Chapter 5 - The Cradle File
Luca’s office contained no obvious evidence.
Every drawer was clean.
Every account had been balanced.
Every computer had been wiped.
Liana stood beside Matteo while Dante examined the bookshelves.
Nico slept downstairs in a guest room with two trusted guards outside.
For the first time in weeks, the mansion was silent.
Liana looked at a framed photograph on Luca’s desk.
It showed Matteo, Elena and Luca at a charity gala.
Elena wore a silver dress.
Luca stood behind her with one hand on her shoulder.
“He knew,” Liana said.
Matteo followed her gaze.
“Knew what?”
“That she was afraid of him.”
Elena was smiling in the photograph, but her body leaned subtly away from Luca’s hand.
Matteo removed the frame.
A key had been taped behind the photograph.
It opened a locked drawer hidden beneath the desk.
Inside was a black ledger.
Most of its pages contained shipping numbers and coded initials.
One phrase appeared again and again.
CRADLE TRANSFER.
Dante compared the dates to public records.
Each transfer occurred shortly after the reported death of an infant.
The children came from different states.
Some belonged to witnesses.
Some belonged to wealthy families.
Others had been born to women with no money, no lawyer and no one powerful enough to question a sealed coffin.
Samuel’s initials appeared on the final page.
SG-09.
Status: Secure.
Destination: Black Harbor.
Beneath his entry was another.
NV-01.
Status: Pending transfer before dawn.
Nico had been next.
A folded letter rested inside the ledger.
It was written in Elena’s hand.
“Matteo, if you are reading this, Luca knows I survived the explosion.”
“He answers to your uncle Aldo.”
“Aldo built the Cradle network using Varric money.”
“He creates deaths on paper, moves children through private clinics and sells their identities to the highest bidder.”
“I found the records while auditing the family charities.”
“When I tried to tell you, Luca staged the crash.”
“He kept me alive because he could not find the original ledger.”
“He believed I had given it to Liana.”
“I had never met her.”
“But I knew she existed.”
“And I knew they would use her child to force me out of hiding.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
Aldo Varric had raised him after his father’s death.
He had taught Matteo how to survive.
He had also sat beside him at Elena’s funeral.
Dante turned the ledger to the final page.
An address had been written beneath the words Black Harbor.
It led to a warehouse on the Delaware River.
May you like
Beside it was a warning.
DO NOT COME WITHOUT THE MOTHER.
