Chapter 2 - The Sister's Empty ChairSilence fell like a lead weight.
The guests barely dared to breathe.
Luca did not blink.
“My sister.”
Vanessa took a step back.
Her heels clicked sharply against the floor.
“It was an accident, Luca!”
“An accident?”
“I thought... I thought she was ruining everything!”
Luca raised his hand.
He did not raise his voice.
“Daniel.”
“Yes, boss?”
“Clear the room.”
Daniel whistled once.
Six armed men stepped through the arches.
Within thirty seconds, thirty guests were escorted outside.
Only four people remained.
Luca.
Vanessa.
Daniel.
And me.
I moved quietly toward the pantry door.
I wanted to disappear.
“Emma.”
Luca’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
I turned around.
“Yes, sir?”
“Stay right there.”
I swallowed hard.
My fingers gripped my apron.
Vanessa was hyperventilating now.
“Luca, you can't believe this maid over me! We're getting married in three weeks!”
Luca walked to the table.
He picked up the amber bottle.
“Where is Sienna right now?”
Vanessa looked at the floor.
“I don't know.”
“Daniel.”
Daniel checked his phone.
“Miss Sienna went upstairs thirty minutes before dinner, sir. She said she had a headache.”
Luca’s expression went completely rigid.
“Did she have a drink before going upstairs?”
Vanessa looked up with wide, terrified eyes.
She did not answer.
Luca slammed his fist onto the mahogany table.
The crystal glasses shattered.
“Did you give her something before dinner?!”
Vanessa screamed.
“She was threatening me!”
Luca grabbed her arm.
Not with cruelty, but with iron force.
“What did you give her, Vanessa?”
“The tea!” she wept. “I only gave her a drop in her chamomile tea!”
My stomach dropped into a bottomless pit.
A drop of concentrated cardiac toxin.
Sienna was only nineteen years old.
She had congenital heart failure.
She had survived two open-heart surgeries.
Even a micro-dose would stop her heart within an hour.
“Upstairs,” I blurted out.
Both Luca and Vanessa turned to me.
I forgot my place.
I forgot that I was just a maid.
“We need to get to her room right now!”
Luca did not hesitate.
He let go of Vanessa.
He bolted toward the grand staircase.
I ran right behind him.
My apron strings fluttered.
My worn sneakers squeaked against the polished wood.
We took the stairs three at a time.
The second floor was quiet.
Too quiet.
Luca reached Sienna's door at the end of the long corridor.
The heavy oak door was shut.
“Sienna!” Luca yelled, pounding on the wood.
No answer.
He tried the brass handle.
It was locked from the inside.
“Sienna! Open the door!”
Silence.
Luca stepped back.
He raised his heavy boot.
With one violent kick, the lock splintered.
The door flew inward with a loud crash.
The bedroom was dark.
A single lamp burned on the nightstand.
A porcelain teacup lay smashed on the floor.
And on the large four-poster bed lay Sienna.
Her body was twisted awkwardly.
Her head hung over the edge of the mattress.
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Her lips were a terrible shade of blue.
And beneath her head, soaking into the pristine white sheets, was a pool of fresh crimson blood.
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