Chapter 2 - The Empty GlassThe mansion went into lockdown before the ambulance reached the front gate.
Steel barriers dropped across the driveway. The guards stationed along the eastern wall doubled. Every employee was ordered to remain inside the main building, and every door leading outdoors was sealed with electronic locks.
Elena stood in the medical room with Sophia pressed against her side.
Titan lay across the doorway.
No one had asked him to stay there. He had chosen the position himself, his enormous body forming a dark barrier between Elena’s daughter and the rest of the house.
Dr. Reynolds worked over Adrian Moretti while two paramedics prepared equipment around him.
“Blood pressure is rising,” the doctor said. “That’s good.”
Elena had never realized how much a person could depend on a stranger’s voice.
“What did they find in the water?” she asked.
Dr. Reynolds glanced toward Dante.
“Some kind of cardiac toxin,” he answered. “The lab will need to confirm the exact substance.”
“Will he survive?”
“We don’t know.”
Adrian’s face looked strangely pale against the white pillow. Without his black suit, without his cold expression and dangerous eyes, he looked less like Boston’s most feared crime lord and more like a man who had simply become too tired to keep fighting.
Elena looked away.
She had spent eight months avoiding him. Avoiding his eyes. Avoiding his questions. Avoiding the feeling that he noticed far more about her than he ever said.
Now she found herself praying he would open his eyes.
Sophia tugged at her sleeve.
“Mommy.”
“What is it?”
“Titan is listening.”
Elena looked down.
The Cane Corso’s eyes were half closed, but his head was angled toward the medical room. Every few seconds, one ear moved.
“Listening to what?”
Sophia leaned closer.
“The glass.”
Elena frowned.
“What glass?”
“The one that broke.”
Before Elena could respond, Dante entered the room.
“No one leaves,” he said. “The police are on their way.”
Elena stiffened.
“The police?”
Dante gave her a hard look.
“Someone poisoned Adrian. This is no longer an internal matter.”
Sophia looked past him.
“Did the bad person use the glass?”
Dante’s expression changed.
“What did you say?”
Sophia hugged her teddy bear.
“The glass was on the floor.”
“We know.”
“It was not empty.”
Dante crouched in front of her.
“How do you know that?”
Sophia pointed toward Titan.
“He smelled it.”
Dante turned to the dog.
Titan lifted his head.
For one strange second, Elena thought the animal understood every word.
Dante rose.
“Bring me the glass.”
A guard hurried away.
Dr. Reynolds continued working. He adjusted the oxygen mask over Adrian’s face, then leaned toward the monitor.
“His rhythm is unstable.”
A loud alarm sounded.
Everyone froze.
The monitor showed a sharp, irregular line.
Dr. Reynolds moved instantly.
“Step back.”
Elena pulled Sophia behind her.
Titan rose with them.
Dante’s hand went toward his weapon, but Sophia whispered, “Stay.”
Titan remained still.
The next two minutes became a blur of movement.
Dr. Reynolds injected medication into Adrian’s IV. The paramedics prepared the defibrillator. Dante shouted into his phone for a second ambulance. Elena could hear Sophia crying softly against her waist.
Then the monitor steadied.
The alarm stopped.
Dr. Reynolds exhaled.
“He’s holding.”
Elena closed her eyes.
When she opened them, Titan was staring at the broken glass sitting inside a sealed evidence bag.
The dog’s body had gone rigid.
Sophia noticed.
“Titan knows it,” she whispered.
Dante turned toward the guard holding the bag.
“Put it on the table.”
The guard hesitated.
“Now.”
He placed the evidence bag on a stainless-steel table.
Titan moved closer.
His nose lifted. He sniffed the air. A low growl rolled through his chest.
Dr. Reynolds looked at Dante.
“That reaction could mean anything.”
“No,” Sophia said.
Everyone looked at her.
Sophia stepped forward.
“He does that when something is wrong.”
Elena grabbed her hand.
“Sophia, stay beside me.”
But the child was watching the plastic bag.
“Someone touched the glass,” she said.
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“Everyone touches glasses.”
“Not with that smell.”
“What smell?”
Sophia frowned as she searched for the word.
“Like the medicine cabinet at the old apartment.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
At their old apartment, Sophia had once opened a bottle of cleaning liquid beneath the kitchen sink. Elena had rushed her to the hospital, terrified she had swallowed some.
Sophia had not.
But she remembered the smell.
Dr. Reynolds walked toward the table.
“Move aside.”
Dante stopped him.
“You’re not touching it.”
“I’m a physician, not a suspect.”
“Until we know what happened, everyone is a suspect.”
A soft sound came from the doorway.
Mrs. Bellini stood there, one hand against the frame.
The elderly housekeeper had worked for the Moretti family for nearly thirty years. Her silver hair was pinned neatly beneath a dark scarf, and her face looked deeply troubled.
“I saw him,” she said.
Dante turned.
“Saw who?”
“The man who carried the tray.”
“What man?”
Mrs. Bellini swallowed.
“I don’t know his name. He wore a gray jacket. He came through the servants’ corridor shortly before Mr. Moretti collapsed.”
“Why didn’t you report this earlier?”
“Because I thought he was one of the security men.”
Dante walked toward her.
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Thin. Dark hair.”
“Anything else?”
Mrs. Bellini glanced at Sophia.
“He was wearing gloves.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“Did you see his face?”
“No.”
“Where did he go?”
“He entered the west corridor.”
Dante immediately spoke into his radio.
“Seal the west corridor. Check every camera.”
A guard responded seconds later.
“Sir, cameras twelve through eighteen are offline.”
Silence filled the room.
Dante slowly turned toward Adrian.
The monitors continued flashing beside the unconscious man.
Someone had not simply poisoned Adrian.
Someone had disabled the cameras before doing it.
Elena felt Sophia’s fingers tightening around hers.
“What happens now?” she whispered.
Dante looked at her.
“Now we find out who inside this house wanted him dead.”
A sudden metallic crash came from the hallway.
Titan exploded into motion.
He rushed through the doorway, barking once.
Dante drew his weapon.
“Elena, stay here!”
But Sophia pulled free.
“Titan!”
She ran after him.
Elena chased her.
They found the dog at the end of the corridor, standing in front of a narrow service door. His teeth were exposed. His claws scraped against the marble floor.
Dante reached them moments later.
The door was locked from the outside.
He forced it open.
Inside, the small storage room was empty except for cleaning supplies, folded linens, and a single black glove lying beside the wall.
Dante entered carefully.
Titan went straight to the glove.
Sophia stopped behind him.
“That belongs to him.”
Dante stared at her.
“How do you know?”
“Titan knows.”
The dog sniffed the glove, then turned toward the ceiling.
Everyone followed his gaze.
A tiny red light blinked above the shelves.
Dante climbed onto a metal chair and pulled down a miniature camera.
His face went cold.
The camera had been pointed directly at the door.
Someone had been watching the servants’ corridor.
Someone had known exactly when Adrian would collapse.
Then, from somewhere above them, a faint clicking sound echoed through the house.
One click.
Then another.
Like someone taking photographs.
Titan barked toward the ceiling.
Dante looked up.
“Lock every exit,” he ordered.
But Elena already knew the truth.
May you like
The person who had poisoned Adrian was still inside the mansion.
And now that person knew Sophia had seen too much.
