Chapter 9
The medical team arrived through the foyer doors moments later.
Not police.
Not sirens.
Not spectacle.
Two private physicians and a nurse moved quickly toward Mia with bags in hand.
Dominic stepped aside only when Mia nodded.
Harper refused to leave her mother.
The nurse worked around the child carefully, speaking in a soft voice.
Mia kept one arm around Harper’s back.
Dominic watched the medical team check her without revealing details aloud.
Dehydration.
Bruising.
Weak pulse.
No full diagnosis.
No conclusion.
Only urgent care beginning on the marble floor because Mia would not yet leave Harper.
Nathan watched everything from near the staircase.
A guard stood on either side of him now.
He looked less like an adviser and more like a man waiting for the room to decide what name he deserved next.
Dominic approached him slowly.
Every step echoed on marble.
Nathan tried to hold his ground.
“Dom, listen to me privately.”
Dominic stopped a few feet away.
“Why?”
“Because this is bigger than her.”
The words left Nathan’s mouth before he fully measured them.
Dominic’s eyes went cold.
Mia heard from the floor and stiffened.
Harper clung tighter.
Nathan corrected quickly.
“I mean, bigger than this misunderstanding.”
Dominic tilted his head.
“You keep choosing the wrong words.”
Nathan swallowed.
For the first time, sweat touched his temple.
Dominic glanced toward the east hall.
The study remained sealed.
The cellar remained open.
The room behind the wine racks remained undisclosed.
No confession had been made.
No papers revealed.
No final truth exposed.
Yet Nathan had already placed too many pieces in the room.
No idea she was here.
She misunderstood things.
Bigger than her.
Dominic looked back at him.
“You always told me the estate had no blind spots.”
Nathan said nothing.
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“So why was my missing maid under my floor while my goddaughter knocked above her?”
Harper looked up at the word goddaughter.
Mia did too.
Nathan’s mouth opened.
Closed.
Dominic waited.
The guards waited.
The chandeliers hummed softly overhead.
No answer came.
Dominic turned away first.
May you like
That frightened Nathan most.
Read Chapter 10 👉 Because Dominic did not need Nathan’s confession yet; the silence in the foyer had already turned against him.
