Chapter 2 - THE TABLET IN THE SHADOWS

"Do not let Victoria Sterling near that patient," Dominic commanded, his voice cutting through the speakerphone like a serrated blade. "I am sending a private medical transport team with armed security to your hospital right now. If Margaret Carter is moved from her room before they arrive, I will personally buy your hospital and fire every single person on your administrative board. Do you understand me?"

"Y-yes, sir. We will hold the patient," the administrator stammered, terrified.

Dominic disconnected the call. He tossed the phone onto his desk and turned to me.

I was trembling so violently my teeth chattered. Victoria wasn't just trying to frame me for stealing medication; she was actively trying to murder my mother by throwing her into a neglected hospice facility. She was using my only vulnerability as leverage to keep me quiet about what I had seen in Antonio's bedroom.

"She wants to destroy me," I whispered, wrapping my arms around my belly. "Because I found the locked door. Because I treated your father like a human being."

Dominic stepped forward, his massive hands gently gripping my shaking shoulders. "She will not touch your mother, Emily. I swear it on my life. My men are already en route to Albany. They will guard Margaret's door until she can be safely transferred to my private clinic alongside my father."

I looked up into his gray eyes, finding an unexpected, fierce protection there. The most dangerous man in New York was shielding a pregnant maid.

"Why is she doing this, Dominic?" I asked, tears finally spilling over my cheeks. "Why does a woman who is about to marry a billionaire need twenty-five thousand dollars from an Albany pawn shop?"

Dominic's expression hardened. "That is exactly what we are going to find out."

He picked up the crumpled pawn ticket. "Rocco!"

The giant security chief entered the office instantly.

"Take a team to Albany," Dominic ordered, handing Rocco the ticket. "Go to this pawn shop. I don't care if you have to break the door down or buy the entire building. Find out exactly what Victoria pawned two weeks ago, and bring it back to me."

"Yes, Boss." Rocco vanished.

For the next three hours, I paced the guest bedroom, unable to rest. Dominic kept me updated, confirming that his men had successfully secured my mother’s hospital room. Victoria’s attempt to move her had been thwarted.

But Victoria herself was missing from the mansion.

When confronted by guards an hour earlier, she had locked herself in her massive walk-in closet and refused to come out, claiming she was terrified of Carlo.

Just before sunset, Rocco's black SUV sped back up the circular driveway.

Dominic summoned me back to his office. When I entered, Rocco was standing by the desk, looking unusually grim.

"We got it, Boss," Rocco said. "The pawn broker didn't want to hand it over, but a little persuasion changed his mind. He confirmed a blonde woman matching Victoria's description brought it in."

Rocco reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, black velvet box. He placed it on the mahogany desk and opened the lid.

I gasped.

Inside lay a breathtaking, antique diamond bracelet. The diamonds were cut in an old-fashioned style, set in heavy platinum. It was an exquisite piece of jewelry, clearly worth far more than the twenty-five thousand dollars Victoria had accepted for it.

Dominic stared at the bracelet, the color completely draining from his face. He reached out and touched the diamonds with a trembling finger.

"It’s not possible," Dominic whispered.

"What is it?" I asked gently.

"It belonged to my mother," Dominic said, his voice raw with an emotion I had never heard from him before. "She wore it on her wedding day. When she died ten years ago, my father locked it in his personal floor safe in his study. He said it was to remain untouched until the day I got married, to be given to my bride."

"Victoria stole it," I realized.

"Only my father had the combination to that safe," Dominic said, shaking his head slowly. "His mind has been supposedly gone for almost a year. How did Victoria get the combination?"

"Answer One, Open Two." We knew what Victoria had stolen, but the why was becoming terrifyingly complicated.

"Bring her to me," Dominic ordered Rocco, his voice dropping to a lethal calm. "Drag her out of that closet if you have to."

Minutes later, the office doors opened. Two guards escorted Victoria inside. She was no longer composed. Her mascara was slightly smudged, and her silk dress was wrinkled. She looked like a cornered animal.

She saw the diamond bracelet on the desk and froze.

