Chapter 2
The man in the dark suit was Dr. Samuel Levin, the neurologist who had first treated Vincent after his collapse.
Anthony’s face changed the moment he recognized him.
Not surprise.
Fear.
“What are you doing here?” Anthony demanded.
Dr. Levin shut the front door behind him.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“This is my brother’s house.”
“And that is my patient.”
Dr. Levin crossed the room and held out his hand to me.
“May I see the organizer?”
Before I could give it to him, Anthony grabbed the plastic box.
It slipped between his fingers.
The compartments burst open when it struck the marble floor.
White tablets scattered beneath the table.
Anthony immediately bent down.
“Everyone stay back. We don’t know what those pills are.”
Vincent’s grip tightened around his wrist.
“You seemed certain a minute ago.”
Anthony tried to pull free.
Vincent’s weakened hand trembled, but he refused to release him.
“Let go of me,” Anthony said.
“Answer my question.”
Dr. Harris backed toward the hallway.
My mother noticed.
“Doctor Harris?”
He stopped.
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Dr. Harris turned and ran.
One of the housekeepers screamed.
Anthony finally tore his wrist from Vincent’s hand and shouted toward the entryway.
“Security!”
Two men rushed inside.
Anthony pointed at Dr. Levin.
“Remove him. Now.”
The guards stepped forward, but Vincent struck the arm of his wheelchair.
“No one touches him.”
The guards froze.
Anthony stared at them.
“I manage this house.”
Vincent’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“You manage it because I allowed you to.”
My mother pulled me behind her.
I could feel her shaking.
Dr. Levin crouched and used a clean handkerchief to pick up one of the tablets.
He studied the markings.
Then he looked at Vincent.
“This appears to be baclofen.”
“Isn’t that used for muscle spasms?” my mother asked.
Dr. Levin nodded.
“In controlled doses. But this tablet is far stronger than anything I authorized.”
Vincent looked down at his legs.
“What would it do to me?”
“With repeated excessive doses? Severe weakness. Dizziness. Confusion. Loss of coordination. It could make an improving neurological condition appear much worse.”
The room went silent.
I remembered the way Anthony had laughed at my basin.
I remembered how fast he had snatched the pill from my hand.
“You knew,” I said.
Anthony turned toward me.
His eyes were cold.
“You should learn when adults are speaking.”
“You knew his toes could move.”
“Sofia,” my mother whispered.
But Vincent looked directly at me.
“What else did you see?”
Anthony stepped between us.
“She’s a child. She doesn’t understand medication.”
“I understand that you lied about my mother’s pills.”
Anthony’s jaw tightened.
My mother put both hands on my shoulders.
“She is telling the truth. I don’t take any medicine.”
Anthony gave a hard laugh.
“Then perhaps she stole it.”
My mother stared at him.
“What?”
“You have access to every room in this house. You clean Vincent’s bedroom. You clean the study. You handle his laundry.”
“You’re blaming my mother because your lie failed,” I said.
“Sofia, enough,” Anthony snapped.
“No,” Vincent said. “Let her speak.”
His voice was weak, but everyone obeyed it.
I stepped out from behind my mother.
“Yesterday, Mr. Anthony filled the organizer.”
Anthony went still.
I had not understood what I was seeing at the time.
I had been carrying folded towels upstairs when I passed the sitting room. Anthony had been beside Vincent’s chair with a brown bottle in one hand and the organizer in the other.
“Did you see the label?” Dr. Levin asked.
I shook my head.
“He peeled it off. Then he put the bottle in his jacket.”
Anthony pointed at me.
“She is lying.”
“Why would she lie?” Vincent asked.
“Because her mother told her to.”
My mother’s face crumpled.
“I would never hurt him.”
Anthony turned to the guards.
“Search Maria’s locker.”
Neither man moved.
“Search it,” Vincent ordered.
One guard left for the staff wing.
Dr. Levin took out his phone.
“I’m calling an ambulance and the police.”
Anthony lunged toward him.
