Chapter 1 - The Glass at Midnight.
.The dining room fell into a suffocating silence.
The crystal chandelier above seemed to flicker, casting warm gold across the half-finished dinner and the polished marble floor.
Lorenzo DeLuca stopped swirling the wine in his hand.
His three-year-old daughter, Mia, stood beside his chair in her bright yellow ruffled dress.
A yellow bow trembled above her high brown bun as she pointed toward the doorway.
Celeste Rowan stood there in a dark red velvet gown with her arms folded too tightly across her chest.
Mia looked at Lorenzo, then at the half-filled crystal glass.
Her small face had gone unusually serious.
“What is it, little one?” Lorenzo asked softly.
He lowered himself until his eyes were level with hers.
“She put something in my drink?”
Celeste’s expression changed before Mia could answer.
It lasted less than a second.
But Lorenzo saw it.
Fear.
Not confusion.
Not offense.
Fear.
“Lorenzo, don’t listen to a child...” Celeste said quickly.
Her voice was too sharp for someone with nothing to hide.
Lorenzo slowly straightened.
The tattoos along his neck disappeared beneath the open collar of his white shirt as his jaw tightened.
He placed the glass on the round marble table with deliberate care.
The base struck the stone with a clean, hard click.
“I’m not going deaf, am I?” he asked.
Celeste swallowed.
“I was only trying to help you.”
That sentence changed the room.
Lorenzo did not touch the glass again.
He reached for the silver dinner bell near his plate and rang it once.
A moment later, Marcus Hale, the head of security for the DeLuca estate, entered through the side door.
Marcus had worked for Lorenzo for nine years and had never seen him look at Celeste the way he did now.
“Seal the room,” Lorenzo said.
Celeste’s face lost color.
“Lorenzo, that is ridiculous.”
“Lock every exterior door.”
Marcus hesitated.
“Sir?”
“No one leaves the house.”
Mia slipped her little hand into Lorenzo’s.
Her fingers were cold.
Celeste gave a nervous laugh.
“You’re frightening your daughter.”
Lorenzo looked down at Mia.
She was not looking at him.
She was staring at Celeste’s right hand.
Lorenzo followed her gaze.
A tiny white residue clung beneath Celeste’s thumbnail.
Celeste noticed where he was looking and immediately curled her fingers into her palm.
Lorenzo’s voice became quieter.
“What did you put in the glass?”
“Nothing dangerous.”
Marcus turned toward her.
Lorenzo did not blink.
Celeste realized too late that she had answered the wrong question.
Lorenzo had asked what she had put in the glass.
He had never said he knew she had put anything there.
Mia stepped behind his leg.
Celeste’s breathing became shallow.
“I can explain.”
“You have one chance.”
Celeste glanced toward the hallway.
Marcus moved between her and the door.
The chandelier light shimmered across the red liquid in the untouched crystal glass.
Then Mia tugged Lorenzo’s sleeve.
“Daddy.”
He looked down.
Mia whispered the words that made Celeste stop breathing.
“The other man told her to do it.”
Lorenzo’s face went still.
“What other man?”
Mia slowly raised her hand.
But this time, she did not point at Celeste.
May you like
She pointed toward the dark security camera in the upper corner of the room.
The tiny red recording light was no longer blinking.
