Chapter 1
“You made her mother taste my drinks so she’d take the blame if I fell.”
Celeste stopped breathing.
That was my answer.
Not denial.
Not outrage.
Fear.
Marco was still half-buried beneath the buckled silver-service cabinet while trays and wooden cutlery cases covered the marble around him. Mia stood several feet behind me beside her mother.
Anna looked terrified.
Not for herself.
For her daughter.
I put the crystal glass on the table.
“Anna.”
She looked at me.
“How many times?”
Celeste immediately spoke.
“She doesn’t know what the child is talking about.”
I slowly turned my head.
“I asked Anna.”
Silence.
Anna’s red hands tightened against her apron.
“Four.”
The room changed.
Four times.
Not one strange incident.
A routine.
“What happened after you tasted them?”
Anna swallowed.
“My tongue felt strange.”
Mia pointed.
“Blue.”
Anna closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
I looked toward the untouched drink.
“Did you get sick?”
“Dizzy once.”
Celeste snapped:
“She cleans with chemicals all day. Her hands prove that.”
There.
Too fast.
Prepared explanation.
Anna’s irritated skin had already been turned into part of the story.
Cleaning products.
Carelessness.
A servant constantly around food and drink.
If something happened to me, she would be easy to accuse.
I looked at Celeste.
“You weren’t only testing what the drink did.”
Her face tightened.
“You were testing Anna’s usefulness as the person everyone would blame.”
Marco dragged himself upright.
“You’re building a conspiracy from toddler nonsense.”
Mia flinched.
I noticed.
Then Anna whispered something.
“Mr. Romano…”
“Yes?”
“The first time Celeste made me taste it, Marco was in your council room.”
I looked at him.
His expression changed.
Good.
May you like
The poisoning attempt—whatever its exact purpose—was not household cruelty.
It was connected to what happened after I could no longer walk back into that council room.
