Chapter 6: The Child Nobody Was Supposed to Find
Liana could not speak.
Not because she did not have questions.
Because she had too many.
For three weeks, she had survived with one painful truth.
Her baby was gone.
She had built her entire existence around that loss.
Every morning she woke up remembering the empty room.
Every night she cried into a pillow because there was nobody left to hear her.
And now a stranger was standing in front of her saying the impossible.
That her child might still be alive.
“That’s not possible,” Liana whispered.
Elena did not argue.
She simply looked at her.
“I said the same thing.””
“When?””
“When Daniel showed me the files.””
Liana looked at Matteo.
“What files?””
Matteo was silent.
Because he wanted to know too.
Elena opened a folder she had carried with her.
Inside were medical records.
Hospital documents.
Photos.
Names.
Dates.
Liana took the papers with shaking hands.
The first page made her stop.
Her name.
Her hospital room.
The day her baby was born.
Then another name.
Unknown.
A second patient.
A second child.
Her eyes moved across the page.
And everything blurred.
“No.””
Matteo stepped beside her.
“What is it?””
She could not answer.
Elena did.
“Your child and Nico were connected from the beginning.””
Liana looked up.
“How?””
Elena lowered her voice.
“Because someone switched their identities.””
The words were impossible.
Yet the evidence sat in her hands.
Matteo looked at the documents.
“This was done by who?””
Elena’s expression darkened.
“That is the question that has kept me alive.””
A sound interrupted them.
One of Matteo’s guards spoke through his earpiece.
“Boss.””
Matteo answered.
“What?””
“We have a problem.””
“What kind?””
“Someone accessed the estate.””
Matteo’s face changed.
“But we left.””
“Yes.””
“Then who accessed it?””
A pause.
Then:
“Someone who already had permission.””
Matteo went still.
“Who?””
The guard hesitated.
“Your mother.””
The silence afterward was brutal.
Matteo’s mother.
The woman who had raised him.
The woman who had comforted him after Isabella’s death.
The woman who had held Nico.
The woman who always claimed she wanted nothing but family.
Liana saw the shock in his face.
“Your mother?””
Matteo ended the call.
He looked at Elena.
“You knew.””
“I suspected.””
“You suspected my mother?””
“I suspected everyone.””
Matteo’s eyes hardened.
“That includes you.””
“It should.””
The honesty stopped him.
Elena continued.
“Trust is how people get hurt.””
The sentence reminded him of Isabella.
Because she used to say the same thing.
Matteo looked at Nico.
His son.
Or the child he believed was his son.
A child surrounded by secrets.
A child everyone wanted.
“Why did you come back now?”” he asked Elena.
“Because the person who started this knows you’re close to the truth.””
“And?””
“And they will stop protecting the secret.””
Liana looked down at Nico.
“What happens now?””
Elena answered quietly.
“Now they come for him.””
The words had barely left her mouth when the building shook.
A loud explosion came from outside.
Everyone moved instantly.
Matteo grabbed Liana and pulled her behind him.
His men rushed toward the entrance.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Glass shattered.
Someone had found them.
Matteo looked at Elena.
“Who knew we were here?””
Nobody answered.
Because they all knew.
Only someone close could have known.
Only someone who knew Matteo’s movements.
Only someone inside his world.
Then a phone rang.
Not Matteo’s.
Liana’s.
She stared at the unknown number.
“I don’t know this person.””
Matteo looked at the screen.
“Answer it.””
She did.
A voice came through.
A voice she had not heard in three weeks.
A voice that made her entire body freeze.
“Liana.””
The phone nearly fell from her hand.
Because she knew that voice.
She had cried herself to sleep missing that voice.
“Daniel?””
Everyone stopped.
Matteo stared at her.
The dead man was calling.
The man who was supposed to be gone.
The man whose secrets had started a war.
And then Daniel Graves whispered:
May you like
“Take my son and run.””
The line went dead. :::
