Chapter 9: The Last Thing Renato Said
The federal prosecutor's name was Grace Moretti, and she arrived at the Varric estate at half past seven in the morning in a plain grey car with two colleagues and a hard drive.
She shook Matteo's hand without ceremony and set her bag on the study desk and said, "Show me what you have."
Liana stood to one side with Nico on her hip and watched Matteo lay out Elena's documents, the USB drive, the printed screenshots, the DNA report, and the forged contract.
Grace Moretti picked up each item in turn, examined it, set it down.
She did not react visibly to any of it until she reached the forged contract.
She looked at Liana.
"This is your name."
"Yes.
I've never seen that document before last night."
"We'll need a handwriting analysis."
"I know."
Grace set it down and looked at the phone Voss had been carrying.
One of her colleagues had already begun extracting the recordings.
"How many?"
"Eleven," Matteo said.
"The clearest ones are the third and the seventh."
Grace nodded.
"If these authenticate, you're looking at conspiracy, fraud, and at minimum a charge of criminal facilitation in the death of—" She checked her notes.
"Daniel Graves."
"Yes," Liana said.
Grace looked at her for a moment.
"I'm sorry for your son."
"Thank you." Liana's voice was even.
"Make the charges stick."
"That's why I'm here."
The extraction took two hours.
During that time, Matteo's security team identified the estate staff member who had been feeding Renato information — a young man named Teo who worked the overnight camera monitoring.
He was found in the security room, already trying to wipe a secondary device.
Carlo walked him out without drama.
He didn't resist.
At ten in the morning, Grace Moretti made a phone call.
Liana was in the nursery with Nico when Matteo came to find her.
"They're picking Renato up now," he said.
She looked at him.
"Where is he?"
"His office in the city.
He went in this morning as though nothing had happened." A pause.
"He didn't know about Voss's phone."
"He thought he'd cleaned it up."
"Yes."
Liana looked at Nico, who was sitting in the center of the rug surrounded by soft blocks, methodically moving them from one pile to another.
"And Solis?"
"Arrested at the hospital forty minutes ago."
She nodded slowly.
"There's something else," Matteo said.
"Renato called me this morning.
Before the arrest.
I didn't answer, but he left a message."
"What did he say?"
Matteo held out his phone.
She pressed play.
Renato's voice was smooth, unhurried, the voice of a man who believed he was still several moves ahead.
*Matteo.
I know you've been busy.
I know what you think you've found.
I want you to consider, very carefully, what happens to the boy's legal status if certain documents become public.
A forged surrogacy contract is a serious matter.
It raises questions about who this child actually belongs to.
I'd hate for Nico to spend his first years in a custody dispute.
Call me back.
We can resolve this quietly.*
The message ended.
Liana handed the phone back.
"He was going to use the forged contract to threaten Nico's custody," she said.
"Yes.
He thought he still had time."
"He didn't know Grace Moretti was already in your study."
"No." Matteo pocketed the phone.
"He underestimated how much Elena had prepared."
Liana looked at the message in his hand.
"He said 'who this child actually belongs to.'"
"Yes."
"He knew about the surrogacy.
The real one."
"He knew Elena couldn't carry a child.
He knew she had found a way around it.
He just didn't know who." Matteo looked at Nico on the rug.
"He was trying to find out.
That's what Voss was doing at the hospital.
Not just covering up Daniel — he was there to identify the surrogate.
To find the woman whose name was on the real contract, before Elena's forged version could be traced."
"But Elena had already replaced the real contract with the forged one in whatever file Renato had access to."
"Yes.
She switched them.
So when Voss went looking, all he found was your name on a document that didn't actually exist." He paused.
"Which made you a target.
And made Daniel a loose end."
The word landed the way it always did.
She absorbed it.
"Who was the real surrogate?" she asked.
"Elena never wrote it down.
I don't think she wanted anyone to be able to find her." He was quiet for a moment.
"I may never know.
And I've decided that's all right."
Liana looked at Nico.
He had arranged all the blocks into a single line and was now studying them with great satisfaction.
"He's yours," she said.
"Whatever the paperwork says.
He's yours."
"Yes." Matteo's voice was simple.
Certain.
"He is."
A knock at the nursery door.
Carlo.
"They have Renato in custody," he said.
"He's asking for his attorney."
"He'll need one," Matteo said.
Carlo nodded and withdrew.
Matteo looked at Liana.
She was watching Nico knock the line of blocks apart and begin rebuilding it.
"It's not over," he said.
"There will be hearings.
Testimony.
The forged contract will have to be formally discredited.
It will take time."
"I know."
"You'll be asked to testify about Daniel."
"I know that too."
"Are you prepared for that?"
She thought about it honestly.
"No.
But I'll do it anyway." She looked at him.
"He was three weeks old and someone decided he was a problem to be solved.
I'm going to stand in a courtroom and say his name as many times as they'll let me."
Matteo was quiet for a moment.
Then he said, "Elena chose well."
Liana looked at him.
"She chose you too.
She spent eight months protecting you without telling you."
"I know." His voice was careful with the weight of it.
"I'm still working out how to feel about that."
"She loved you," Liana said.
"And she knew you well enough to know you'd finish what she started." She paused.
"She was right."
Nico looked up from his blocks and found them both watching him.
He considered this for a moment.
Then he held up one block in each hand, offering them, as if this were a reasonable solution to whatever the adults were working through.
Liana laughed.
It came out of her before she could stop it — a real laugh, short and startled and warm.
Matteo looked at her.
Something in his face shifted in a way she hadn't seen before.
He reached down and took one of Nico's offered blocks.
May you like
"Thank you," he said seriously to the baby.
Nico beamed.
