Chapter 5 - THE CONFRONTATION AT OAKRIDGE
The Oakridge Private Clinic was situated in an affluent suburb eight miles outside the city center. Surrounded by manicured hedges and high wrought-iron gates, it catered to wealthy clients who paid top dollar for discretion and off-the-record medical procedures.
At 5:30 AM, the rain had turned into a thick, low-slung fog. A black SUV smashed through the electronic gate's primary barrier with a deafening crunch of metal, followed immediately by a second vehicle. Before the private security guards on duty could draw their weapons, Marcus’s men had them disarmed, zip-tied, and silenced on the wet gravel.
Matteo walked through the front glass doors, which had been breached with a hydraulic ram. Liana followed close behind, holding Leo wrapped tightly in a heavy tactical jacket Matteo had provided to keep him warm and shielded from view.
Dr. Harrison Vance was in his second-floor office, frantically pulling hard drives from his server rack. He had clearly been alerted by an automated alarm system. When the heavy oak door of his office was kicked off its hinges, Vance shrieked, dropping a hand-held degaussing magnet onto the carpet.
"Matteo!" Vance gasped, backing against the floor-to-ceiling glass bookshelf, his face turning pale as paper. "What is the meaning of this? This is a private facility! I’ll call the federal marshals!"
"Call them," Matteo said, stepping into the room with terrifying calm. He reached out, grabbed Vance by the lapels of his pristine white lab coat, and slammed him against the wall. "I’d love for the feds to see what you keep in your private servers."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Vance stammered. "I’m an orthopedic specialist! I have nothing to do with your family business!"
"You didn't do orthopedics on my son," Liana’s voice echoed through the room.
Dr. Vance froze. His eyes shifted past Matteo’s shoulder to the woman standing in the doorway. When Liana pulled back the flap of the jacket, revealing the healthy, peaceful face of nine-month-old Leo, Vance’s knees gave out. Only Matteo’s iron grip on his collar kept him upright.
"Mrs... Mrs. Graves..." Vance stuttered, his lips trembling violently. "You... you were supposed to be out of the state..."
"You lied to me," Liana said, her voice dripping with venom, every word hitting the doctor like a physical blow. "You told me my baby’s heart stopped. You let me sit beside a hole in the ground while you sold my child to Julianna Varric!"
"It wasn't my idea!" Vance broke down instantly, tears streaming down his age-spotted face. "Julianna threatened to ruin me! She found out about my Macau debts! She told me if I didn't find an infant matching the Varric bloodline markers within twenty-four hours of her nephew’s death, she would leak my financial records to the medical board and have my license revoked!"
"Where is the real Nico Varric?" Matteo demanded, his grip tightening around Vance’s throat until the doctor began to gasp for air. "Where is my son's body?"
"He’s... he’s in the cold storage at Saint Margaret’s," Vance choked out. "Julianna didn't cremate him. She kept his body preserved under a false name—'Infant Doe 109'—in case she needed to run a fraudulent posthumous DNA test to claim his trust share if you died!"
Matteo’s jaw muscles worked furiously. The depth of his sister's depravity was beyond anything even he had imagined. She hadn't just stolen a living child; she had kept his biological son’s corpse as an insurance policy.
"You are going to sign a full confession right now," Matteo said, throwing Vance into his leather desk chair. "Every name, every payment, every wire transfer. If you miss a single detail, I won't kill you, Vance. I will hand you over to the federal authorities with a complete log of your illegal infant traffic, and I will make sure you spend the rest of your life in maximum security."
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Vance grabbed a pen with a shaking hand, his tears splattering onto the legal affidavit Arthur Pendelton had prepared. "I’ll write it... I’ll tell you everything! Just keep Julianna away from me!"
Liana held Leo tightly against her neck. The first step of justice had been taken, but the battle had only just begun.
