Chapter 4 - WHAT BIANCA KNEW
Bianca Varric had died seven months earlier from postpartum cardiomyopathy.
That was the official truth.
And unlike the conspiracy forming around Nico’s medicine, that diagnosis remained true.
Matteo refused to turn every death into murder simply because betrayal had entered the room.
Bianca had been sick.
Doctors had records.
Independent review confirmed it.
But dying had not prevented Bianca from discovering something.
Samuel Dorne was found at 6:15 that morning.
Alive.
Living under another name in a small apartment in Milwaukee.
He surrendered voluntarily after learning police were searching.
Matteo wanted the interview.
Police refused.
Good.
He waited.
By afternoon, Samuel’s attorney delivered a statement.
Seven months earlier, Bianca asked Samuel to investigate unusual invoices from Varric Freight’s pharmaceutical division.
Why Bianca?
Because before marrying Matteo, she had worked in health-care compliance.
Matteo had almost forgotten.
Marriage had swallowed that part of her identity.
Bianca noticed refrigerated medical shipments entering company warehouses under codes that did not match manifests.
She asked Lorenzo Varric about them.
He dismissed her.
She kept digging.
Then pregnancy complications worsened.
Bianca gave Samuel copies of what she had found.
Her final request was simple:
If Matteo loses me, don't give him this immediately. He will turn grief into violence before he understands the evidence.
Matteo sat motionless when he heard.
Liana, sitting across the hospital family room, said:
“She knew you.”
“Yes.”
“That's not an insult.”
“No.”
He looked down.
“It is accurate.”
After Bianca died, Samuel disappeared publicly but kept investigating quietly.
That path eventually led him to Bellweather.
Then Mara.
Mara had already discovered the dangerous batches.
Samuel realized the ingredients came through a chain of shipping vendors associated with Lorenzo’s division.
He helped Mara enter the estate because every official attempt to reach Matteo had been intercepted.
“Why not call me directly?”
Matteo demanded when Samuel was finally permitted to speak to him with attorneys present.
Samuel looked older.
“Because Bianca tried.”
“What?”
“Twice.”
Matteo’s stomach dropped.
“Your office routed her messages to Lorenzo because they concerned pharmaceutical operations.”
He closed his eyes.
Everyone around Matteo had become efficient at deciding what deserved his attention.
“I would have listened to my wife.”
Samuel’s expression hardened.
“Would you?”
That hurt.
Then:
“She wasn't sure.”
Matteo said nothing.
Samuel continued.
“Mara went inside only to leave the evidence.”
“She saw Nico awake.”
“She held him for maybe twenty seconds.”
“And?”
“She smelled the medication on his breath.”
Liana turned.
“Smelled?”
“Mara worked with it every day.”
Samuel nodded.
“She realized he had already been dosed.”
“She panicked.”
“She wanted to take him to a hospital.”
“I stopped her.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because taking Matteo Varric’s baby from his crib would have guaranteed nobody ever listened to another word she said.”
Correct.
“She put him down.”
“Left the card.”
“Then security triggered.”
“Where is she now?”
Samuel looked toward Liana.
“I don't know.”
“That is not good enough.”
“It is the truth.”
Liana spoke.
“Why did she abandon her car?”
Samuel’s face changed.
“Because someone was following us.”
Matteo became still.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Yes.”
Samuel leaned forward.
“That is what honest people say when they don't know.”
Silence.
Matteo almost smiled despite himself.
Bianca would have liked him.
Then police uncovered the financial structure.
Lorenzo Varric had been using pharmaceutical shipments to inflate transportation costs and move money between shell vendors.
The compounded ingredients were supposed to come from regulated suppliers.
Instead, at least one intermediary substituted cheaper concentrated compounds.
Whether Lorenzo knew the medicine itself was dangerous remained unproven.
But he had hidden procurement records after Mara began asking questions.
That was enough for warrants.
Matteo’s mother begged him to handle Lorenzo “inside the family.”
Matteo refused.
“You'll send your own uncle to prison?”
“If evidence puts him there.”
“He raised you.”
“He also put children at risk.”
“You don't know that.”
“Exactly.”
He looked at her.
“So investigators will find out.”
The old woman stared at her son as though a stranger had taken Matteo’s face.
Maybe one had.
Nico improved quickly after the medication was discontinued under medical supervision.
The crying did not vanish.
Babies cried.
He remained frightened in the nursery.
But he ate better.
Slept longer.
Stopped drawing his knees up in pain.
Liana visited during approved hours.
She was no longer working shifts at the estate.
Matteo had offered paid leave.
She accepted after arguing that she had only been employed twenty-two days.
“You're dealing with a criminal investigation connected to your dead child.”
“I know.”
“And your twin is missing.”
“I know.”
“Take the leave.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“That sounded like an order.”
“It was a strongly worded employment benefit.”
She almost smiled.
Then one evening Liana received a call.
Unknown number.
She answered.
Silence.
Then:
“Li?”
Liana stopped breathing.
“Mara?”
Matteo stood across the room.
Her knees weakened.
“Oh my God. Where are you?”
“I can't tell you yet.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Then come home!”
Mara began crying.
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because I found out who ordered Bellweather to destroy the batch records.”
Liana looked at Matteo.
“Who?”
Mara whispered a name.
And Matteo saw Liana’s face lose all color.
“Say it.”
Liana lowered the phone.
“Dr. Corbin.”
May you like
Nico’s pediatrician.
The man who had increased his dose three weeks earlier.
