Chapter 7 - The Poison in the Nursery
By midnight, the estate was finally quiet. The Commission bosses had left, their dark sedans disappearing down the long, gated driveway into the rainy night.
In the nursery on the third floor—a magnificent room decorated in soft cream and gold, filled with pristine white furniture that had never been touched—Sophie sat in a plush rocking chair, holding Nico against her shoulder.
Dominic stood near the window, staring out into the dark forest, a glass of amber liquid in his hand.
“How did you know?” Dominic asked quietly, not turning around.
“Know what?”
“About the formula.”
Sophie stroked Nico’s dark hair gently. “When I went into the kitchen to grab a warm towel, I saw the empty formula cans on the counter. It was a prescription-only brand distributed exclusively through private pharmaceutical reps. Anyone with basic medical knowledge knows you never give that formula to a child with an arrhythmia unless you want to induce severe gastric stress.”
Dominic turned around slowly, his face shrouded in dark shadows. “Vincent bribed the private clinic doctor.”
“He didn't just bribe him,” Sophie said, looking up into Dominic’s eyes. “He was trying to make Nico look so sick that the Commission would declare him unfit, force you out of leadership, and give Vincent legal guardianship over the estate.”
Dominic set his glass down on a glass side table with a heavy thud.
He walked over to the rocking chair, dropping to one knee beside her, bringing his large, dangerous frame down until his eyes were level with hers.
“You saved my son tonight, Sophie,” Dominic whispered, his voice stripped of all threat, leaving behind a raw, intense sincerity that sent a shiver down her spine. “You walked into a room full of armed killers and protected my blood.”
“I protected a motherless baby,” Sophie corrected him softly, her eyes filling with a sudden, painful shadow. “Because four years ago... I couldn't protect mine.”
Dominic froze, looking at her face. “Your son?”
Sophie swallowed the lump in her throat, staring down at Nico’s peaceful face. “His name was Leo. He was born with a hypoplastic left heart. I was a cardiac nurse, I worked in the best hospital in the city, I knew every specialist... and he died in my arms when he was six months old.”
A heavy, aching quiet filled the room.
Dominic reached out, his calloused fingers gently brushing a stray lock of hair away from Sophie’s face, his thumb lingering for a fraction of a second against her cheek.
“Then God brought you to my table tonight,” Dominic said softly. “Because he knew my boy needed a guardian angel, and you needed a reason to live again.”
Before Sophie could answer, a loud, violent explosion rocked the eastern wing of the mansion.
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Glass shattered downstairs. Sirens began to blare across the estate grounds, and the heavy thud of automatic gunfire echoed up through the floorboards.
The room went black as the main power grid was killed.
