Chapter 3 - BLOOD AND SHADOWS
The private lab technician arrived forty minutes later under the cover of a torrential downpour. Dr. Elias Thorne, a long-time confidant of the Varric family who owed his career to Matteo’s father, set up his portable equipment on the polished marble dining table.
The atmosphere in the grand dining room was suffocating. Liana sat on a velvet chair, refusing to lay Leo down. She held his small hand while Dr. Thorne carefully drew a tiny drop of blood from the boy's heel and swept a cheek swab across Liana's and Matteo's mouths.
"This rapid analyzer takes twenty minutes for a baseline maternal match," Dr. Thorne said, adjusting his spectacles. "Mr. Varric, are you certain you want to run this off the record?"
"Do it now, Elias," Matteo commanded, standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the rain strike the glass. "And if a single word of this leaves this room, you won't live to see sunrise."
Dr. Thorne nodded grimly, placing the samples into the thermal centrifuge.
While the machine hummed quietly in the corner, Matteo turned to Liana. "Tell me everything about the night your son died."
Liana swallowed hard, her mind retracing the darkest night of her life. "It was November 18th. Leo had a slight fever. I took him to Mercy General's pediatric emergency wing. They admitted him immediately. A nurse—she had a gold feather pin on her scrub top—told me Leo needed to be placed in an isolation incubator overnight for observation. They gave me a sedative because I was hyperventilating."
"Did you see Dr. Vance?"
"Yes. He came in at 3:00 AM. He told me... he told me Leo’s heart gave out due to a sudden congenital defect. They didn't let me hold him for long. He was wrapped tightly in blankets. I was so hysterical, so drugged... they rushed me through the paperwork for the funeral home within hours."
Matteo's jaw clenched. "Mercy General is owned by a healthcare conglomerate called Apex Health. Three months ago, Apex was acquired by a holding company called Sterling Investments. My sister, Julianna, sits on the board of Sterling."
Liana gasped. "She bought the hospital?"
"She financed it using Varric family trust funds," Matteo corrected, his voice dripping with malice. "Julianna has been trying to wrest control of the family empire from me for five years. When my wife died during Nico's birth, my father's will stipulated that control of the Varric shipping fortune would pass to me only if I produced a legitimate heir to carry the name."
He walked over to Liana, his eyes burning with a dark realization. "Three weeks ago, the real Nico—my biological son—developed a severe respiratory failure. Julianna was managing his private care at our estate in the countryside. If my son died, the fortune would be redistributed to Julianna."
"So she replaced him," Liana whispered in horror. "When your real baby died, she couldn't let you find out. She needed a substitute baby of the exact same age to keep the trust fund from shifting, and to keep you from digging into her management of the estate!"
"She found a mother with no husband, no money, and no powerful family to protect her," Matteo said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "She had Dr. Vance declare your baby dead, took your living child, and put a deceased infant in that grave."
A soft chime rang from the dining table.
Dr. Thorne stared at the digital display on the centrifuge. His hands began to shake as he printed out the paper readout. He looked up at Matteo, then at Liana.
"The maternal probability is 99.98%," Dr. Thorne whispered. "The child is not a Varric. He is Liana Graves’ son."
Liana burst into tears, dropping her face into the soft folds of her baby's blanket. "My Leo... my sweet boy..."
Matteo closed his eyes for three long seconds. When he opened them, the last vestige of uncertainty was gone. He looked at Liana and the baby.
May you like
"Your son saved my life tonight," Matteo said low. "Because Julianna didn't just substitute the child to secure the trust. She was poisoning this baby with low-dose sedative binders to make him appear weak—so that when she finally decided to eliminate me, she could claim we both died of grief."
He reached out, his large hand gently resting on Leo's tiny head. "You came here for rent money, Mrs. Graves. But as of tonight, you are the most important witness in a war."
