Chapter 1 - DON'T EAT IT
The ballroom had been built for celebration.
Crystal lights.
White flowers.
A marble floor polished until it reflected every candle.
At the center stood Ethan Moretti’s eighth birthday cake.
Four tiers.
White frosting.
Silver trim.
A sugar lion on top.
Dominic Moretti stood beside his son in black, tattooed forearms exposed, smiling in the rare way he did only around Ethan.
Grace Miller watched from the edge of the room in her black-and-white housekeeper uniform.
Her daughter Lily, two years old and dressed in pink, had been allowed to sit beside the staff doorway with a small plate of fruit.
Everything looked safe.
Then Lily ran.
Not toddled.
Ran.
Straight across the marble floor.
Ethan lifted his silver fork toward the cake.
Lily smacked it from his hand.
The fork spun away.
Before anyone could stop her, she shoved both hands against the cake stand.
The entire cake crashed onto the floor.
Plates shattered.
Guests screamed.
Dominic moved instantly.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?!”
He grabbed Lily around the torso and lifted her away from the broken glass.
Lily kicked in panic.
“MOMMY!”
Grace sprinted forward.
She caught Lily under the arms and pulled her from Dominic’s hold.
“STOP!”
Dominic stepped toward her, furious.
“She RUINED my son’s cake!”
Lily reached around Grace.
Pointed at the frosting scattered across the marble.
“DON’T EAT IT!”
Grace looked down.
Then at Ethan.
Then toward the kitchen doorway.
She remembered what Lily had been staring at ten minutes earlier.
A black-gloved hand.
A tiny medicine bottle.
Something being pressed into the frosting.
Grace grabbed Ethan’s remaining fork and threw it onto the table.
Then pulled him backward.
“THERE’S POISON IN IT!”
Dominic froze.
The anger vanished.
Something colder replaced it.
He looked at the ruined cake.
Then every face in the room.
The guards moved before he spoke.
Doors blocked.
Kitchen sealed.
Staff stopped.
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“WHO DID THIS?”
Nobody answered.
But Lily had stopped crying.
She was staring at one man near the ballroom wall.
May you like
Not at his face.
At the silver wolf ring on his hand.
