Chapter 3: What the Glass Was Meant to Do
The toxicologist's name was Dr.
Reyes.
Julian had her on speaker before he reached the hallway.
"The compound is digoxin-based," she said.
"Concentrated.
Whoever prepared it understood dosage.
At the level we found, a man of your weight and age would have gone into cardiac arrest within twenty minutes of drinking."
Julian's hand pressed flat against the corridor wall.
"Cassandra got less than a third of what was in the glass," Dr.
Reyes continued.
"She's stable.
She'll recover.
But Mr.
DeLuca — this was calibrated.
This was not a mistake."
He ended the call.
He stood in the corridor for four seconds.
Then he walked back into the waiting room and stopped in front of Nora.
"Someone put that in my glass," he said.
"Not Cassandra's.
Mine.
And the only person who handled both glasses between the pantry and that table was Thomas Bell."
Nora did not look away.
"I know."
"You know."
"I suspected.
I didn't know for certain until tonight."
Julian pulled a chair from the wall, turned it around, and sat with his arms across the back of it.
He kept his voice low.
Lily had not stirred.
"Start from the beginning," he said.
"And don't decide what I need to hear.
Tell me everything."
Nora looked at her daughter for a long moment.
Then she began.
"My sister's name was Claire Arden.
She met you six years ago at a gallery opening on Michigan Avenue.
You were together for almost two years.
Then your father died and everything around you changed — the business, the threats, the people in your house.
Claire was frightened.
Not of you.
Of what was coming toward you."
"She left," Julian said.
His voice was flat.
"She didn't leave." Nora's hands tightened in her lap.
"She was going to tell you something.
Something that would have changed every decision you made about the family business.
She called me the night before she planned to tell you.
She was scared, but she said she had to do it.
She said you deserved to know."
"Know what?"
"That she was pregnant."
The waiting room was very quiet.
A nurse passed in the corridor.
Lily's breathing was slow and even against Nora's shoulder.
"She never told me," Julian said.
"She never got the chance." Nora's voice dropped to almost nothing.
"Three days later she was g0ne.
Not disappeared.
Not ran away.
I found her car at the bottom of a parking structure on the north side.
The police called it an accident.
Single vehicle.
No witnesses.
But Claire had called me that morning, Julian.
She was calm.
She was happy.
She had made her decision and she was at peace with it.
People who are calm and happy and at peace do not dr*ve off the top of a parking structure."
Julian did not move.
"I couldn't prove anything," Nora said.
"I had no evidence.
I had no name.
I had a four-week-old baby and a sister who the police had already closed the file on.
So I did the only thing I could think of.
I found a way into your house.
I took the lowest position available.
And I waited."
"Waited for what?"
"For whoever was afraid enough of Claire's secret to kjll her to make another mistake."
Julian stood.
He walked to the window.
Outside, the hospital parking lot was bright and still under yellow lights.
"Thomas Bell," he said.
"He was the one who told your father about Claire in the first place.
Claire found out two weeks before she d*ed.
She told me.
She said Thomas had gone to your father and said she was a liability.
That she knew too much about the family.
That the pregnancy made her a permanent problem."
Julian turned around slowly.
"My father."
"I don't know what your father decided.
I don't know if he gave an order or if Thomas acted alone.
I only know that Thomas was the last person to see Claire's building on the security footage before her car went off that structure.
I found that footage three months ago.
It's on a drive.
Hidden in my room in your house."
Julian crossed the room in five steps.
He crouched in front of her so they were level.
"Why didn't you come to me with this?"
"Because I didn't know if you knew." Her voice broke for the first time.
"I didn't know if you were safe.
I didn't know if the man who had ordered my sister g0ne was the same man I was handing towels to every morning."
Julian held her gaze.
He did not look away and he did not defend himself.
"And now?" he asked.
Nora looked at Lily.
"Now I watched Thomas Bell look at your glass instead of Cassandra when she fell.
And I think he just tried to finish what he started four years ago."
Julian's jaw tightened.
He straightened up and reached for his phone.
"The drive in your room," he said.
"I need it tonight."
"I know." She shifted Lily carefully.
"There's something else on it.
Something Claire left for Lily.
A video.
She recorded it the week before she d*ed."
Julian stopped dialing.
"She knew something might happen to her," Nora said quietly.
"She wanted Lily to know who her father was."
The phone stayed in his hand.
He did not raise it to his ear.
Down the corridor, a door opened.
One of Julian's security men appeared, breathing hard.
"Sir.
We found Thomas Bell."
Julian looked up.
"He's in the building.
May you like
He came to the hospital.
He's asking to speak to you alone."
