Chapter 3 - The Ghost of Elena Varric
The words hung in the air like a lethal poison.
Liana felt the room tilt slightly. "Buried? You're saying... your dead wife put that device in your son's crib?"
"Elena is dead," Matteo said savagely, turning around, his voice tight with an overwhelming surge of emotion. "I stood beside her casket. I watched them lower her into the ground at the family mausoleum. I saw her face before they closed the lid!"
"Then how did her ring end up on the hand of the woman in the nursery three weeks ago?" Liana asked, her mind racing. "Is it possible someone stole it from her grave?"
"The Varric family crypt is guarded by six armed men twenty-four hours a day," Matteo stated coldly. "It has biometric locks and laser sensors. Nobody opens that vault without my personal keycard."
He stepped toward the desk, pulling out a dark leather pouch from his pocket. He unzipped it and pulled out a encrypted satellite phone. He hit a speed-dial button and placed it to his ear.
"Julian," Matteo barked into the phone. "Take four men. Go to the family crypt right now. Open Elena’s tomb."
A pause echoed over the speaker, followed by Julian's shocked voice. "Boss? What are you saying?"
"You heard me!" Matteo growled. "Open the casket. Tell me if the body is still inside. And check her right hand. Do it now!"
Matteo ended the call and tossed the phone onto the desk. He began pacing the floor of Liana’s room like a caged panther, his breathing heavy, his hands clenched into tight fists.
Liana watched him, feeling a sudden, strange wave of empathy for the man. The world saw Matteo Varric as a ruthless monster, a kingpin who commanded armies of criminals. But right now, he was just a terrified man haunted by the ghost of the woman he had loved—a woman who might have returned from the dead to torture their child.
"Mr. Varric," Liana said softly, standing up from her chair and stepping into his path.
Matteo stopped pacing, looking down at her, his amber eyes wild with uncharacteristic panic. "What?"
"Look at me," she said gently, her tone calm and steady.
Matteo blinked, surprised by her bold command. But he stopped, his gaze locking onto hers.
"Nico is safe right now," Liana reminded him gently. "He is sleeping. The device is removed. Whatever truth is waiting in that crypt, you cannot help him if you let panic take over."
Matteo stared at her small, determined face. For months, everyone around him had cowered, lied, or offered fake, sycophantic sympathy. Nobody had ever stood in front of him and told him to breathe.
He let out a slow, ragged breath, his shoulders dropping half an inch. "You have a strange way of speaking to a man who could have you thrown off a cliff, Liana."
"You won't throw me off a cliff," Liana replied, a faint, sad smile gracing her lips. "Because Nico needs me. And deep down, Mr. Varric... you know you need someone you can actually trust in this house."
Matteo stared at her for a long, intense moment. His gaze drifted down to her lips, then back up to her dark, honest eyes. Something shifted between them—a silent, unspoken contract forged in the middle of a storm.
Suddenly, the satellite phone on the desk buzzed violently.
Matteo grabbed it instantly and answered. "Julian. Report."
Over the line, the sound of heavy rain and wind echoed, mixed with the hollow resonance of a stone vault. Julian’s voice came through, trembling with a terror Liana had never heard in the security chief's voice before.
"Boss..." Julian stammered, coughing nervously. "We're inside the crypt. We... we opened the marble sarcophagus."
"Is she there?" Matteo demanded, his grip on the phone tightening so hard the plastic creaked.
"The casket was locked from the outside, boss," Julian whispered, his voice shaking violently. "We cut the lock. The body is... the body isn't here."
Matteo’s breath hitched in his throat. "What do you mean she isn't there?!"
"The casket is empty, Mr. Varric!" Julian yelled over the wind. "There’s no body! But... there’s something else left inside."
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"What?!"
"A message," Julian reported, reading from inside the empty tomb. "Written on the silk lining in black ink. It says: 'He was never yours, Matteo. And tonight, I come to collect what belongs to me.'"
