Chapter 4
The heavy doors clicked shut, plunging the vast, luminous dining hall into a profound, ringing silence. The cascading crystal chandeliers continued to cast their warm golden light over the abandoned gold-rimmed porcelain and half-empty crystal wine glasses. The opulent space, designed for celebration, now felt like a gilded interrogation chamber.
Cecile backed away from the head table, her heels clicking unsteadily against the polished floor. She wrapped her arms around her waist, a defensive posture that crushed the sculpted satin of her expensive gown. Her diamond earrings shook as she wept, her carefully constructed facade entirely destroyed.
"Felix, you cannot believe this is real," Cecile sobbed, her chest heaving. "My family arranged this marriage! We are supposed to unite our syndicates! Are you going to throw all of that away because of a misunderstanding and a lying maid?"
Felix stood immovably in his tailored dark three-piece suit. He slowly crouched down, bringing his handsome, angular face level with his son’s.
"Can you tell me exactly what you saw that day, Aaron?" Felix asked gently, his deep voice softening significantly to comfort the boy.
Aaron sniffled, rubbing his nose with the back of his small hand. He looked at Enid, who gave him an encouraging, tearful nod, before looking back into his father's cold, but loving, eyes.
"I was hiding at the top of the stairs," Aaron explained, his voice trembling but remarkably clear. "Grandma was arguing with Cecile. Grandma said she was going to tell you the truth about the money Cecile's father was stealing. Then Cecile grabbed her shoulders and pushed her really hard. When Grandma fell, Cecile looked right at me. She said if I ever told, I would fall too."
Cecile let out a blood-curdling scream of denial. "He is lying! The maid told him to say that! She has been stealing information and trying to frame me for it!"
Felix rose slowly to his full height. He turned his broad, powerful shoulders toward his fiancée. The extremely short stubble on his jawline seemed to bristle with barely contained violence.
"Would Enid risk her life in this room to manufacture such a claim?" Felix asked.
"Yes!" Cecile shrieked, pointing viciously at the housemaid. "Look at her! She thinks she's better than me just because she plays the innocent victim!"
Felix didn't look at Enid. He kept his perceptive eyes locked entirely on Cecile, dissecting her panic, reading the absolute guilt written plainly across her flushed, rosy skin. He had survived in the criminal underworld by being an unparalleled judge of human character. He knew when someone was lying to him, and he knew the awful, crushing weight of the truth.
"Are you capable of telling the truth, Cecile, or must I extract it from you?" Felix asked, taking a slow, deliberate step toward her.
"I love you, Felix!" she wept, falling to her knees on the luxurious rug, the sculpted satin of her gown pooling around her. She clasped her hands together in a begging gesture. "Please, darling! My father forced me to do it! He said your mother was standing in the way of the merger! She wouldn't stay quiet! I didn't want to hurt her!"
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"Did you believe that murdering the matriarch of this family would secure your place at the top of this empire?" Felix asked.
His voice dropped to a terrifying, gravelly whisper. It was a sound that had preceded the end of many men's lives. Cecile stared up at his movie-star handsome face, realizing with absolute, horrifying clarity that there was no escape. The mafia boss had heard enough, and the consequences would be paid in blood.
