Chapter 2 - The Medicine Cabinet
The girl was named Sophie Bell.
She was seven years old.
Her mother, Evelyn Bell, had worked in my house long enough to know where every hidden hallway, service stairwell, and locked cabinet was located.
But Evelyn had never told me she had a daughter.
That fact alone made me suspicious.
I ordered every guard on the third floor to stand down except Marco Vieri, the head of my security team.
Marco had been with me for fifteen years.
He had taken bullets meant for me twice.
He was the closest thing I had to a brother.
"Lorenzo," he said quietly, "something is wrong."
"I know."
His eyes moved to Sophie.
"How did she get past the cameras?"
I looked at the hallway.
"That's what we're going to find out."
Sophie sat on the carpet beside Lucas's bed, opening her red lunchbox.
She seemed completely unimpressed by the armed men filling the room.
Inside the lunchbox were a small apple, two crackers, a juice box, and a plastic bag containing dried flower petals.
"Why did you bring flowers?"
"For him."
She nodded toward Lucas.
"He likes them."
"He doesn't know you."
Sophie looked at me as though I had asked a foolish question.
"He knew me before."
I crouched in front of her.
"When?"
She reached into her pocket.
A tiny metal key rested in her palm.
My breath caught.
I recognized it.
It was an old cabinet key.
Isabella's grandmother had owned a writing desk with a hidden compartment. Isabella had kept the key around her neck.
After her death, I thought it had been lost.
"Where did you get that?"
"Mommy gave it to me."
"When?"
"Before she went away."
"Where did she go?"
Sophie lowered her head.
"She said she was going somewhere people couldn't find her."
I looked at Evelyn's personnel file on the desk.
Three years ago, shortly after Isabella's death, Evelyn had taken six months of leave.
She returned without explanation.
I had never questioned it.
I should have.
"Marco."
He stepped closer.
"Sir?"
"Bring me every medication Lucas has received in the past six months."
Marco nodded.
"All of them?"
"Every bottle. Every refill. Every prescription."
Within twenty minutes, the room was covered in medication containers.
Sophie watched quietly.
Then she pointed at three bottles.
"Those."
I frowned.
"Why?"
"Those are the green ones."
I stared at her.
"The green ones?"
She nodded.
"Not the bottles. The medicine inside."
I opened the first bottle.
Small white tablets.
Nothing unusual.
I checked the label.
It was a standard anti-inflammatory.
The second contained heart medication.
The third was a sedative.
Sophie shook her head.
"Not that."
She pointed to another bottle.
Lucas's appetite stimulant.
I picked it up.
"What about this?"
She wrinkled her nose.
"It smells like the room."
"What room?"
"The room where Mommy cried."
I felt something inside me shift.
I turned to Marco.
"Find the old medical storage room."
"There are four."
"The one Isabella used."
Marco hesitated.
"That room has been sealed since her death."
"Open it."
He obeyed.
The old storage room was on the first floor behind the kitchen.
It smelled of dust and disinfectant.
Shelves were stacked with abandoned medical supplies.
At the far end stood Isabella's old gardening table.
I remembered it immediately.
She used to sit there after tending the roses.
Sophie entered behind me.
She stopped beside the table.
"Here."
She pointed beneath it.
There was a faint green mark on the wood.
A painted rose.
I ran my fingers across it.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something Isabella had said.
You have to remove what's hurting them.
I pulled the drawer open.
Empty.
I removed the drawer entirely.
Behind it was a narrow compartment.
Inside rested a sealed envelope.
My name was written across it.
Lorenzo.
My hands shook.
I opened it.
A single sheet fell out.
I read the first line.
If Lucas becomes sick, do not trust the doctors who claim they have all the answers.
My heart pounded.
The letter continued.
Our son has been exposed to something at the estate.
I believe it is being introduced slowly.
Not enough to kill him immediately.
Enough to make him weak.
Enough to make everyone believe he has a natural disease.
I stopped reading.
Marco came closer.
"Sir?"
I kept going.
I don't know whom to trust.
But I have proof that someone is altering his treatment.
The evidence is hidden where no one thinks to look.
The final sentence was underlined twice.
The person doing this has access to his medicine.
Below that, another sentence had been written in faint ink.
And he knows I suspect him.
I lowered the paper.
For three years I had imagined Isabella had been murdered by an enemy.
A rival.
A hitman.
A traitor.
But the letter suggested something worse.
Her killer might never have needed to enter the estate with a weapon.
He might have already been here.
I turned to Marco.
"Lock the house down."
He stared at me.
"Everyone?"
"Everyone."
"Even the doctors?"
"Especially the doctors."
A voice echoed from the doorway.
"That would be a terrible mistake."
I spun around.
Dr. Nathan Hale stood there.
My son's chief physician.
The man I had paid millions to save him.
His expression was calm.
Too calm.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because your son could die without proper treatment."
I stepped toward him.
"Maybe he's been dying because of it."
For the first time, Dr. Hale looked afraid.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But I saw it.
And Marco saw it too.
Sophie tugged on my sleeve.
I looked down.
She whispered one sentence.
"The bad man isn't the doctor."
I stared at her.
"Then who is it?"
She looked past me toward the hallway.
At the security cameras.
At the guards.
At the men I had trusted to protect my home.
May you like
Then she said,
"The man who changes the clocks."
