Chapter 2 - THE BOTTLE NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO TOUCH
The entire east wing was sealed within three minutes.
No one was allowed to leave.
The guards stood at both entrances while Dr. Gallagher ordered every bottle, syringe, medication tray, and feeding tube in the nursery to be collected.
Hunter remained in the rocking chair with Leo sleeping against her chest.
She didn't understand why her hands were still shaking.
Maybe because she had just accused someone of poisoning a Mafia boss's only child.
Maybe because everyone in the room had looked at her as if she had suddenly become important.
For three weeks, nobody had remembered her name.
Now everyone was watching her.
Lorenzo stood beside the feeding cabinet.
His face had become unreadable.
“Start with the bottles,” he ordered.
Dr. Gallagher examined one carefully.
“We'll send samples to the laboratory.”
“No.”
The doctor looked up.
“No?”
“You're not sending anything outside this house.”
“Lorenzo, these tests require—”
“You have a laboratory downstairs.”
Gallagher went silent.
Hunter looked between them.
“You have a laboratory?”
Lorenzo didn't answer.
He simply looked at Matteo.
“Bring the equipment.”
Within minutes, technicians arrived.
They wore protective gloves and sealed each bottle inside individual containers.
Hunter watched from across the room.
Something bothered her.
She couldn't explain what.
Then she remembered the smell.
Bitter.
Chemical.
Almost sweet beneath it.
She looked at the cabinet again.
“Wait.”
Everyone stopped.
Hunter stood carefully.
Leo remained asleep in her arms.
“The bottle.”
Gallagher turned.
“What about it?”
Hunter pointed.
“Not that one.”
She indicated the bottle on the far right.
“That one wasn't there earlier.”
The nurse frowned.
“Yes, it was.”
“No.”
Hunter shook her head.
“I cleaned this room yesterday morning. There were five bottles in the cabinet.”
The nurse folded her arms.
“There are six now.”
Hunter looked at her.
“Exactly.”
Silence.
Lorenzo's gaze moved slowly toward the nurse.
“How did the sixth bottle get here?”
The woman's face changed.
“I don't know.”
“Who prepared it?”
“I don't know.”
“Who was working the nursery?”
The nurse swallowed.
“Me.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“Then you should know.”
“I was helping Dr. Gallagher with Leo's medication.”
Gallagher immediately shook his head.
“No. You weren't.”
The nurse froze.
“I was alone in the medical room for almost twenty minutes,” Gallagher continued. “You weren't there.”
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
Hunter felt a cold sensation crawl across her skin.
The nurse began crying.
“I didn't do anything.”
Lorenzo didn't raise his voice.
“That wasn't my question.”
The woman backed away.
“I swear to God—”
“You don't need God right now.”
Lorenzo's voice became terrifyingly calm.
“You need the truth.”
Before she could answer, one of the technicians shouted.
“Mr. Rossi.”
Everyone turned.
He held up the test strip.
“There is something abnormal.”
Gallagher hurried toward him.
“What?”
“We found a sedative compound.”
The room went silent.
Hunter's heart dropped.
“How much?”
The technician hesitated.
“Enough to suppress respiratory function in an infant.”
Lorenzo stared at the bottle.
For the first time, rage appeared in his eyes.
Not explosive rage.
Something colder.
Something far more dangerous.
Hunter looked at Leo.
The baby stirred.
She immediately pulled him closer.
“Is he going to be okay?”
Gallagher examined him.
“We don't know yet.”
Lorenzo turned toward the guards.
“Find out who touched that bottle.”
One guard nodded.
Then his phone rang.
He listened.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He looked toward Lorenzo.
“We have a problem.”
“Speak.”
“The security footage from the nursery has been deleted.”
Nobody breathed.
Lorenzo slowly turned.
“Deleted?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Three hours.”
“By whom?”
“We don't know.”
Hunter looked toward the ceiling.
Then toward the cameras.
She suddenly remembered something.
“The cleaning closet.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“What about it?”
“There is another camera.”
The guard frowned.
“No.”
“Yes.”
Hunter pointed toward the hallway.
“It faces the supply corridor. I cleaned it yesterday.”
Lorenzo immediately followed her.
The camera was hidden behind a decorative smoke detector.
Matteo pulled up the recording.
They watched.
For almost twenty minutes, nothing happened.
Then someone appeared.
A woman.
She wore a nurse's uniform.
Her face was hidden by a surgical mask.
She entered the nursery.
Removed a bottle.
Replaced it.
Then looked directly at the camera.
Hunter felt her blood run cold.
The woman raised one finger to her lips.
Then walked away.
Lorenzo's face hardened.
“Zoom in.”
The image sharpened.
The woman's wrist became visible.
She wore a bracelet.
A thin gold bracelet with a tiny blue stone.
Hunter recognized it.
She had seen it before.
“That's Mrs. Rossi's.”
Everyone turned toward her.
Hunter's voice barely came out.
“Sophia's mother.”
Lorenzo froze.
His dead wife's mother.
A woman who had not visited the mansion in months.
A woman who had spent the last two months publicly blaming Lorenzo for her daughter's death.
Lorenzo stared at the screen.
“No.”
Hunter looked at him.
“You know her bracelet?”
“I bought it for Sophia.”
The room went silent.
Then Leo began crying.
Not loudly.
Weakly.
Hunter immediately returned to the chair.
She held him against her chest.
Within seconds, his crying stopped.
Lorenzo watched.
Something inside him broke.
His son trusted a woman he had never noticed.
A grieving stranger.
A maid.
The only person who had accidentally discovered what everyone else had missed.
He looked at Hunter.
“From now on, you're staying in this room.”
Hunter frowned.
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“I need to work.”
“You're not going back downstairs.”
“Why?”
“Because whoever poisoned my son now knows you saw something.”
Hunter's stomach tightened.
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“They will come for you.”
She looked down at Leo.
“Then I guess I'm staying.”
Lorenzo stared at her for several seconds.
Then he quietly said,
“No.”
Hunter looked up.
“You're not staying because you have nowhere else to go.”
He paused.
“You're staying because I'm going to make sure nobody ever hurts you again.”
For the first time, Hunter didn't know what to say.
But somewhere beyond the locked doors of the Rossi mansion, someone was already making another phone call.
May you like
And this time, the person on the other end answered with one sentence.
“Kill the maid before she remembers anything else.”
