The scream ripped through the Varric estate before sunrise, sharp enough to make three armed guards turn at once and a new maid drop an entire stack of folded linens onto the marble floor. By the time the sound stopped, Matteo Varric would be staring at a woman he had never met and wondering whether the worst mistake of his life had been believing his wife’s death was already solved.

Liana stopped breathing.

Dominic scrolled further.

Her child’s initials appeared near the bottom.

There was a date.

A procedure code.

And beside it, one word.

Adverse.

Liana made a sound so small Matteo almost did not hear it.

He turned.

She was staring at the screen.

“What?”

She pointed.

Dominic read the line.

His face tightened.

Liana whispered, “That’s him.”

No one tried to comfort her with uncertainty anymore.

Something had happened.

Something secret.

Something unauthorized.

Something that connected Elena Varric’s death, Nico’s unexplained treatment, Liana’s baby’s deterioration, a missing doctor, and a dead nurse.

Matteo read the notes slowly.

At the bottom of the final page, Helen Mercer had written another name.

Dr. Samuel Hargrove.

Chairman of maternal research.

St. Catherine’s Medical Center.

Dominic searched his files.

Hargrove had signed the internal review declaring Elena’s death unavoidable.

Matteo stared at the name.

All those months.

Every inquiry.

Every expert.

Every document.

The man supervising the investigation had been connected to the same hidden program.

Matteo stood.

His chair slid backward across the floor.

Dominic looked at him carefully.

“What are you going to do?”

Matteo’s voice was almost calm.

“Ask him why my wife died.”

Liana rose too.

“You can’t go alone.”

Matteo looked at her.

“You’re staying here.”

“No.”

“Liana.”

“That note has my son’s initials on it.”