Chapter 4 - Blood and Ink
The private clinic wing on the third floor of the estate was equipped with state-of-the-art diagnostic machinery. Dr. Santos worked under bright fluorescent lights, while Matteo and Liana waited in the adjacent sitting room.
It was 3:15 AM.
Nico was asleep in a portable crib placed between their chairs. He lay on his side, his little fist curled near his nose, breathing with a peaceful steadiness that had eluded him since birth.
Matteo stood by the window, watching the rain streak down the glass. The city skyline was a distant blur of amber and red lights.
“What was his name?” Matteo asked suddenly.
Liana looked up from the crib. Her fingers were still lightly resting on Nico’s blanket. “What?”
“When you gave birth to him,” Matteo said, turning his head slightly. “Before they told you he was dying. What did you name him?”
Liana swallowed hard, her throat raw. “Nicolò. After my grandfather. Nicolò Graves.”
Matteo let out a short, hollow breath that sounded almost like a laugh, though there was no humor in it. “Elena told me she chose the name Nico because it meant ‘victory of the people.’ She said she read it in a book while I was in Europe closing the port acquisition.” He shook his head, his face hardening into marble. “She never even named him. Marcus gave her the paperwork with the name already forged.”
“Did you love her?” Liana asked. The question slipped out before she could stop it. In any other setting, asking such an intimate question of Matteo Varric would be considered suicidal.
Matteo didn't shout. He turned to face her fully, his hands in his pockets.
“Elena was the daughter of an old family,” he said plainly. “Our marriage was negotiated to end a ten-year territorial war that had claimed twenty-six lives, including my younger cousin. I respected her. I provided for her. When she told me she was pregnant, I believed—for the first time in my life—that something clean could come out of the dirt I operate in.”
He looked down at the crib. His dark eyes softened with an agony so profound it cracked his terrifying persona wide open.
“For nine months, I held him every night,” Matteo whispered. “I sat in that nursery until four in the morning, holding his head against my chest, listening to him scream until his vocal cords bled. I thought my sins were killing him. I thought God was punishing me for the men I’ve buried by making my son suffer in my hands.”
Liana felt the breath catch in her throat.
She had spent the last three weeks hating the universe. She had spent the last two hours hating everyone in this mansion. But looking at Matteo Varric right now, she didn't see an arrogant monster who took whatever he wanted.
She saw a father who had been tortured by the same lie that had broken her.
“You didn't do this to him,” Liana said softly.
Matteo met her gaze. His eyes were dark, piercing, and dangerously intense. “No. But I am going to end it.”
The door to the medical suite clicked open.
Dr. Gabriel Santos stepped out, holding a laminated thermal printout. His expression was solemn, his eyes weary.
Neither Matteo nor Liana moved. The tension in the room was thick enough to choke on.
“Gabriel,” Matteo said. “Say it.”
Gabriel walked over and handed the paper directly to Matteo.
“The rapid genomic sequencing is complete,” Gabriel said. “The infant shares a 99.98% maternal genetic match with Liana Graves. There is no statistical anomaly. She is his biological mother.”
Liana let out a broken, gasping cry. She dropped to her knees beside the crib, burying her face into the soft cotton blanket near Nico’s feet. Her shoulders shook violently as months of repressed grief, terror, and despair erupted into silent, cleansing tears.
Her baby was alive.
He was here. He was breathing. He was real.
Matteo stared at the paper. The black ink danced before his eyes.
*Biological Mother: Liana Graves. Probability of Maternity: 99.98%.*
Then his eyes scanned down to the lower quadrant of the report. The secondary analysis Gabriel had run without being asked.
*Biological Father: Analysis Pending. Y-Chromosomal Marker Alignment: Matching Varric Lineage P-389.*
Matteo froze. His head snapped up to Gabriel.
Gabriel held up a hand before Matteo could speak, his voice dropping to a near-whisper. “I didn't just test her DNA, Matteo. I cross-referenced the infant’s profile against your encrypted genetic sequence stored in my private registry.”
“And?” Matteo’s voice was barely audible.
“There was an anomaly in the hospital logs from St. Sebastian’s nine months ago,” Gabriel whispered. “Before Elena died, she was enrolled in an elite IVF retrieval program at Sterling’s clinic. Sterling had access to your banked reproductive samples. When Marcus pressured him to find a child to swap, Sterling didn't just pick a random infant from the clinic ward.”
Matteo’s heart slammed against his ribs like a sledgehammer. “What are you saying, Gabriel?”
“Liana was admitted to St. Sebastian’s fourteen months ago for an emergency procedure following an accident,” Gabriel explained, his eyes darting to Liana, who was still weeping softly over the crib. “Dr. Sterling’s fertility lab was running an unauthorized, covert genetic-matching protocol. Matteo... Nico is not just Liana’s son.”
Gabriel looked Matteo straight in the eyes.
May you like
“He is biologically yours.”
***
