Chapter 12 - The Second Glass.
Celeste screamed when she saw the blood.
Lorenzo moved Mia behind him.
Marcus raised his empty hands.
“It’s not mine.”
“Whose?” Lorenzo asked.
“Daniel’s.”
Adrian stepped away from him.
“You found him?”
“Near the west greenhouse.”
“Alive?”
Marcus nodded.
“Barely.”
Daniel had been struck from behind and left beside the drainage wall.
Before losing consciousness, he managed to say three words.
“Victor is inside.”
Lorenzo looked toward the library door.
Every instinct told him the house was still compromised.
The blood in Victor’s car had been a distraction.
The one o’clock video had been an invitation.
Whoever was controlling the night wanted everyone gathered in the dining room.
Lorenzo checked the clock.
12:46 a.m.
Fourteen minutes.
He made a decision.
“We give them what they want.”
Celeste stared at him.
“You’re going back to the table?”
“Yes.”
“That video showed you being shot.”
“That video showed what they want me to believe.”
Marcus understood first.
“You want to set a trap.”
Lorenzo nodded.
He gave Marcus precise instructions.
No visible guards.
Emergency power isolated from the main system.
Mia would be moved to a secure room with Evelyn and two officers from the county sheriff’s department who were quietly approaching through the east service road.
Celeste would remain in the dining room.
Adrian protested.
“Why her?”
“Because whoever planned this thinks she is still useful.”
Celeste looked terrified.
Lorenzo turned to her.
“You can walk away from this room now and answer for drugging me later.”
“Or?”
“Or you help me end it.”
She looked toward Mia.
For the first time that night, her decision seemed to have nothing to do with saving herself.
“I’ll stay.”
At 12:56, the dining room looked almost exactly as it had before everything began.
The crystal chandeliers glowed warmly.
The marble floor reflected every light.
Lorenzo sat in the same chair.
A second crystal glass of red wine stood before him.
It was untouched.
Celeste stood near the doorway in her red velvet dress.
Adrian sat across from Lorenzo, furious at being included.
Marcus disappeared into the service corridor.
At 12:59, the house became silent.
The second hand on the antique clock climbed toward twelve.
Lorenzo rested one hand beside the glass.
One o’clock arrived.
Nothing happened.
Adrian smiled.
“Congratulations.”
“You terrified everyone over a fake video.”
Then Celeste looked at the wine glass.
“Lorenzo.”
The red liquid was moving.
Tiny bubbles rose from the bottom.
No one had touched it.
Lorenzo stood.
A faint mechanical click came from beneath the marble table.
Marcus shouted through his radio.
“Move!”
Lorenzo grabbed Celeste and pulled her backward.
The center panel beneath the table opened.
A thin tube snapped away from the base of the glass.
Someone had built a hidden injection line through the table pedestal.
Adrian stared in horror.
“That was here the whole time?”
A man’s voice answered from the dark service passage.
May you like
“Longer than you think.”
Victor Shaw stepped into the chandelier light holding a pistol.
