Chapter 4 - The Bitter Test.
Dr. Evelyn Grant arrived eleven minutes later under armed escort from the estate gate.
She was Lorenzo’s personal physician and one of the few people he trusted without hesitation.
She did not ask why Adrian, Celeste, Marcus, and a frightened toddler were gathered around a sealed wine glass after midnight.
She simply opened her medical case.
“I can run a preliminary screen here,” she said.
“It won’t replace a certified lab.”
“I only need to know whether I was supposed to finish that drink.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“That sentence tells me I already dislike tonight.”
Marcus set the evidence bag on a cleared section of the table.
Celeste watched the doctor with growing panic.
Adrian watched Celeste.
Lorenzo watched both of them.
Evelyn took a tiny sample using a sterile dropper.
No one spoke while the test developed.
Mia sat on Lorenzo’s lap with her head against his chest.
Her yellow dress looked painfully bright in the darkening room.
Evelyn checked the result twice.
Then she looked at Lorenzo.
“There is a sedative in the wine.”
Celeste closed her eyes.
Adrian swore under his breath.
Lorenzo’s hand stopped moving on Mia’s back.
“How much?”
“I cannot quantify it here.”
“Would it have knocked me out?”
“Possibly.”
Evelyn’s expression hardened.
“With alcohol, the effect could be unpredictable.”
Celeste stood abruptly.
“I didn’t know it would react that way.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“So now you admit you put the sedative in the glass.”
“I told you I was trying to help.”
“By making me unconscious?”
Celeste shook her head desperately.
“No.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Celeste, stop talking.”
Every eye turned toward him.
Adrian froze.
Lorenzo’s voice became almost gentle.
“Why would she stop talking?”
Adrian recovered quickly.
“Because she is panicking and making herself sound guilty.”
“She is guilty of something.”
“That doesn’t mean it involves me.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
Evelyn examined the residue under Celeste’s thumbnail.
She scraped a tiny sample into a sterile container.
“This looks consistent with a crushed tablet,” she said.
Celeste’s face crumpled.
“I was given one pill.”
Lorenzo stood so quickly that Mia startled.
He immediately softened and set her gently into the chair behind him.
“Given by whom?”
Celeste looked at Adrian.
Adrian’s face remained still.
She looked at Marcus.
Then she looked toward the dark service passage.
“I can’t tell you.”
Lorenzo stared at her in disbelief.
“You nearly drugged me in front of my daughter and you think you still get to protect someone?”
“You don’t understand what they have.”
“What do they have?”
Celeste’s eyes filled with tears.
“My brother.”
Lorenzo frowned.
Celeste’s younger brother, Noah Rowan, had disappeared from public view six months earlier after a gambling scandal.
Celeste had claimed he was in rehabilitation in Arizona.
“He isn’t in Arizona,” she whispered.
Adrian stood.
“Enough.”
Lorenzo stepped between him and Celeste.
“Sit down.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
For several seconds, the brothers stared at each other.
Then Adrian sat.
Celeste began to speak again.
“They said if I didn’t do exactly what they wanted, Noah would never come home.”
Lorenzo’s anger shifted into something colder.
“What did they want after I passed out?”
Celeste stared at the marble floor.
“They wanted the key from around your neck.”
Lorenzo’s hand went instinctively to the chain beneath his shirt.
A small encrypted vault key hung there.
Only three people knew it existed.
Lorenzo.
May you like
His late wife.
And Adrian.
