# CHAPTER 2 — THE SIX PEOPLE
The Moretti estate went into lockdown within three minutes.
Steel barriers rose beneath the driveway.
Electronic locks sealed the outer doors.
Every employee was taken to the ballroom, searched, and ordered to surrender phones, keys, and access cards.
Alejandro remained in the study while Dr. Reed treated him.
His breathing had improved, but angry red marks still covered his neck.
Mara sat near the fireplace with Emma asleep against her chest.
The child’s rabbit backpack rested at her feet.
Bruno stood beside the desk.
“Kitchen staff prepared the bottle at three forty-five,” he said. “The sommelier opened it in front of Matteo Serra. It remained on a service cart until it reached this room.”
“Who brought it upstairs?” Alejandro asked.
“Teresa Vale.”
The housekeeper.
Teresa had worked for the Moretti family for fourteen years.
She had helped decorate Kiara’s nursery.
She had stood beside Alejandro at his daughter’s funeral.
“Where is she?” Alejandro asked.
Bruno hesitated.
“She isn’t in the ballroom.”
Alejandro slowly turned his head.
“What do you mean she isn’t there?”
“Her coat is gone. Her room is empty.”
Mara’s arms tightened around Emma.
Dr. Reed placed the broken wineglass inside an evidence bag.
“This wasn’t ordinary food contamination,” he said. “Someone used a concentrated tree-nut protein. Possibly cashew or walnut oil.”
Alejandro’s allergy had begun when he was nine.
One bite of a pastry had nearly killed him.
Only six living people knew how severe it was.
Bruno.
Dr. Reed.
Matteo Serra, Alejandro’s longtime adviser.
Lucia Moretti, Alejandro’s younger sister.
Teresa Vale.
And Alejandro himself.
“The kitchen keeps no nuts,” Bruno said.
“Exactly,” Reed replied. “This was deliberate.”
Mara stared at them.
“You think Teresa did it?”
“I think Teresa disappeared immediately after Mr. Moretti drank the wine,” Bruno said.
Alejandro watched Mara carefully.
“How long have you worked here?”
“Seven months.”
“Who hired you?”
“Mrs. Vale.”
“Did she ever ask about my health?”
“No.”
“Did she ask about Emma’s medicine?”
Mara paused.
“Once.”
Every man in the room looked at her.
“She saw Emma’s backpack in the staff room,” Mara explained. “I told her my daughter had severe allergies. She asked whether the injector worked on adults.”
Bruno’s expression hardened.
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
The study door opened.
A guard entered carrying a small plastic evidence bag.
Inside it was a silver key.
“We found this under Teresa Vale’s mattress,” he said.
Bruno took the bag.
The key was engraved with the number 4.
Alejandro recognized it immediately.
It opened the private wine storage cabinet beside his study.
Only two copies existed.
One belonged to him.
The second had disappeared three years earlier.
On the night Kiara died.
Alejandro looked toward the sleeping child in Mara’s arms.
Emma’s eyes suddenly opened.
She did not look at the key.
She looked at Bruno.
“The lady wasn’t alone,” she whispered.
Bruno frowned.
“What lady?”
“The lady who ran past the basement door.”
Mara looked down at her daughter.
“What did you see, baby?”
Emma rubbed one eye.
“A lady with gray hair.”
Teresa Vale had gray hair.
Then Emma added something that changed Bruno’s expression.
“She was crying.”
“Was anyone with her?” Alejandro asked.
Emma nodded.
“A man was holding her arm.”
The room grew still.
“What did the man look like?” Bruno asked.
May you like
Emma pointed toward his hand.
“He had the same shiny wolf.”
