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.

The mysterious nurse had moved Nico through a service corridor roughly an hour before Dr. Bell’s second recorded entry.

For the first time, a possibility emerged that none of them wanted to say aloud.

Liana whispered, “Was your son ever taken somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be?”

Matteo’s face tightened.

After Elena’s delivery, he had been told Nico needed observation. Matteo had stayed with his wife as her condition suddenly deteriorated. For nearly two hours, his son had been out of his sight.

At the time, he had trusted the staff.

He had hated himself for that trust ever since Elena died.

Now that old guilt became something darker.

“Find the bassinet records.”

Dominic began typing.

The hospital had logged Nico’s movement from delivery to neonatal observation.

But one forty-seven-minute interval contained no location data.

Matteo stared at the blank gap.

Dominic looked at him.

“That shouldn’t happen.”

“No,” Matteo said. “It shouldn’t.”

At 9:40, the escalation became impossible to dismiss.

Dominic accessed Liana’s child’s archived ward records and found the same kind of gap.

Thirty-eight minutes.

No room assignment.

No nurse signature.

No scan.

Nothing.

Two infants.

Same hospital.

Same consulting doctor.

Same mysterious procedure code.

Same unexplained mark.

Same missing documentation.

Liana covered her mouth.

“Oh God.”

Matteo did not move.

Dominic whispered, “We need an outside medical expert.”

Matteo picked up his phone.

“Get one here.”

By noon, Dr. Rebecca Sloan, a retired neonatal specialist who had previously reviewed Elena’s case, arrived at the estate.

She examined the records without being told what conclusions anyone suspected.

For nearly an hour, she said very little.

Then she asked to examine Nico.

Liana handed him to Matteo reluctantly.

The baby immediately began fussing.

Matteo froze.

Dr. Sloan watched carefully.

“Give him back.”

Liana took Nico.

He calmed.

Dr. Sloan said nothing.

She examined the mark near his shoulder.

Then she looked at photographs from Liana’s child’s medical file.

Her expression changed.

“This is not a birthmark.”

Liana’s fingers tightened.

“I know.”

Dr. Sloan looked at Matteo.