Chapter 2 - The Napkin Secret
“I am not lying!” Lily shouted, her small frame shaking with a defiance that far exceeded her six years. She pointed a trembling finger straight across the table. “Look under her napkin!”
Victoria moved with terrifying speed, snatching her linen napkin off her lap and balling it up in her fist, but Lily had already lunged across the table edge.
“Don't touch my purse!” Victoria screamed, lunging to grab her designer handbag from the floor.
Too late. Mark’s long fingers had already hooked the leather strap, pulling the bag out of her reach. With a sharp, commanding motion, Mark turned the bag upside down onto the polished dining table.
A cascade of high-end cosmetics, car keys, a diamond-encrusted compact, and a small, unlabelled amber glass dropper bottle tumbled out across the placemat. The room seemed to drop ten degrees.
Victoria lunged forward like a cornered cat, clawing at the table to grab the bottle, but Mark intercepted her wrist, his grip tightening into an iron vice.
“Hand me the bag right now,” Mark ordered, his voice dropping into a register so cold and devoid of emotion that Victoria actually stopped struggling.
He picked up the small amber dropper bottle, its glass tip stained with a faint, crystalline residue. At that exact second, the heavy double doors of the dining room swung wide open. Private security, alerted by the commotion, rushed in, led by Officer Vance, who had been patrolling the perimeter.
“Mr. Sterling, everything alright?” Officer Vance asked, stepping into the room.
May you like
“Take this bottle, Officer,” Mark said, holding it out. “And tell me what’s in that glass.”
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