For several minutes, no one spoke.
Then Dominic entered holding a printed photograph.
“We found the nurse.”
He placed the image on the table.
The woman from the corridor camera now faced the lens clearly.
Her name was Helen Mercer.
She had worked temporary overnight shifts at St. Catherine’s during the month Nico was born.
She had also worked there during the week Liana’s child was hospitalized.
Then she had vanished from employment records.
Liana stared.
“That’s her.”
Matteo’s expression darkened.
“Where is she?”
Dominic paused.
“Dead.”
The word struck the room like a dropped object.
Liana looked up.
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
“How?”
Dominic hesitated.
“Car accident.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“Single vehicle?”
“Yes.”
“Witnesses?”
“No.”
Matteo looked at Dominic.
Neither man needed to say more.
The second escalation had arrived.
A doctor disappeared.
A nurse died.
Two children shared unexplained medical markers.
One mother had died.
One baby had died.
And Nico was still alive.
Liana looked down at him.
For the first time since entering the Varric estate, she was not thinking about what had happened.
She was thinking about what might still happen.
“If they did something to him,” she whispered, “how do we know they’re finished?”
Matteo stood instantly.
The shift in him was absolute.
“Lock the estate.”
Dominic looked up.
“Matteo—”
“Now.”
Security protocols activated within minutes.
Exterior gates closed. Staff credentials were checked. Deliveries were canceled. Every employee on the property was accounted for.
Matteo ordered a private medical team to examine Nico using equipment brought directly to the house.
No one connected to St. Catherine’s would touch him again.
At nine that night, Dr. Sloan found something in Nico’s recent blood work.
An irregular antibody pattern.
Subtle.
Easy to overlook.
