Chapter 4 - The Discovery in the Rose Garden
At 3:15 p.m., the pale winter sun cast long, golden shadows across the stone paths of the estate's formal rose garden.
Mia was sitting on a cedar bench near the marble fountain, carefully sketching pictures of the blooming white hydrangeas in a new coloring book, while two private security guards watched the perimeter from twenty yards away.
She dropped her red crayon.
The crayon rolled off the flagstones, bouncing through the boxwood hedge into the narrow service alcove behind the old stone carriage house.
Mia slipped through the gap in the hedge to retrieve it.
In the secluded alcove, standing beside an idling black Audi sedan, were two people engaged in a frantic, hushed argument.
Julian Sterling—thirty-six years old, impeccably tailored in a bespoke navy three-piece suit, sporting a gold Patek Philippe watch—was gripping the arm of a woman wearing a heavy dark trench coat.
"The old woman was supposed to be at the bottom of the East River yesterday, Bianca!" Julian hissed, his voice trembling with furious panic. "Now Alessandro has brought an outside auditor into the house! If they unseal the Zurich escrow manifests before Monday's board vote, the federal prosecutors will freeze every account we own!"
Bianca Moretti—Alessandro’s thirty-two-year-old sister—pulled her arm free, her face pale and tear-stained. "I didn't agree to murder my mother, Julian! You told me it was an insurance audit! You told me we were just securing our legal shares!"
Julian reached into his coat pocket, pulling out an unsealed manila envelope stamped with the red seal of the Delaware Chancery Court.
"It’s too late to get cold feet, Bianca," Julian snarled. "The sixty-million-dollar mezzanine loan from the Chicago consortium is due at midnight on Friday. If Alessandro doesn't sign the port transfer deed tonight, we execute Phase Two: synthetic digoxin in his evening espresso."
Julian pulled a small, amber glass dropper vial from his pocket, pressing it into Bianca’s trembling hand.
Beneath the hedge, five-year-old Mia froze, clutching her red crayon against her chest, her wide hazel eyes watching the amber vial disappear into Bianca’s coat pocket.
May you like
Julian turned on his heel, getting into the Audi and accelerating out through the service gates, while Bianca hurried back toward the main manor in tears.
Mia crawled out from beneath the hedge, her small heart pounding against her ribs, and ran straight down the stone path toward the conservatory.
