Chương 3
It was the reason she recognized Nico’s pain.
A notification sound came from the security monitor.
Both of them turned.
One of the officers had recovered a file from the hidden device.
The screen displayed a list of recordings.
Matteo’s face hardened.
“How long?”
The officer looked uncomfortable.
“Three weeks.”
The exact amount of time Nico had been crying.
Matteo stared at the screen.
“Play the first recording.”
The audio began with silence.
Then came the sound of the nursery door opening.
A person entered.
Footsteps moved across the floor.
A voice whispered something too quietly to understand.
Then Nico began crying.
Liana covered her mouth.
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
The recording continued.
The person stayed near the crib for several minutes.
Then left.
Another recording began.
Then another.
Each one showed the same pattern.
Someone entering.
Someone standing beside Nico.
Someone leaving before anyone discovered them.
Matteo clenched his fists.
“This was planned.”
The officer nodded.
“Yes, sir.”
Liana looked at Matteo.
“Why would someone do this to him?”
Matteo did not respond immediately.
Because he already knew the answer was connected to him.
Enemies rarely attacked him directly anymore.
They attacked what he loved.
His family.
His name.
His future.
A new recording appeared on the screen.
The officer froze.
“Sir, this one is different.”
Matteo looked up.
The timestamp showed the night before.
The night Nico stopped crying when Liana held him.
The footage played.
The nursery door opened.
A shadow entered.
The figure approached the crib.
Then something unexpected happened.
The person stopped.
They looked toward the hallway.
As if they sensed someone nearby.
Then they quickly left.
Matteo watched carefully.
But this time, something else caught his attention.
Before leaving, the figure placed something beside the crib.
Not the device.
Something smaller.
Something hidden.
The officer paused the footage.
Matteo stepped closer.
“What is that?”
The image zoomed in.
A small folded piece of paper sat near the crib.
Liana felt a strange feeling in her chest.
She looked at Matteo.
“Maybe they wanted you to find it.”
Matteo stared at the screen.
A hidden device.
A secret message.
A stranger inside his home.
Everything pointed to one truth.
This was not an accident.
Someone wanted him to discover something.
The officer carefully retrieved the paper from the nursery.
Matteo opened it himself.
The handwriting was uneven.
Only one sentence was written.
His expression changed the moment he read it.
Liana saw the color disappear from his face.
“What does it say?”
Matteo looked at Nico.
Then at the words in his hand.
The message was not a threat.
It was something much worse.
It was a warning.
And it meant someone knew a secret about Nico that Matteo had never discovered.
And it meant someone knew a secret about Nico that Matteo had never discovered.
For a moment, Matteo could not hear anything around him.
The voices of the security team faded into the background.
The only thing he could focus on was the small piece of paper trembling slightly between his fingers.
Liana watched him carefully.
She had seen fear in his eyes before.
But this was different.
This was not the fear of an enemy attacking him.
This was the fear of a father realizing his child might have been carrying a truth nobody told him.
“What does it say?” Liana asked again, softer this time.
Matteo looked down at the message.
The handwriting was simple.
Only a few words covered the paper.
“He knows the child is alive.”
Liana felt a cold sensation move through her body.
She looked at Nico sleeping peacefully in her arms.
Alive.
The word sounded strange.
Everyone knew Nico was alive.
He was right there.
Breathing.
Sleeping.
Safe.
But the way the message was written made it sound like someone believed his survival was impossible.
Matteo folded the paper slowly.
“Who knows about this?”
Liana looked at him.
“About what?”
Matteo hesitated.
That hesitation told her more than any answer could.
There was a part of Nico’s story that even she did not know.
A part that Matteo had never spoken about.
Before he could respond, one of the security officers approached.
“Sir, we found something else inside the recording device.”
Matteo turned immediately.
“What?”
“There was an encrypted audio file hidden beneath the recordings.”
The officer handed him a tablet.
“We managed to recover only part of it.”
Matteo pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman’s voice appeared.
The sound was weak and distorted.
“Matteo, if you are hearing this, then they found the room.”
His expression changed instantly.
He recognized the voice.
Liana noticed.
“Who is that?”
Matteo did not answer.
The recording continued.
“You cannot trust everyone around you.”
A pause followed.
The sound of someone crying quietly came through the speakers.
“You need to protect Nico.”
The recording ended.
The room remained silent.
Liana looked at Matteo.
“You know that voice.”
Matteo slowly lowered the tablet.
“Yes.”
His voice was barely audible.
“It was Elena.”
The name carried weight.
Liana had heard it before.
Not from Matteo directly.
From whispers among the staff.
Elena was Nico’s mother.
The woman whose death had changed everything.
Everyone in the mansion believed she was gone.
Matteo had never spoken about her after the funeral.
He had buried his grief beneath responsibilities, power, and silence.
But now her voice had returned from a hidden recording inside their son's nursery.
“How is that possible?” Liana whispered.
Matteo looked toward the empty hallway.
His mind was moving faster than he could control.
Elena had recorded that message before she died.
Someone had hidden it.
Someone had waited.
Someone had known Matteo would eventually discover it.
“I thought everything connected to her was gone,” he said.
Liana gently looked down at Nico.
“But someone kept this.”
Matteo nodded.
The anger inside him was growing, but beneath it was something more painful.
Regret.
May you like
He had spent months blaming himself for failing to protect Elena.
Now he wondered if he had failed to see something much bigger.
