Chapter 1: The Man Who Came Home Too Late
The leather briefcase hit the marble floor with a deafening thud.
Every head in the room turned.
The elderly woman's fingers loosened around the paper cup for the first time.
The young man standing in the doorway wasn't simply another guest.
He was Adrian Sinclair.
The only grandson of the Sinclair family patriarch.
The future CEO of Sinclair Holdings.
And the one man the entire household had been told was still overseas on an emergency business trip.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
Not today.
His sharp gray eyes swept across the room in complete silence.
The bruises on the young woman.
The maid lying on the floor, one hand pressed against her swollen cheek.
The scattered PROXIMA documents.
The pills.
The broken pearls.
Then his gaze stopped on the woman in the wheelchair.
"Emily..."
His voice barely rose above a whisper.
Emily looked up slowly.
The moment she recognized him, fresh tears welled in her eyes.
She tried to smile.
Instead, blood trickled from the corner of her cracked lip.
"I'm... glad you came."
Adrian crossed the room without another word.
His footsteps echoed across the polished wood.
The older blonde woman straightened her blazer, instantly replacing panic with practiced elegance.
"Adrian."
She smiled as though nothing unusual had happened.
"You arrived earlier than expected."
He ignored her.
Instead, he knelt beside Emily's wheelchair.
His fingertips gently lifted her bruised chin.
His breathing slowed.
His jaw tightened.
Someone had hurt the woman he intended to marry.
When he finally stood, there was no anger on his face.
Only terrifying calm.
He turned toward the older woman.
May you like
"What," he asked quietly, "did you make her drink?"
No one answered.
