Chapter 1 - THE REFLECTION IN THE CRYSTAL
“Use mine. Yours smells wrong.”
Emma Carter’s tiny voice trembled as she pressed the blue rescue inhaler toward Alessandro Moretti’s mouth.
The most feared man in New York was on one knee and one hand, struggling to pull air into his lungs.
His navy suit jacket had fallen open. The collar of his white shirt exposed the dark tattoos climbing his neck. Sweat covered his face, and his intense gray eyes had begun losing focus.
Beside him lay a shattered crystal tumbler and his own dark inhaler.
Five year old Emma knelt between the pieces of broken glass, wearing a pale blue dress and only one shoe. Her rabbit backpack rested on the Persian rug behind her.
She shook the blue inhaler.
“Breathe in now.”
Alessandro obeyed.
One controlled breath entered him.
Then another.
Sofia Carter burst through the west study door.
“Emma, what happened?”
She dropped beside her daughter and carefully pulled her away from the broken glass. Her hands moved quickly over Emma’s arms, face, and bare foot, checking for injuries before she allowed herself to look at the man on the floor.
Alessandro remained seated against the carved desk.
His breathing had improved, but only slightly.
Emma pointed toward the dark inhaler.
“It smells like the cleaner that burns your hands.”
Sofia felt the room become colder.
Industrial cleaner was stored on her housekeeping cart.
She used it while wearing gloves and never near occupied rooms.
Alessandro lifted his inhaler with trembling fingers. He smelled the mouthpiece once.
His gratitude disappeared.
Suspicion replaced it.
The study door opened again.
Enzo Vale entered carrying a medical kit.
For twenty years, Enzo had been Alessandro’s closest friend, security chief, and the only man permitted to enter the west study without requesting access.
He knelt beside Alessandro.
“Move the maid and search her belongings.”
Sofia pulled Emma against her.
“My daughter just saved his life.”
“And your chemicals may have caused this.”
Enzo opened the medical kit, but his eyes moved toward Sofia’s cleaning bag.
It sat open beside the cart.
A folded cloth covered several bottles inside.
Alessandro lowered his head as another wave of tightness moved through his chest.
Everyone looked toward him.
Everyone except Emma.
The little girl watched Enzo.
He wore black leather gloves.
With one smooth movement, he lifted Alessandro’s dark inhaler from the floor and slid it beneath the cloth inside Sofia’s bag.
The discreet security camera above the doorway turned silently.
Enzo did not notice.
Alessandro did.
The curved side of the crystal decanter reflected Enzo’s gloved hand leaving the bag.
Alessandro’s breathing remained weak.
His eyes sharpened.
“Enzo.”
The security chief froze.
Alessandro’s voice came low and dangerous.
“Take your hand out of her bag.”
Sofia looked down.
The dark inhaler rested beside her cleaning bottle.
Her face drained of color.
“I did not put that there.”
Enzo rose slowly.
“You are confused from lack of oxygen.”
“I saw you.”
“You saw a reflection through broken glass.”
“The glass is clearer than your loyalty.”
Emma clutched Sofia’s uniform.
Enzo looked toward the security camera.
Its indicator light was dark.
He seemed relieved.
Then Dr. Ada Romano entered carrying a silver medical case.
She was sixty two, calm under pressure, and one of the few people who spoke to Alessandro without fear.
She moved directly to him.
“Do not stand.”
“I was not planning to.”
Ada checked his breathing and pulse before examining Emma’s blue inhaler.
Then she smelled the dark one inside Sofia’s bag.
Her expression changed.
“This contains a chemical residue.”
Enzo folded his arms.
“From the maid’s supplies.”
Ada looked at his glove.
A wet shine covered one fingertip.
“The same residue is on you.”
Sofia stared at him.
Enzo calmly removed the gloves.
“I picked up the inhaler.”
“You picked it up after Emma identified the smell,” Ada said.
Alessandro pointed toward the door.
“Lock the study.”
Enzo reached for his radio.
Alessandro stopped him.
“No household channel.”
For the first time, unease entered Enzo’s face.
Sofia carried Emma to the leather chair and checked her breathing. The child had given away her final spare dose.
“What if your chest gets tight?” Sofia whispered.
Emma looked toward Alessandro.
“Then you help me.”
The faith in her answer nearly broke Sofia.
Ada opened Alessandro’s locked medicine drawer.
The brass key remained on the chain inside his pocket.
Yet the drawer was already slightly open.
Inside, the foam slot that normally held the dark inhaler was empty.
Beside it lay a duplicate key.
It bore the engraved crest of Alessandro’s late father.
Alessandro stared at it.
“That key was placed inside my father’s coffin.”
Enzo’s composure vanished for one second.
Ada noticed.
So did Sofia.
A shadow passed behind the rain covered harbor window.
Alessandro looked from the duplicate key to the inhaler Enzo had planted.
His oldest friend had betrayed him.
May you like
But someone else had opened the locked drawer before Enzo entered.
Continue to the next part: The contaminated inhaler exposes a duplicate key buried with Alessandro’s father, while Emma reveals she heard two men planning to blame her mother through the study’s air vent.
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