who had kissed Nico’s forehead during his baptism.
Matteo closed his eyes.
Dominic whispered, “Marcello is the Shepherd.”
Before anyone could respond, every light in the mansion went out.
Darkness swallowed the study.
Liana clutched Nico.
Matteo’s voice cut through the black.
“Nobody move.”
A second later, alarms began screaming.
Dominic drew his weapon.
Then a sound came from the hallway.
Three quiet knocks.
Pause.
Two knocks.
Isabella gasped.
Matteo turned toward her.
“What?”
“That was Lorenzo’s signal.”
“What signal?”
May you like
Isabella’s face became bloodless.
“The Shepherd has entered the house.”
