Chapter 5 - The Finger Pointing Back.
Victor felt the floor disappear beneath him.
"Me?"
Nino nodded once.
His eyes filled with tears again.
"Daddy cup."
Beatrice exhaled slowly, almost with relief.
"There it is."
Victor ignored her.
He crouched several feet from his son.
"Nino, did I give Mommy that cup?"
The boy hid behind Elena's skirt.
"Daddy brought."
Victor pressed both hands against his knees.
A memory struck him with brutal clarity.
The night before his London flight, Claire had complained of a headache.
Victor had brought her water from the kitchen in Nino's red cup because every clean glass was in the dishwasher.
He had left it on her nightstand.
Then his phone rang.
Beatrice had called about the merger.
Victor had argued with Claire.
He had left for the airport angry.
Twenty hours later, she was dead.
Victor stood too quickly.
"I brought her water."
Beatrice folded her hands.
"Then perhaps you should stop accusing everyone else."
Elena examined the cup without touching the residue.
"Did you pour the water yourself?"
Victor looked at her.
"What?"
"Did you fill the cup?"
He searched his memory.
He had taken the cup from the counter.
It had already contained water.
He had assumed Claire poured it and forgot it.
"No," he said.
Beatrice's expression changed almost imperceptibly.
Elena saw it.
So did Victor.
Miles cleared his throat.
"This should go through proper channels."
"It will," Victor said.
He called a private forensic laboratory used by Hale Meridian during product liability cases.
He ordered a courier immediately.
Beatrice laughed.
"You are testing a child's cup based on a toddler's memory and a paranoid letter."
Victor stepped close enough that even his mother stopped smiling.
"If the test comes back clean, I will apologize."
"And if it does not?"
"Then I will find out who killed my wife."
For the first time, Miles looked genuinely frightened.
Elena took Nino upstairs while Victor kept Beatrice and Miles in the penthouse until security arrived.
An hour later, Beatrice finally left under escort after Victor's lawyers confirmed he had no legal right to detain her further.
Before entering the elevator, she turned to him.
"You think that nanny is saving your son."
Victor said nothing.
"You should ask who she really is."
The elevator doors closed.
Victor found Elena in the nursery reading to Nino.
The boy was asleep against her shoulder.
Victor lowered his voice.
"My mother says I should ask who you are."
Elena did not look surprised.
"Then ask."
"Did you know Claire?"
A long pause followed.
Elena closed the book.
"Yes."
Victor's face hardened.
"How?"
"She interviewed me once."
"For this job?"
"No."
Elena gently laid Nino under the blanket.
Then she reached beneath the collar of her uniform and pulled out a thin chain.
A small key hung from it.
"Claire gave me this three weeks before she died."
Victor stared at the key.
"What does it open?"
Elena looked toward the hidden cavity in the wall.
"Something she said you would never believe existed until your son trusted you enough to show you where to look."
Victor ordered the kitchen sealed until the courier arrived.
He photographed the cup from every angle and sent copies to Ortiz before she had even formally joined the case.
May you like
Beatrice watched him with the same expression she used during board negotiations, as if grief itself were another transaction she could outlast.
That calm frightened Victor more than anger would have.
