Chapter 2 - THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T BREATHE
The ambulance arrived in seven minutes.
To Nora, it felt like seventy.
Lily's breathing had become shallow. Her father held her hand while the emergency medical team assessed her, asked what she'd consumed, and began treatment.
Nora told them everything she knew.
The lemonade.
The replaced straw.
The cloudy residue.
The time between Lily's first sip and her collapse.
One paramedic asked whether anyone had seen the drink being altered.
Nora shook her head.
"No. I only know it wasn't the same glass arrangement I served."
It was a distinction she understood mattered.
She had evidence of a change.
Not proof of who made it.
Enzo stood beside the stretcher, his face drained of color.
"Is she going to live?"
The paramedic answered carefully.
"We're treating her urgently. The hospital will need to determine what she was exposed to."
Enzo nodded.
For a man accustomed to commanding every room he entered, it was a devastating answer.
Nobody could promise him what he wanted.
As the paramedics prepared to leave, Lily's hand moved.
Her fingers reached weakly toward the lavender ribbon at her shoulder.
"Daddy?"
Enzo bent close.
"I'm here, princess."
She whispered something Nora couldn't hear.
Enzo's expression changed.
"What, sweetheart?"
But Lily's eyes closed again.
The paramedics moved her toward the elevator.
Enzo followed.
At the door, he turned.
"Hargrove."
"Boss."
"Nobody interferes with the police investigation. Preserve the cameras, the table setting, everything."
Marcus Bell approached.
"I should coordinate the legal response."
Enzo looked at him.
"Not yet."
Marcus's face tightened.
Then Enzo turned toward Nora.
"What's your name?"
"Nora Ellis."
He studied her.
"You noticed the straw."
"Yes."
"And the napkin."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Nora swallowed.
"Because I put them there."
For the first time, Enzo looked at her as though she existed.
"Tell the police exactly what you saw."
Then he disappeared into the elevator.
Nora stood in the suddenly quiet dining room.
She had just helped send the most powerful man's daughter to the hospital.
And somewhere in the building was a person who had wanted that child harmed.
Police officers arrived shortly afterward.
Whitcomb attempted to explain that Nora had served the drink.
Nora gave her account calmly.
She described the striped straw and the way she had folded the napkin.
She mentioned the sedan outside.
She also explained that Marcus had repeatedly demanded she be searched.
The detective taking her statement looked up.
"Why do you think he wanted you searched?"
Nora hesitated.
"I don't know."
"Did you see him touch the drink?"
"No."
"Then don't guess."
She nodded.
"I won't."
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But she remembered the expression on Marcus's face.
And she couldn't shake the feeling that someone had already prepared a story in which she was the villain.
