CHAPTER 1 — THE WOMAN AT THE GATE
“What did you just say?”
Matteo Varric’s voice was quiet, but both guards immediately reached beneath their coats.
Liana Graves did not look at their hands.
She kept her eyes on the baby.
The child’s face had turned red from crying. His tiny body trembled against Matteo’s chest, and every breath seemed to come with another desperate scream.
“I said let me hold him,” Liana repeated.
“You don’t know my son.”
“No.”
“You don’t know me.”
“Everyone in Valecroft knows you.”
Something dangerous passed through Matteo’s exhausted eyes.
“Then you should know better than to approach my house in the middle of the night.”
Liana should have been afraid.
She was afraid.
But grief had already taken the most precious thing she possessed. Fear no longer had the same power over her.
“The baby is hungry,” she said.
“He refuses every bottle.”
“He doesn’t want a bottle.”
Matteo stared at her soaked dress.
Understanding slowly entered his expression.
Liana’s cheeks burned, but she refused to look away.
“My son died twenty-two days ago,” she said. “My body doesn’t understand that he’s gone.”
Even the rain seemed quieter after those words.
The guard standing in front of her shifted uncomfortably.
Matteo looked down at Nico. His son’s cries had become weaker, his face tightening as he struggled for breath between sobs.
A physician hurried through the open doorway behind Matteo.
“Mr. Varric,” the doctor called. “Bring him back inside. His temperature is rising.”
Liana stepped forward again.
The guard blocked her.
Matteo made a decision.
“Move.”
The guard turned. “Sir?”
“I said move.”
The man reluctantly stepped aside.
Matteo approached Liana until only a few feet separated them. Rain ran from his dark hair onto the collar of his expensive shirt.
“If you hurt him,” he said, “there is nowhere on earth you could hide.”
Liana held out her arms.
“If I meant to hurt him, I would have walked away.”
For one long second, Matteo did not move.
Then he placed his son in her arms.
The change was immediate.
Nico’s fists opened.
His head turned toward Liana’s chest, driven by instinct. His cries softened into broken whimpers.
Liana gathered him beneath her coat.
“It’s all right,” she whispered. “I know. I know what you need.”
The baby became quiet.
Matteo Varric stood motionless in the rain.
His guards had seen him order men to their deaths without blinking. They had seen politicians lower their voices when he entered a room.
But none of them had ever seen Matteo look helpless.
Liana looked toward the mansion.
“He needs warmth.”
Matteo stepped aside.
“Bring her inside.”
The guard reached for Liana’s suitcase.
She grabbed it first.
“It stays with me.”
Matteo studied her face.
“Everything you own?”
“Yes.”
His gaze returned to the baby sleeping against her.
“Then tonight,” he said, “everything you own enters my house.”
The iron gates closed behind her.
Liana did not know whether she had found shelter or stepped willingly into a prison.
May you like
She only knew that Nico had stopped crying.
And for the first time since burying her son, so had she.