Vincent drove his wheelchair forward, blocking Anthony’s path.
The movement was clumsy, but it forced Anthony to stop.
“You’re not calling anyone,” Anthony said.
Dr. Levin looked at him without blinking.
“A patient under my care may have been deliberately poisoned. I am required to report it.”
“Poisoned?” my mother gasped.
Anthony’s anger disappeared as quickly as it had come.
He softened his voice.
“Vincent, think about this. A scandal like this could destroy the company. Let us handle it privately.”
Vincent stared at him.
“You think I care about the company more than finding out who has been feeding me those pills?”
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“From whom?”
Anthony glanced at my mother.
That was when the security guard returned.
He carried a brown prescription bottle inside a clear plastic bag.
“We found this in Maria’s locker.”
My mother covered her mouth.
“No.”
The guard handed the bag to Dr. Levin.
Anthony’s confidence returned.
“There is your answer.”
Dr. Levin examined the bottle.
The label had been removed.
My mother looked at Vincent.
“I have never seen that before.”
Anthony shook his head.
“Of course you haven’t.”
“I didn’t put it there!”
He turned to the guard.
“Call the police. Tell them we caught an employee poisoning Mr. Rinaldi.”
My mother held me tighter.
I felt as if the room were falling away beneath my feet.
Vincent’s expression became unreadable.
“Maria,” he said, “did you do this?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“No, sir.”
Anthony folded his arms.
“She had access and motive.”
“What motive?” Dr. Levin asked.
“Money. Perhaps someone paid her.”
My mother looked at Anthony as if he had slapped her.
“I have worked here for seven years.”
“And you have been stealing for seven years.”
“That is a lie.”
Anthony pointed toward her old purse on the kitchen counter.
“Search that too.”
My mother reached for it, but the second guard moved first.
He opened the purse.
Inside, beneath her wallet, was an envelope filled with hundred-dollar bills.
My mother stopped breathing.
I had never seen that much money in my life.
Anthony smiled.
“There. Payment.”
“That isn’t mine,” my mother whispered.
The distant sound of sirens came through the closed windows.
Dr. Levin had already placed the call.
Anthony leaned toward my mother.
“You should have taken your daughter home when I told you.”
I finally understood why he had wanted us gone.
Not because I annoyed him.
Because I had seen too much.
Vincent looked from the pills to the money.
Then he looked at Anthony.
“Who told you there was money in her purse?”
Anthony’s smile vanished.
Nobody had searched it until he ordered them to.
Nobody could have known what was inside.
Anthony tried to recover.
“It was obvious.”
“No,” Vincent said. “It was specific.”
The sirens grew louder.
Dr. Harris suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway.
He was holding Vincent’s medical file.
His face shone with sweat.
“I can explain everything.”
Anthony turned on him.
“Keep your mouth shut.”
Every person in the room heard it.
Dr. Harris stared at Anthony.
Then he laughed bitterly.
“You promised I would be protected.”
Anthony rushed toward him.
The guards caught Anthony before he reached the hallway.
Dr. Harris clutched the file against his chest.
“He made me change the medication,” he said. “He said no one would be hurt.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“Why?”
Dr. Harris looked at the floor.
“He needed you declared permanently incapacitated before Friday’s board meeting.”
Anthony struggled against the guards.
“He’s lying!”
Dr. Harris opened the file.
Inside were laboratory reports, invoices, and a copy of a document with Vincent’s signature.
Dr. Levin took it.
“This authorizes Anthony Rinaldi to assume permanent control of Rinaldi Holdings.”
“I never signed that,” Vincent said.
Anthony stopped struggling.
The front doors opened.
Police officers entered with paramedics behind them.
For the first time, Anthony looked trapped.
But he was not finished.
He looked straight at my mother and smiled.
“If I go down, Maria, your daughter learns the truth about you.”
My mother turned pale.
Vincent noticed.
“So there is another secret,” he said.
May you like
Anthony’s smile widened.
“One that will destroy this family long before those pills do.”
