Chapter 3
For a moment, I could not understand the words.
My staff locker.
The small metal locker near the laundry room where I kept extra shoes, stain remover, and a picture Lily drew of me with yellow hair even though mine was brown.
The silver box was there.
That made no sense.
“No,” I said.
Marco’s face did not soften.
Dominic turned toward him.
“Show me.”
I stepped forward.
“I didn’t put anything there.”
Dominic looked back at me.
“I know.”
The answer came fast.
Too fast for politics.
Too fast for strategy.
I stared at him.
“How can you know that?”
“Because if you wanted my son dead, you would not bring the only witness to live beside him.”
Marco shifted slightly.
“Boss—”
Dominic’s gaze snapped to him.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Marco lowered his head.
“I only meant we still have to treat it as evidence.”
Dominic’s face remained hard.
“Then treat it as evidence. Not a conclusion.”
I followed them downstairs even though Dominic told me to stay with Lily.
Rosa stayed behind in the private residence with both children and two guards outside the door.
I hated leaving Lily.
But I hated the idea of men searching through my life without me there even more.
The staff corridor smelled like bleach and coffee.
People stood against the walls in silence.
Cooks.
Servers.
Housemaids.
Garden staff.
Some looked afraid.
Some looked curious.
Some looked at me like I had already been convicted.
My locker stood open.
Inside, on the second shelf, was a small silver container.
A security guard held it in a plastic evidence bag.
I recognized nothing about it.
Dr. Harris stood nearby with gloves on.
“Residue?” Dominic asked.
“Preliminary test suggests cashew protein,” the doctor said.
Whispers moved through the corridor.
I felt every eye land on me.
My throat closed.
“I didn’t do this.”
No one answered.
That hurt more than accusation.
After six years of working beside these people, no one spoke for me.
Dominic did.
“Anna was with her daughter when the cake was tampered with?”
Marco checked his tablet.
“She was upstairs during the missing footage window.”
My stomach sank.
“That bathroom flooded,” I said. “You know that. A guest called down.”
Marco looked at me.
“Which guest?”
“I don’t know. The call came through the staff phone. Nora sent me up.”
Everyone looked toward Nora.
She was one of the junior housemaids.
Twenty-two.
Blond.
Always chewing mint gum.
Her face went white.
“I did,” she said. “I sent Anna.”
Dominic turned to her.
“Who reported the flood?”
“I thought it was Mrs. Vale.”
“You thought?”
Nora swallowed.
“She said she was in the upstairs powder room. The line was bad.”
“Was there a flood?” Marco asked me.
“Yes. Water everywhere.”
“Caused by?”
“A hand towel shoved into the sink.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
A trap.
The call pulled me upstairs.
Lily was left in the staff kitchen.
Someone entered the cold room.
Then the evidence appeared in my locker.
Not just an attempted murder.
A setup.
Dominic looked around at the staff.
“Who had access to Anna’s locker?”
Marco answered.
“Staff corridor is open to all household employees.”
“Camera?”
“Working.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed.
“And?”
Marco’s expression darkened.
“Footage shows no one touching her locker.”
I froze.
“No one?”
“No one.”
“Then how did it get there?” I asked.
Marco did not answer.
A man near the back muttered, “Maybe it was already there.”
Dominic moved so fast I barely saw him.
He crossed the corridor and stopped in front of Paolo, one of the servers.
Paolo’s face drained of color.
“What did you say?” Dominic asked.
Paolo lifted both hands.
“Nothing, sir.”
“No. Say it again.”
“I just meant—”
“You meant Anna poisoned my son, then allowed her daughter to stop him from eating it?”
Paolo said nothing.
Dominic stepped closer.
“My house is full of cowards tonight.”
The staff lowered their eyes.
“All of you saw a mother almost framed, and not one of you asked why the evidence appeared too neatly.”
My face burned.
I did not want his defense to make me cry.
It nearly did.
Then Lily’s voice came from behind us.
“Mommy?”
I turned.
She stood at the end of the hall in pink pajamas, holding Ethan’s hand.
Rosa hurried behind them, horrified.
“I’m sorry. She woke up and ran.”
I crossed to Lily and dropped to my knees.
“Baby, you were supposed to stay upstairs.”
She looked scared.
Not sleepy scared.
Knowing scared.
She pointed at the silver box in the evidence bag.
“That’s not it.”
Every adult went still.
Dominic walked closer slowly.
“What do you mean?”
Lily pressed against me.
“The man’s box was shiny, but not that one.”
Marco crouched, keeping distance.
“How do you know, sweetheart?”
She frowned.
“His had a bird.”
“A bird?” Dominic asked.
“On top.”
Marco looked at the bag.
The silver box inside was plain.
No bird.
Dr. Harris took it and turned it under the light.
“No engraving,” he said.
Lily shook her head harder.
“The cake man’s box had a bird with big wings.”
Dominic looked at Marco.
Marco’s face changed.
“What?” I asked.
Dominic’s voice was low.
“The Falcone crest.”
I had heard that name whispered only twice in six years.
Falcone.
The one name people spoke more carefully than Moretti.
Ethan’s fingers tightened around Lily’s hand.
Dominic noticed.
“Ethan?”
Ethan looked at the floor.
“I saw that bird before.”
Dominic froze.
“When?”
“At the party.”
“Where?”
Ethan’s voice became tiny.
“On Uncle Vincent’s ring.”
The hallway turned to ice.
Vincent Moretti was Dominic’s cousin.
His business partner.
The man who had stood beside Ethan during the birthday song.
The man who had brought the cake out with the waiters, laughing and clapping like family.
Dominic did not move.
But something in his face died.
Marco looked shaken.
“Boss, Vincent wouldn’t—”
Dominic raised one hand.
Silence.
He looked at Ethan.
“Are you sure?”
Ethan nodded.
“He bent down to fix my napkin before the cake. I saw it. A bird ring.”
Dominic’s voice was almost gentle.
“Vincent doesn’t wear a Falcone ring.”
Ethan’s lip trembled.
“He did last night.”
Lily tugged my sleeve.
“Mommy.”
I looked down.
“What?”
She pointed behind the row of staff.
A man stood half-hidden near the laundry entrance.
Tall.
Gray hair.
Tuxedo pants.
White shirt.
No jacket.
I had seen him at the party.
One of Vincent’s drivers.
May you like
His eyes locked on Lily.
Then he turned and ran.
