Chapter 3 - THE GOLD RIBBON DELIVERY The estate’s security footage showed the plant arriving at 10:17 that morning.
A delivery van stopped at the service gate. The driver presented a digital authorization bearing Arturo’s private household code. A gardener carried the pot through the courtyard and placed it inside the nursery under instructions from the household office.
The gardener had not read the card.
He remembered only the gold ribbon and thick cream paper.
“Who approved the delivery?” Arturo asked.
The head of security enlarged the digital record.
The order had been issued from Arturo’s personal computer at 6:42 a.m.
Arturo was asleep at that time.
His computer required a fingerprint and rotating password.
Only Arturo should have been able to use it.
Dr. Mercer pointed toward León.
“Unless someone copied the password.”
León laughed bitterly.
“I’m not allowed inside his office.”
“That does not make it impossible.”
Arturo silenced them both.
The delivery van had been stolen the previous night and abandoned two miles from the estate after the drop-off. The driver wore a cap and mask, and the license plate belonged to a retired school bus.
Someone had planned every step.
Dr. Shaw returned with preliminary toxicology results.
“The bottle contained a foxglove-derived cardiac toxin. The concentration was high enough to cause rapid collapse.”
Arturo’s knees nearly weakened.
“Will Julián survive?”
“He is responding, but we need to transfer him to the pediatric cardiac unit.”
As the medical team prepared transport, León noticed a piece of gold thread caught beneath the crib wheel.
He bent to retrieve it.
A guard grabbed his shoulder.
“Leave it.”
“It came from the ribbon.”
Dr. Shaw collected it with forceps.
The thread carried a faint trace of dark red wax.
Arturo recognized it.
The Santillán family used red wax seals for private estate documents. The gold ribbon and red wax combination appeared only on gifts sent through the Santillán Legacy Trust.
The trust had been created by Arturo’s father decades earlier to preserve the estate for future heirs.
Its current trustee was Graham Voss, the family attorney.
Arturo called him immediately.
Graham answered from New York and sounded horrified.
“I authorized no nursery gift.”
“Who has access to the trust seal?”
“My office, your private vault, and the estate archive.”
The archive occupied a climate-controlled room beneath the east wing.
León’s room stood directly above it.
Again, suspicion moved toward him.
Arturo ordered the archive searched.
Inside, guards found the red wax kit missing and a trail of dried soil leading toward a narrow service staircase.
The staircase ended beside León’s bedroom.
When they entered, they found a gardening knife beneath his mattress.
Green residue coated the blade.
León stared at it in disbelief.
“That isn’t mine.”
Arturo picked up the knife.
Sofia’s initials were engraved into the handle.
It had belonged to León’s mother.
He had believed it burned with her greenhouse.
Someone had recovered it, used it to cut the foxglove, and hidden it in his room.
Arturo’s anger faltered.
León stepped closer.
“My mother’s knife was locked inside the greenhouse evidence box.”
“Who had the key?”
“The estate investigator. Your attorney. And you.”
Graham Voss called again.
His voice came through the speaker.
“Arturo, the Legacy Trust has an emergency clause. If Julián dies under suspicious circumstances and León is implicated, control of the estate temporarily passes to the trustee.”
Arturo looked at the phone.
“To you.”
Graham went silent for half a second.
May you like
Then he said, “Yes.”
👉 The person legally positioned to control the Santillán estate after Julián’s death was the same attorney with access to the missing seal and Sofia’s recovered knife.
