Chapter 2 - THE BLUE MEDICINE
Dante did not open the door.
He stood completely still, listening.
The nurse knocked again.
“Mr. Montenegro?”
Dante’s eyes remained on Sofia.
“What blue medicine?”
Sofia covered her mouth.
Isabela knelt.
She did not ask the child twice.
She simply rested her hands in her lap and waited.
After several seconds, Sofia whispered.
“The sleeping one.”
Dante crouched in front of her.
“Who gives it to you?”
Sofia’s shoulders tightened.
Isabela immediately raised a hand.
“Don’t.”
Dante looked at her.
“She’s my daughter.”
“Exactly.”
The answer irritated him.
But Isabela didn’t move.
“If you turn this into an interrogation, she’ll stop talking.”
Outside, the nurse knocked for the third time.
Dante stood.
“Go back to your room,” he called.
“I need to check her temperature.”
“I said go.”
Silence.
Then retreating footsteps.
Dante waited until they disappeared.
He pulled out his phone.
Isabela caught his wrist.
Helena’s warning flashed through her mind.
Do not tell Dante until you know who is listening.
“Don’t call anyone.”
Dante slowly looked at her hand.
Few people touched Dante Montenegro without permission.
Fewer still stopped him from doing something.
Isabela let go.
“The letter said someone in this house is listening.”
Dante’s face became unreadable.
“What letter?”
There was no reason to hide it anymore.
She handed him Helena’s message.
He read it once.
Then again.
His jaw tightened around the line about not trusting people in white coats.
“She wrote this?”
“That’s her handwriting, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Something in Dante’s voice fractured on the word.
He moved toward a chair.
For eighteen months, the official story had remained unchanged.
Helena had suffered a sudden medical emergency while Dante was away on business.
She had collapsed in the upstairs bathroom.
The family physician had arrived.
Then the ambulance.
She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
No suspicious circumstances.
No struggle.
No poison.
No crime.
Dante had accepted it because grief had left him barely capable of functioning.
Now a letter written by his wife told him not to believe accidents.
Sofia climbed onto the bed.
Isabela followed.
“What does the blue medicine look like?”
She asked it gently.
Sofia pointed to the bedside cabinet.
Dante moved first.
He opened it.
Inside were several labeled bottles.
None contained blue liquid.
Sofia shook her head.
“Not there.”
“Where?”
The girl looked toward the hall.
“The nurse brings it.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“How many times?”
Sofia held up four fingers.
Isabela frowned.
“Today?”
Sofia nodded.
Dante crossed to the intercom.
Isabela stopped him again.
“No.”
He turned sharply.
“You expect me to do nothing?”
“I expect you to think.”
His eyes narrowed.
She continued.
“If Helena was right, whoever is doing this survived inside your house for at least eighteen months.”
Dante stared at her.
“They know your habits.”
“They know your security.”
“They know who you trust.”
“If you suddenly lock everyone down tonight, they’ll know Sofia talked.”
Dante hated that she was right.
Isabela could see it.
He walked toward the window.
“What do you suggest?”
“We act normal.”
“While someone drugs my daughter?”
“We remove whatever they’re giving her without letting them know we know.”
Dante turned.
“And how exactly do you plan to do that?”
Isabela looked at Sofia.
“By giving them what they expect.”
Ten minutes later, Sofia was back beneath the blankets.
Isabela sat beside the bed.
Dante disappeared into Helena’s closet.
The letter and photograph went with him.
At twelve twenty-three, the nurse returned.
Her name was Evelyn Shaw.
She had worked for the Montenegro family for almost three years.
She was forty-six.
Soft-spoken.
Efficient.
Trusted.
Dante himself had hired her.
Isabela opened the door.
Evelyn smiled.
“How is she?”
“Sleeping.”
“I still need to administer her prescribed medication.”
Sofia’s fingers tightened beneath the blanket.
Isabela saw it.
She stepped aside.
Evelyn entered carrying a small black medical case.
Everything about her movements seemed ordinary.
That frightened Isabela more than obvious guilt would have.
Evelyn checked Sofia’s pulse.
Her forehead.
Her breathing.
Then opened the case.
Inside were syringes.
Vials.
Bandages.
A thermometer.
And a tiny dark bottle.
Evelyn drew clear liquid from one vial.
Sofia did not react.
Then Evelyn reached beneath the upper tray.
Her fingers disappeared from view.
When they returned, she held a small blue ampule.
Sofia flinched.
Isabela’s stomach turned.
“Why is that one blue?”
Evelyn looked up.
“Vitamin supplement.”
“Why isn’t it labeled?”
“It came from Dr. Vale.”
Isabela gave a small nod.
“I see.”
Evelyn prepared the syringe.
Sofia began breathing faster.
Isabela leaned close to her.
“It’s okay.”
Evelyn lifted the syringe.
Then the lamp beside the bed suddenly went dark.
The entire room went black.
Evelyn gasped.
“What happened?”
“Old wiring,” Isabela said.
She reached into the darkness.
A quiet movement.
A tiny exchange.
Then the emergency lighting came on.
Evelyn still held a syringe.
But the liquid inside was no longer from the blue ampule.
Isabela had switched it with sterile saline Dante had found in the private medical cabinet.
Evelyn administered the injection.
Sofia did not cry.
The nurse packed her equipment.
“Make sure she rests.”
“I will.”
Evelyn left.
Dante emerged from the closet.
His face looked carved from stone.
Isabela opened her hand.
The blue ampule sat in her palm.
Dante took it.
“We test this.”
“Not with your usual doctor.”
He looked at her.
“You really don’t trust anyone, do you?”
Isabela looked at Sofia.
“I trust her.”
Dante followed her gaze.
His expression softened.
For half a second.
Then Sofia spoke.
“The blue room.”
Both adults turned.
Sofia pointed toward the photograph of Helena and Marta.
“Mommy took me there.”
“When?”
Dante asked.
Sofia’s lower lip trembled.
“The night she fell.”
Dante went motionless.
Sofia whispered again.
“She showed me the woman in the picture.”
Isabela’s heart hammered.
“My mother?”
Sofia nodded.
Then she said something that made Isabela’s skin go cold.
“Mommy said she wasn’t dead.”
Before anyone could speak, the security lights outside the mansion suddenly flashed red.
Dante’s phone vibrated.
One message appeared from the head of security.
May you like
INTRUDER DETECTED IN THE WEST WING.
LOCATION: HELENA’S PRIVATE OFFICE.