"Sit down, Victoria," Dominic commanded.

Victoria swallowed hard, sinking into the leather chair opposite the desk. "Dominic, darling, I can explain."

"You stole my mother's heirloom from my father's safe," Dominic said, his voice practically vibrating with suppressed rage. "You pawned it for pennies in a city three hours away. You attempted to force Emily's mother into a death sentence to silence her. And you stood by while someone poisoned my father."

"I didn't poison Antonio!" Victoria screamed, the elegant facade shattering completely. Tears of genuine panic streamed down her face. "I swear to God, Dominic! I'm a thief, but I am not a murderer!"

"Then why steal the bracelet?" I asked, stepping forward from the shadows of the room. "You have millions at your disposal. You have black credit cards. Why did you need untraceable cash?"

Victoria glared at me, but she was out of options. She looked back at Dominic, her shoulders slumping in defeat.

"Because of my father," Victoria sobbed. "Before my father died, he accumulated massive gambling debts. Not to your family, Dominic. To the Russian syndicate in Brighton Beach. They came to me a year ago. They said if I didn't pay off the debt with cash, they would leak photographs of my father's illicit businesses to the press. They would ruin the Sterling name. I couldn't use your credit cards; your accountants would trace it. So I started stealing things from the estate and pawning them."

"How did you get the combination to the safe?" Dominic demanded.

"I didn't!" Victoria cried. "Mrs. Whitmore did! She caught me stealing a painting months ago. Instead of turning me in, she offered to help me. She gave me the combination to the safe. She was the one providing me with the items!"

I stared at her, my mind spinning. Mrs. Whitmore, the severe, loyal household supervisor, was the mastermind behind the thefts?

"If you didn't poison my father," Dominic asked, his eyes narrowing, "then who did?"

"I don't know!" Victoria wept. "I just knew that whoever was keeping Antonio sick was doing me a favor, because if he ever recovered, he would realize the vault was empty. I let him suffer to protect my secret. But I didn't drug him. I swear it!"

Dominic stared at his crying fiancée, disgusted. He pressed a button on his desk intercom.

"Rocco. Pull the security footage from the east corridor kitchen. Go back twelve hours. I want to see exactly who prepared my father's food tray today."

We waited in agonizing silence as Rocco brought a laptop into the office. He pulled up the encrypted video files from the kitchen cameras.

On the screen, the bustling kitchen staff prepared the morning meals. We watched as a chef plated Antonio's soup and placed it on a silver tray.

Then, the chef turned away.

A figure slipped into the frame. They moved quickly, pulling a small vial from their pocket and squeezing three drops of clear liquid into the soup.

Dominic paused the video and zoomed in on the figure's face.

It wasn't Mrs. Whitmore. It wasn't Victoria.

It was Dominic's uncle, Carlo Romano.

"My uncle," Dominic breathed, his fists clenching so tightly his knuckles cracked. "He's the one trying to kill my father."

I looked at the time stamp on the video. 07:30 AM.

"Dominic," I said softly, my heart skipping a beat. "Wait."

"Wait for what?" Dominic snapped, staring at the man who had betrayed his blood. "I have the proof. Carlo poisoned the soup."

"Yes, he did," I said, pointing a trembling finger at the screen. "But look at the time. Carlo poisoned the soup at seven-thirty this morning."

Dominic frowned. "And?"

"I found that soup tray sitting outside your father's door at two o'clock this afternoon," I explained, the terrifying realization washing over me. "The soup had a film over it. The bread was hard. Your father never touched it. He didn't eat the poisoned soup."

The room fell dead silent.

If Antonio didn't eat the soup Carlo poisoned... then how did he suffer a massive overdose of paralytic medication three hours later?

The poisoned medication bottles found in my cleaning cart.

Someone else had poisoned Antonio. Someone much more clever than Carlo.

"Carlo was trying to poison him slowly," Dominic realized, his voice dropping to a horrifying whisper. "But someone else bypassed Carlo's amateur attempt and delivered an acute overdose directly into his pills."

Before we could begin to guess who the second killer was, the heavy office doors flew open.