Chapter 2 - THE DRAWER BEHIND ELENA’S PHOTOGRAPH
The most dangerous secret in Adrian Cross’s mansion was hidden behind a photograph of his dead wife.
And he had just handed the key to the maid he once tried to fire.
I waited until his breathing steadied before leaving the fireplace.
Every instinct from nursing school told me not to leave a sick patient alone.
But I needed more supplies.
And if someone had tried to kill Adrian, I needed to know whether we were truly alone.
I locked the drawing-room doors from inside.
Then I hurried upstairs.
The mansion felt different during the blackout.
No elegant music.
No staff moving through hallways.
No security radios.
Only wind pounding against windows and my own footsteps echoing through the darkness.
I entered Adrian’s study.
Elena’s photograph still sat inside the drawer where I had first seen it.
Dark hair.
Warm eyes.
A smile that made her look nothing like the cold world Adrian had built after her death.
I moved the frame.
Behind it was a narrow keyhole.
The brass key fit.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside were three things.
A flash drive.
A sealed envelope.
And a medical report.
I looked at the report first.
ELENA CROSS — TOXICOLOGY REVIEW
My hands went cold.
The original date was twelve years earlier.
The report identified a sedative in Elena’s bloodstream.
A concentration significant enough to impair coordination.
I stared.
The official story said she had been forced into a vehicle during an attempted kidnapping.
But if she had been sedated before reaching the driveway—
Footsteps sounded behind me.
I spun around.
No one.
Then a door clicked somewhere downstairs.
My heart started pounding.
I grabbed the envelope and flash drive, shoved them into my robe pocket, and hurried back toward Adrian.
Halfway down the staircase, the lights flickered once.
Then died completely.
“Adrian?”
No answer.
I ran.
The drawing-room doors were still locked.
When I entered, he was trying to stand.
“What are you doing?”
“Someone’s inside.”
My stomach dropped.
“You heard them too?”
He nodded.
I crossed the room and checked the windows.
Nothing but snow.
Then I noticed something near the hallway.
Wet footprints.
Not mine.
Large.
Fresh.
Coming from the service entrance.
Adrian saw them.
His entire body changed.
The feverish patient disappeared.
For one moment, I saw the mafia boss everyone feared.
“Get behind me.”
I almost laughed.
“You can barely stand.”
“Nora.”
“No.”
He glared.
I grabbed the fireplace poker.
“You hired a maid who studied emergency nursing and grew up with three brothers. We’re improvising.”
Despite everything, he looked stunned.
Then a shadow moved beyond the doorway.
I raised the poker.
Adrian reached toward the table and found a heavy brass candleholder.
The door slowly opened.
A man stepped inside.
I recognized him.
Marcus Vale.
Adrian’s head of security.
The man who had been at dinner the night Adrian’s associate mocked my body.
Marcus stared at us.
Then at the blood on Adrian’s trousers.
“Sir, thank God.”
Adrian’s voice turned icy.
“I told you not to return.”
Marcus froze.
“The storm damaged the eastern generator. I came back to check the estate.”
Adrian didn’t lower the candleholder.
“How did you enter?”
“The service tunnel.”
My stomach tightened.
I hadn’t known the mansion had one.
Marcus looked toward me.
“You should leave us.”
I tightened my grip on the poker.
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
Adrian noticed.
Then he said quietly, “Marcus, take off your coat.”
The security chief stared.
“What?”
“Now.”
Slowly, Marcus obeyed.
Something fell from the inner pocket.
A small plastic vial.
It rolled across the floor.
I picked it up.
The label had been removed.
But I recognized the hospital-grade cap.
My pulse accelerated.
“What is this?”
Marcus said nothing.
Adrian’s face went white.
Then I noticed the puncture mark on Adrian’s thigh.
Not from the collapsed awning.
A needle mark.
Fresh.
I looked at him.
“Adrian, somebody injected you.”
Marcus stepped backward.
May you like
And for the first time, the feared mafia boss looked at the man who had protected him for fifteen years and whispered:
“You poisoned me.”
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