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The dawn broke over the city in streaks of bruised purple and cold amber. Inside the private terminal of the city's executive airport, Julianna Varric sat in a plush leather sofa in the VIP lounge, sipping a mimosa. She was forty-two, flawlessly dressed in a cream cashmere suit, her sharp feature reflecting the ruthless ambition that ran deep in the Varric line.

Her phone chimed on the glass table. It was an encrypted text from her chief security officer: Oakridge clinic has gone dark. Dr. Vance is not responding.

Julianna’s eyes narrowed. She set her glass down with a deliberate click. "Get the jet prepped now," she ordered her assistant sitting nearby. "We are departing for Geneva two hours ahead of schedule."

"Going somewhere, sister?"

The deep, gravelly voice echoed from the lounge entrance. Julianna spun around.

Matteo walked into the terminal, flanked by Marcus and four heavily armed operators. Beside him stood Liana Graves, carrying the baby in a soft velvet wrap.

Julianna’s composure cracked for a fraction of a second before her face hardened into a mask of polite disdain. "Matteo. What is this uncivilized display? And why do you have a domestic worker carrying my nephew through an airport?"

"He isn't your nephew, Julianna," Matteo said, his voice terrifyingly calm as he crossed the room. "And his name isn't Nico."

Julianna chuckled dryly, stepping back toward her private security guards. "Sleeplessness has broken your mind, brother. The child is screaming himself to death because you are an unfit father. Give him to me; I have a medical transport waiting to take him to a specialist in Switzerland."

"The baby isn't screaming anymore," Liana said, stepping forward into the light. She looked directly into Julianna's cold eyes. "He was screaming because the chest binder your doctors forced onto him was digging into his surgical incision. The incision Dr. Vance made when he operated on my son at Mercy General."

Julianna’s eyes darted to Liana, then to the baby, who was looking around the room with bright, curious eyes, completely relaxed.

"Who is this lunatic, Matteo?" Julianna snapped, turning to her guards. "Remove this woman and her child from my presence."

Before her security detail could move, Marcus’s men drew their silenced sidearms, locking the targets squarely on Julianna's team. The lounge became an instant standoff, but Julianna’s men were vastly outnumbered and outgunned.

"Dr. Vance has signed a thirty-page confession," Matteo stated, pulling a folded document from his coat pocket and tossing it onto the table beside Julianna’s drink. "Federal agents are at St. Margaret's right now recovering Infant Doe 109—my real son. The state police have already frozen your corporate accounts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act."

Julianna looked down at the document, her hands finally beginning to tremble. "You... you can't prove..."

"I don't need to prove anything to you," Matteo said, stepping so close she could feel the heat of his fury. "The District Attorney has issued a warrant for your arrest for capital murder, kidnapping, and human trafficking. Your legal team has already abandoned you."

"I did what was necessary for the family!" Julianna suddenly shrieked, her aristocratic mask shattering into raw rage. "You were soft, Matteo! You let your wife die! You were going to let the family empire be divided among shareholders! I kept the Varric name alive!"

"You turned our family into a slaughterhouse," Matteo hissed.

Sirens began to wail in the distance, growing louder as high-speed police cruisers roared toward the private terminal tarmac.