Chapter 4 - The Bad Juice.
No one spoke.
The city glittered beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows while the words of a four-year-old child hung over the penthouse like smoke.
Beatrice recovered first.
"He is confused."
Victor looked at Nino.
"What bad juice?"
Nino sobbed against Elena.
"Red cup."
Beatrice gave a short laugh without warmth.
"Victor, please."
"Let him answer."
"He was three years old."
"Let him answer."
Beatrice's eyes narrowed.
Nino whispered into Elena's shoulder.
"Mommy no want."
Elena rubbed his back.
"You do not have to say more."
Victor's temper flashed.
"Yes, he does."
Elena turned toward him.
"No, he doesn't."
"This could explain what happened to my wife."
"And forcing him to relive it could damage your son."
Victor looked ready to explode.
Then he saw Nino flinch before he had even raised his voice.
The flinch stopped him.
Beatrice noticed.
"This is exactly what Claire did," she said softly.
"She filled that child's head with fear."
Victor faced his mother.
"Why did Claire write that Nino belongs to the Hale family?"
Beatrice's composure slipped again.
Miles Arden stepped forward.
"Victor, there are legal matters you should review privately."
"What legal matters?"
Miles looked at Beatrice.
That glance was enough.
Victor crossed the room and locked the private elevator with his security code.
"Nobody leaves."
Beatrice's mouth curved into a thin smile.
"You are being theatrical."
"I learned from the best."
Victor called his head of security and ordered every archived camera server from the month Claire died to be restored immediately.
The response came back two minutes later.
There were no archives.
Every interior recording from the forty-eight hours before Claire's death had been permanently erased.
The deletion request carried Victor's digital authorization.
Victor stared at the screen.
"I never ordered this."
Miles went pale.
Beatrice remained still.
"Someone used your credentials," Elena said.
Victor looked at his mother.
"Who had them?"
Beatrice did not answer.
Nino wriggled down from Elena's arms and ran to the grand piano.
He crawled underneath it.
Victor started after him, but Elena raised one hand.
"Wait."
Nino reached into the wooden frame beneath the piano and pulled free a small plastic pouch.
Inside was a red silicone cup with a cartoon fox printed on the side.
Victor's face drained of color.
He remembered that cup.
Claire had bought it for Nino on a trip to Vermont.
Nino held it out.
"Mommy cup."
Elena accepted it carefully.
There was a brown residue dried along the bottom edge.
Beatrice suddenly moved toward the elevator.
Victor blocked her path.
"Why are you leaving?"
"Because this has become absurd."
Elena looked at the residue.
"Then you will not mind if we test it."
Beatrice turned slowly.
Her voice became almost gentle.
"Miss Brooks, you have no idea what family you have walked into."
Elena met her stare.
"I think Nino has been trying to tell everyone exactly that."
Beatrice smiled.
"Then perhaps you should ask him who gave Claire the cup."
Nino looked across the room.
He lifted one small finger.
And pointed directly at Victor.
Elena noticed that Victor kept looking from the cup to Nino rather than at Beatrice.
For the first time, his anger seemed divided between suspicion and shame.
May you like
He had spent months punishing the boy for refusing to behave normally while never asking what memory the child was trying to survive.
Nino's small finger remained raised, and every adult in the room seemed suddenly afraid of where it would point next.
