Vanessa threw Mia’s backpack into the koi pond and forced her face near the water.

I woke early the next morning to the smell of bacon and toast drifting up the stairs. I dressed quickly and went downstairs to find Julian in the kitchen, standing before the stove with a spatula in his hand, looking thoroughly out of place. Marcus sat at the table, reading through a stack of papers, his expression serious.

Julian looked up as I entered. He wiped his hands on a towel.

“Sleep at all?”

I nodded, though it wasn’t entirely true. I had dreamed of ponds, and sinking backpacks, and Vanessa standing in the shadows watching me.

“Good.” He set a plate piled high with food before me. “Eat. We leave for the hospital in an hour.”

We ate in near silence. Every so often, Marcus would look up from his papers and glance at Julian, and they would exchange a look I couldn’t quite understand. Something heavy passed between them. Something unsettling.

“What is it?” I asked, pushing my toast around my plate. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Marcus set his fork down slowly. “The police have finished their initial investigation at the house. They found traces of a substance in the coffee Adrian drank yesterday. A drug that causes heart arrhythmia. It was administered in a way that leaves almost no trace in the body after a few hours.”

My blood ran cold. “Someone poisoned him?”

Julian nodded grimly. “Yes. And the security system… it had been disabled. From inside the house. Someone knew exactly where the cameras were. Exactly how to avoid being seen.”

“Vanessa,” I whispered.

“Possibly.” Marcus hesitated. “But Vanessa was already in police custody when it happened.”

The room went dead silent.

I stared at him. “That’s impossible. The guards took her away. She couldn’t have gotten back in.”

“Precisely.” Julian leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “Which means Vanessa didn’t act alone. There is someone else. Someone inside the house. Someone who has been helping her. Someone who has been helping her for a very long time.”

I felt sick. “Clara?”

“Clara was at the hospital with Adrian when the coffee was brought in,” Marcus said. “It wasn’t her. But whoever it was… they had access to the kitchen. Access to the coffee. Access to the security codes. They knew exactly what they were doing.”

“And they’re still out there,” I whispered.

Julian reached across the table and covered my hand with his. “Which is why you stay close to me. Or Marcus. At all times. Do not go anywhere alone. Do not speak to anyone you do not know. And if anyone—anyone at all—asks you questions about your mother, or the papers, or the key… you tell them nothing. Not one word. Do you understand?”

I nodded. My hand closed around the key beneath my shirt.

An hour later, we arrived at the hospital. It was a large, imposing building of white stone and glass. Julian held my hand tightly as we walked inside. Marcus walked ahead of us, scanning the area constantly.

We found Adrian’s room on the third floor. Two uniformed police officers stood outside the door. They nodded respectfully to Marcus but didn’t step aside.

“No one enters except immediate family,” one of them said.

“I am his attorney,” Marcus said. “And this is his daughter.”

The officer looked down at me. He hesitated, then stepped aside. “Very well. But only one visitor at a time. And be quick. The doctors say he may not regain consciousness.”

My throat tightened. Julian squeezed my hand. “I’ll be right outside. Go on.”

I took a breath and stepped into the room.

Adrian lay in the bed, surrounded by machines beeping softly. His face was pale, his eyes closed. Tubes ran from his arms. He looked smaller than I had ever seen him. Frail.

I walked slowly to the bedside. I took his hand. It felt cool.

“Daddy?” I whispered.

There was no response.

I pulled the chair close and sat down. I held his hand between both of mine.

“I’m here,” I said, my voice trembling. “I know you can’t answer me right now. But I wanted you to know… I’m safe. Julian is with me. He’s Mama’s brother. He’s protecting me.”

I swallowed hard.

“Vanessa didn’t win. Whoever helped her didn’t win either. Because Mama left everything ready. She left the papers. She left the key. And I’m going to find whatever she hid. I’m going to finish what she started.”

I leaned forward and kissed his forehead.

“Please wake up. Please. I need you. Julian is nice, and Marcus is kind… but I need my daddy. I promise I’ll be brave. Just please… please don’t leave me alone.”

I sat there for a long time, holding his hand, watching the steady rise and fall of his chest. The machines beeped rhythmically. Somewhere down the hall, a door slammed. Footsteps approached. Slow. Deliberate.

They stopped right outside Adrian’s room.

The door creaked open.

I turned.

Standing in the doorway was a woman I had never seen before. She was tall and elegant, with silver-streaked hair and sharp, intelligent eyes. She wore a tailored suit and carried a leather handbag. She looked at me, then at Adrian, then back at me.

She stepped fully into the room and closed the door softly behind her.

“You must be Mia,” she said. Her voice was smooth, cultured, and utterly without warmth.

I stood up slowly, clutching Adrian’s hand. “Who are you?”

She walked closer, stopping beside the foot of the bed. She looked down at Adrian with absolutely no expression on her face.

“I am your mother’s cousin,” she said. “My name is Victoria. And I believe… you have something that belongs to me.”

I gripped the key through my shirt. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Victoria smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes.

“Your mother left a key, Mia. And you are wearing it right now. Around your neck. I want it. Hand it over, and perhaps I won’t have to be unpleasant.”

The machines beside Adrian’s bed continued their steady, rhythmic beeping. But inside my chest, my own heart was hammering so hard I could barely breathe.