“You’re not part of this.”
Her expression changed.
For the first time since arriving at the estate, grief gave way to anger.
“I became part of this before I ever walked into your house.”
Matteo said nothing.
She stepped closer.
“They touched my child too.”
The words silenced him.
At 3:06 a.m., Dr. Samuel Hargrove was located at a private residence forty miles outside the city.
Matteo did not send men to drag him anywhere.
He did something far more effective.
Dominic called Hargrove and informed him that Helen Mercer’s files had been recovered, copied, and placed with three separate attorneys.
Then Matteo asked for a meeting.
Hargrove agreed in less than five minutes.
They met at the Varric estate just before dawn.
Hargrove arrived pale and visibly shaken.
He was in his sixties, silver-haired, impeccably dressed despite the hour, with the controlled manner of a man who had spent decades being trusted on sight.
That control disappeared when he saw Liana.
He stopped in the doorway.
His eyes moved from her face to Nico in her arms.
Then to Matteo.
Matteo noticed everything.
“You know her?”
Hargrove answered too quickly.
“No.”
Liana stared at him.
She knew that face.
Not personally.
From a photograph on the wall outside the neonatal wing.
Hospital leadership.
The man whose portrait had hung above a plaque promising excellence, integrity, and compassionate care.
Hargrove looked at Nico again.
Matteo stepped between them.
“Don’t look at my son. Look at me.”
Hargrove swallowed.
Dominic placed Helen Mercer’s notes on the table.
“You know what these are?”
Hargrove’s face collapsed by degrees.
Matteo watched.
“You investigated my wife’s death.”
