Chapter 1 - THE POISON HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT
Chapter 1 retains your supplied opening, from the twelve specialists failing to diagnose Matteo Costa through Nia Lewis discovering the suspicious herbal tea and Dr. Keller being summoned back to the estate.
Nia stood outside the master suite, listening to the monitor alarms.
Thirty-five beats per minute.
She knew enough to understand that the number was dangerously low.
She also knew that every second she remained silent made her decision harder to live with.
Inside, Enzo was shouting into his phone.
Carlo stood beside Matteo's bed, holding the same porcelain teacup he had carried upstairs every afternoon.
The sight settled something inside her.
Nia pushed her cleaning cart through the doorway.
"Don't give him that."
Her voice was quiet.
But everyone heard it.
Carlo turned.
"What?"
Nia swallowed.
"The tea. Don't let him drink it."
Enzo stared at her as though the furniture had suddenly begun speaking.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Nia Lewis. Housekeeping."
"Then do your job and get out."
She looked past him toward Matteo.
His eyes were half-open. His breathing sounded shallow.
Nia remembered her grandmother's greenhouse.
The purple flowers.
The locked cabinet.
The warnings she had been given as a child.
She straightened.
"I think he's being poisoned."
Silence fell over the room.
Carlo's expression hardened.
"That's an outrageous accusation."
Nia pointed toward the teacup.
"Please have the doctors test him for digitalis-related cardiac glycosides. And test that tea."
Enzo stepped toward her.
"You're telling me twelve doctors missed something a maid figured out?"
"I'm telling you what I noticed."
Carlo gave a short laugh.
"This is absurd. She's frightened. She doesn't understand medicine."
Nia's hands shook.
"Maybe I don't understand everything. But I know those plants can be dangerous, and I know his symptoms are consistent with exposure."
Enzo glanced toward Matteo.
The dying man had opened his eyes.
For the first time in days, something resembling alertness appeared behind them.
"Enzo," Matteo whispered.
Enzo hurried to his side.
"Boss?"
Matteo's gaze moved toward Nia.
"Let her speak."
Carlo stepped forward.
"Matty, you're exhausted. You shouldn't—"
"Let. Her. Speak."
The words barely rose above a whisper.
Yet Carlo stopped immediately.
Nia drew a breath.
"Your doctors need to know about the tea. Every ingredient. Every dose. And they need to know about the yellow halos you've been seeing."
Matteo stared at her.
"How do you know about those?"
"You've mentioned them while I was cleaning."
He looked toward Carlo's teacup.
Then back at Nia.
"Get Keller."
Enzo reached for his phone.
Matteo raised one trembling hand.
"And nobody touches that tea."
Carlo's smile disappeared.
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For the first time since Nia had entered the Costa estate, the most dangerous person in the room was not the dying mafia boss.
It was the frightened man holding a porcelain cup.
