Chapter 1 - THE GREEN RIBBON
Alex had not spoken more than a few broken sounds in almost five months.
Doctors had told Andrew not to force him.
Elizabeth had learned to communicate with the boy through gestures, picture cards, and the small expressions he still allowed himself.
Lucinda called all of it indulgence.
That afternoon she stood in the center of the Caruso estate sitting room while Alex hugged his stuffed rabbit against his dinosaur pajamas.
The toy had belonged to his mother.
The green ribbon tied around its neck had once been wrapped around her hair.
Lucinda reached down and snatched the rabbit from him.
Alex’s face changed immediately.
He reached for it but no sound came out.
“Enough of this ridiculous attachment.”
Lucinda opened the large sewing scissors in her hand.
Elizabeth moved forward.
“Mrs. Caruso, please don’t.”
Lucinda glanced at the housekeeper with open contempt.
Then she cut straight through the green ribbon.
The fabric fell onto the marble.
She tossed the rabbit after it.
Alex recoiled as if she had struck him.
He backed into Elizabeth and curled against her legs.
Lucinda watched him with irritation.
“Maybe fear will finally teach him to speak.”
The adjoining office door opened.
Andrew Caruso stepped into the room.
He had returned from a private meeting earlier than expected.
His dark three-piece suit was still buttoned.
His signet ring caught the light when his hand stopped against the doorframe.
He did not look at Lucinda first.
He looked at the green ribbon on the floor.
Then at Alex.
His son was trembling so violently that Elizabeth had both hands around his shoulders.
Andrew crossed the room.
“Alex.”
The boy looked up.
For months, Andrew had heard nothing from him except crying in the night and the occasional broken attempt at “Dad.”
Now Alex stared directly at Lucinda.
His lips moved.
“Daddy…”
Andrew froze.
Elizabeth did too.
Alex’s eyes filled with tears.
“She is the one who killed Mom.”
The room became silent.
Lucinda’s face lost color for one second.
Then she recovered.
She lifted the scissors and pointed them toward Elizabeth.
“The maid taught him that lie.”
Andrew slowly bent and picked up the severed green ribbon.
He remembered tying it around his wife’s hair during their first Christmas in the estate.
He remembered seeing it around the rabbit’s neck the morning after her funeral.
He had never asked who tied it there.
Andrew looked toward Elizabeth.
She was pale.
But she was not looking at him.
She was looking at Lucinda.
Afraid.
Lucinda moved toward Alex.
“Come here.”
Alex shrank harder against Elizabeth.
Andrew stepped between them.
Lucinda reached anyway.
He caught her wrist.
The scissors stopped inches from his sleeve.
Andrew took them from her hand.
He released her.
Then he calmly lifted the blades toward the pearl necklace around her throat.
Lucinda’s eyes widened.
“Andrew.”
The blades closed.
The strand snapped.
Pearls poured across the marble and scattered around Lucinda’s heels.
Several rolled beneath the furniture.
Andrew dropped the scissors onto them.
Two bodyguards stepped silently behind Lucinda.
“My son wasn’t unable to speak.”
Andrew’s voice stayed low.
“He was afraid of you.”
Lucinda stared at him.
Then her fear turned into anger.
“You are listening to a traumatized three-year-old over the woman who raised you.”
Andrew’s expression changed slightly.
That sentence had worked on him for most of his life.
Lucinda had raised him after his own mother died.
She had protected him through family wars, his father’s long absences, and the violent years when Caruso men still settled problems in ways Andrew had spent adulthood trying to leave behind.
He had trusted her with Alex because of that history.
Now his son could barely look at her.
Andrew crouched near him.
“Alex.”
The boy clung to Elizabeth.
Andrew did not reach for him.
“What happened to Mom?”
Alex’s mouth trembled.
Nothing came.
Lucinda exhaled sharply.
“You see? He doesn’t know.”
Then Alex looked toward the severed ribbon in Andrew’s hand.
“Green room.”
Andrew stared.
“What green room?”
Alex covered his ears.
Elizabeth whispered, “Sir…”
Andrew looked at her.
Elizabeth hesitated.
Then she said, “Your wife used to take Alex to the old conservatory.”
The estate greenhouse.
Andrew had not entered it since the night his wife died.
She had fallen from the upper iron balcony inside it.
Everyone called it an accident.
Alex had been found downstairs several minutes later, hiding beneath a table.
He stopped speaking soon afterward.
Andrew stood.
Lucinda’s expression had become completely still.
“That room is sealed,” she said.
Andrew looked toward her.
“Why?”
“Because your wife died there.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“I mean why are you afraid he remembers it?”
Lucinda did not answer.
Elizabeth suddenly stepped forward.
She looked at the ribbon.
Then at Andrew.
“Mrs. Caruso gave me an instruction before she died.”
Andrew turned.
“What instruction?”
Elizabeth swallowed.
“She told me if Lucinda ever tried to remove the green ribbon from Alex’s rabbit, I was supposed to take him and leave the estate immediately.”
Lucinda spun toward her.
“You lying little—”
Andrew raised one hand.
She stopped.
Elizabeth’s eyes filled.
“There was one more thing.”
Andrew waited.
“She said the ribbon wasn’t only a keepsake.”
Elizabeth looked down at the stuffed rabbit on the floor.
“She said she hid the conservatory key inside it.”
Andrew slowly picked up the toy.
He found a small repaired seam beneath its left ear.
Lucinda took one step backward.
Andrew opened the seam.
A tiny brass key slid into his palm.
Alex saw it.
May you like
Then his frightened whisper came again.
“Mommy said… don’t let Aunt Lucy get it.”
