Chapter 1
I looked from the ruined birthday cake to my aunt.
Genevieve was still half against the collapsed program display, one hand braced against the padded banquet bench. Julian lay beneath the overturned silver-service cart several yards away.
Neither of them looked angry anymore.
They looked afraid.
“My guards missed your man,” I said quietly. “A three-year-old didn’t miss you.”
Genevieve stared at me.
Behind me, Sarah held Lily tightly against her dress. Ethan stood beside them, pale and silent, staring at the shattered porcelain where his first slice of cake had landed.
I turned toward my son.
“Did you eat any of it?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
Only then did I breathe.
Genevieve laughed weakly.
“Dominic, this has become ridiculous.”
I looked at her.
“Then explain the silver box.”
Her expression changed.
Small.
Enough.
“What silver box?”
Lily immediately pointed at her.
“The shiny one.”
Genevieve’s eyes moved toward the child.
That look made me step between them.
Sarah noticed too. She pulled Lily closer.
I looked at my head of security.
“Seal the service corridor. Nobody who worked this ballroom leaves.”
Genevieve scoffed.
“You’re locking down your son’s birthday because a toddler misunderstood something?”
I crouched near the broken plate.
Frosting covered the marble.
Genevieve had tried to grind part of it beneath her shoe before I stopped her.
That mattered more than anything she said.
I looked back at her.
“If Lily misunderstood, why were you destroying the cake?”
Silence.
Julian pushed himself upright.
“You assaulted my mother.”
I raised my eyes.
“You attacked me before I asked her a second question.”
His jaw tightened.
Another answer.
Then Lily whispered behind me.
“I know the kitchen man.”
I turned.
Sarah looked surprised too.
“What do you mean?”
Lily pointed toward the service corridor.
“He came to our house before.”
My expression hardened.
“Whose house?”
She looked at Sarah.
May you like
“Ours.”
And suddenly this was no longer only about Ethan’s birthday cake.
