Chapter 2
I stared at the pill in Nina’s tiny hand.
The room lost its warmth.
Even the fire seemed to burn quieter.
“What is that?” I asked.
Nina smiled proudly.
“I found it yesterday.”
Carla’s face drained.
“Nina, where?”
“On the red floor. It fell from doctor man.”
Dr. Hale went white.
Not pale.
White.
Dean slowly lowered his glass.
Camille stepped away from the doorway as if the pill might explode.
I looked at Hale.
“Is that yours?”
He swallowed.
“It may be a supplement.”
“A supplement?”
“Yes. I carry several medications for patients.”
Nina tilted her head.
“But you dropped it after you touched Uncle Massimo’s legs.”
The silence changed.
It sharpened.
Carla quickly reached for Nina.
“I’m sorry, sir. She doesn’t understand.”
“No,” I said.
My voice came out softer than I expected.
“She understands enough.”
I held out my hand.
“Nina, give it to me.”
She dropped the pill into my palm.
It was small, round, unmarked on one side, scored on the other.
Nothing special.
Nothing that looked like a weapon.
That made it worse.
I looked at Dean.
“Call Dr. Soren.”
Dean’s eyes flickered.
“Massimo, Hale is already here.”
“I said call Dr. Soren.”
Dr. Elias Soren had been my father’s physician before age and honesty made him inconvenient to my family.
He had retired years ago.
He had also never lied to me.
Dean gave a small laugh.
“You’re letting a child make you paranoid.”
I turned my chair toward him.
The room chilled.
“No,” I said. “I’m letting a child make me curious.”
Dean’s jaw tightened.
Then he pulled out his phone.
Dr. Hale stepped forward.
“Massimo, with respect, that pill could be anything. Handling it without context—”
“Then you won’t mind if another doctor identifies it.”
He stopped.
His eyes moved to Dean.
It was quick.
Too quick for most men.
But I had survived by noticing smaller things.
Camille touched my shoulder.
“Darling, you’re exhausted. This is humiliating for Dr. Hale.”
I looked at her hand until she removed it.
“Humiliating?”
She forced a smile.
“A child finds a pill, and suddenly you’re interrogating everyone.”
I watched her face.
Beautiful.
Smooth.
Unmoved by anything except inconvenience.
“We will wait for Soren,” I said.
Nina leaned against my chair.
“Did I do bad?”
The question hit me harder than it should have.
I looked down at her.
“No, little one. You did very good.”
Carla’s eyes filled with fear.
She knew powerful houses.
She knew truth could be dangerous in them.
Dr. Soren arrived forty minutes later.
He came without a tie, with a black medical bag, gray hair, and the irritated expression of a man dragged out of peace by stupidity.
He looked at me.
Then at Hale.
Then at the pill sealed in a glass dish on my desk.
“Why am I here?”
“Identify that.”
He put on gloves.
Dr. Hale shifted.
Dean noticed me noticing.
Soren examined the pill under a small light.
He scraped a trace into a vial.
He used a portable test kit from his bag.
The room waited.
Nina had fallen asleep in Carla’s lap near the window, her mission complete.
Finally, Soren looked up.
“This is not a supplement.”
Hale said nothing.
“What is it?” I asked.
“A neuromuscular suppressant. Not common. Used carefully, it can reduce spasms. Used repeatedly in the wrong dose, it can create weakness, numbness, delayed nerve response.”
The room went still.
My fingers tightened on the arms of my wheelchair.
“Could it make a spinal injury appear worse?”
Soren’s eyes darkened.
“Yes.”
Camille whispered, “Oh my God.”
Too late.
Too pretty.
Too rehearsed.
I looked at Hale.
“How many of these have you given me?”
He shook his head.
“I have never—”
“Careful,” I said.
One word.
That was all.
My guards moved closer.
Hale’s mouth trembled.
Dean stepped forward.
“Massimo, don’t do this here.”
I looked at him.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re emotional.”
That almost made me smile.
Men like Dean loved calling other people emotional when the ground moved under their own feet.
Soren opened his bag again.
“I want bloodwork. Now. Hair sample too, if exposure has been prolonged.”
“Do it,” I said.
Hale lunged suddenly.
Not at me.
At the dish.
One guard caught him by the wrist.
Another slammed him against the wall.
Nina woke crying.
Carla held her tight.
Hale shouted, “You don’t understand!”
I wheeled closer.
“Then help me.”
His eyes filled with panic.
“I had no choice.”
Dean closed his eyes.
There it was.
The first crack.
“No choice?” I asked.
Hale looked toward Dean.
Dean did not move.
But his face told me enough.
My loyal right hand.
My hero.
My brother in everything but blood.
Soren drew my blood while Hale was taken to a locked study under guard.
Camille tried to leave.
I stopped her.
“Sit.”
She froze.
“I’m not one of your men.”
“No. You were going to be my wife.”
Her lips parted.
“Were?”
I did not answer.
Carla stood, holding Nina.
“Sir, I should take her away.”
I looked at Nina.
She was rubbing her eyes, confused and frightened by the grown-up storm she had accidentally started.
“Yes,” I said gently. “Take her upstairs.”
Nina looked at me.
“Uncle Massimo?”
“Yes?”
“Are your feet waking up?”
Everyone looked at me.
I looked at the pill.
At Hale’s shaking shoulders.
At Dean’s quiet face.
At Camille’s frozen smile.
May you like
Then I looked back at the child.
“I think,” I said, “something is.”
