Chapter 1 - The Poisoned Glass
The first thing Julian DeLuca noticed was not Cassandra falling.
It was the silence that came before it.
Three hundred people had been laughing only seconds earlier.
Now every face in the ballroom had changed.
Cassandra lay against his arm, her silver gown spread across the marble floor.
Her lips had turned pale.
“Call an ambulance,” Julian ordered.
The command cracked through the room.
Security moved instantly.
Guests backed away from the table.
Nora Bennett stood frozen near the edge of the ballroom with Lily pressed against her chest.
The little girl buried her face in her mother’s shoulder.
Julian looked at the champagne glass.
Then at Thomas Bell.
The old butler was standing beside the service door.
He was staring at Cassandra.
But only for a second.
When Julian’s eyes met his, Thomas looked away.
That was enough.
Julian had spent his entire adult life learning to recognize fear.
Thomas Bell was afraid.
And that scared Julian more than Cassandra collapsing.
“Sir,” one of the guards said, “the ambulance is here.”
Julian lifted Cassandra himself.
The doctors met him at the front entrance of Northwestern Memorial.
Inside the emergency room, everything became bright lights and clipped voices.
A doctor ordered blood tests.
Another prepared an antidote.
Julian stood behind the glass and watched machines monitor the woman he had planned to marry.
Cassandra had never looked fragile before.
She had always looked untouchable.
Now she looked like someone who could disappear.
Julian’s jaw tightened.
Four years ago, Claire Arden had disappeared.
Tonight, Cassandra had nearly died.
And both events had happened inside his house.
That could not be coincidence.
Nora sat alone in a hospital corridor with Lily asleep against her.
She looked exhausted.
Julian walked toward her.
“Nora.”
She looked up.
“Yes, Mr. DeLuca.”
“Did you see anyone near Cassandra’s glass?”
Nora hesitated.
“No.”
Julian studied her face.
She looked frightened.
Not guilty.
Before he could ask another question, Lily stirred.
Her eyes opened halfway.
She looked at Julian.
Then she whispered something that made him stop breathing.
“Mommy said he would come back.”
Julian crouched slowly.
“Who?”
Lily hugged her stuffed rabbit.
“The man from the blue room.”
Nora went completely still.
Julian felt something cold move through his chest.
There was no blue room in the DeLuca estate.
Not officially.
But four years earlier, Claire Arden had vanished from a room painted blue.
And Julian had never told anyone that.
May you like
Not even Nora.
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