Chapter 1: One Scream in a Freezing Mansion
When the poor nurse slipped on the mansion stairs, Gideon thought it was an accident—until his hand touched the floor.
The Mafia Boss's Sister Tried to Drive the Poor Nurse Out of His Lakefront Mansion — Until One Scream From the Back Stairs Exposed Who Had Been Lying to Everyone
She was supposed to be the tenth nurse to quit.
Instead, she woke the whole mansion with one scream.
The oil on the stairs was only the first lie.
The first thing I remember after falling was the smell.
Olive oil.
Not bl00d.
Not antiseptic.
Not the lemon polish Walter used on the old wood.
Olive oil.
It was everywhere beneath me, slick across the pale stone at the bottom of the back staircase, shining under the weak kitchen light while the medication tray I had been carrying lay overturned six feet away.
One pill had rolled beneath the radiator.
A glass had shattered against the wall.
My left wrist looked wrong.
I knew that before the pain arrived.
Nine years as a nurse teaches you to recognize injury before your own nervous system catches up.
"Don't move me."
My voice barely came out.
Then I screamed.
I didn't plan to.
Pain took care of that.
The sound traveled through two floors of the Marquetti mansion at 6:15 on a freezing November morning.
I heard a door open upstairs.
Footsteps.
Fast.
Then Gideon Marquetti appeared at the top of the stairs.
He was barefoot, wearing dark trousers and a gray shirt he had not finished buttoning.
His hair was disordered in a way I had never seen because Gideon was the kind of man who normally looked composed before other people had remembered their own names.
He saw me.
Stopped.
Then came down three steps at a time.
"Adeline."
"I said don't move me."
He dropped beside me.
"I'm not."
His hands hovered over my shoulders.
He actually listened.
That surprised me even then.
"Where?"
"Wrist.
Head."
Bl00d had started moving past my temple.
I could feel it now.
Warm.
Slow.
Gideon looked at the angle of my arm and turned pale.
"Walter!"
His voice shook the kitchen.
A light came on in the north hallway.
Somebody shouted from upstairs.
Gideon shifted his knee.
His right palm touched the floor.
His hand slid.
He caught himself against the wall.
Then went very still.
I watched him lift two fingers.
Rub them together.
Smell them.
His face changed.
"What?"
He looked at the stone beneath us.
"This is oil."
I closed my eyes.
Of course it was.
The fall had been too clean.
Both feet out.
No chance to grab the railing because I had been carrying the tray with two hands.
Gideon stood.
Slowly.
His eyes followed the stairs upward.
The back staircase had nineteen steps.
The final three descended into the kitchen.
A thin slick crossed the lowest section and the landing.
Not a broken bottle.
Not a kitchen accident.
Someone had put it there.
---
Adeline didn't slip.
May you like
Someone made sure she would fall.
Comment **"NEXT"** if you want Part 2 — and find out who in that mansion wanted her gone.
