Chapter 1 - the seven minute blackout)
The first person to react was Jonathan.
"Lock the doors."
The command cut through the ballroom.
One of the guards holding Maya hesitated.
Vivienne turned toward her son.
"Jonathan, do not be ridiculous."
He ignored her.
"Nobody leaves."
The second security guard touched his earpiece.
"Sir, we have almost two hundred guests."
"Then we have almost two hundred guests who are going to stay exactly where they are."
Ethan groaned against the floor.
Jonathan looked down.
"Get Dr. Mercer."
"He's here," someone shouted.
A tall gray-haired man pushed through the guests carrying a small black medical bag. Dr. Aaron Mercer had been the Ashcroft family's physician for nearly twenty years.
He immediately knelt beside Ethan.
"What did he take?"
"No idea," Jonathan said.
Mercer checked Ethan's pulse.
His expression tightened.
"Ethan, can you hear me?"
Ethan nodded weakly.
"Chest pain?"
"Yes."
"Dizzy?"
Another nod.
Mercer looked toward the surrounding guests.
"I need space."
Jonathan stood.
"Give him room."
People retreated.
Maya was still being restrained.
"Mr. Ashcroft."
Jonathan turned.
"The glass."
His gaze moved to Vivienne.
She still held it.
Vivienne raised one eyebrow.
"This?"
"Put it down, Mother."
Her face hardened.
"I will do no such thing."
"Put the glass down."
Silence spread around them again.
Vivienne slowly placed the glass on a nearby silver tray.
Jonathan pointed at it.
"Nobody touches that."
Vivienne laughed softly.
The sound was almost worse than shouting.
"You are taking the word of a servant over your own mother."
Maya felt one guard's fingers dig into her arm.
"I saw you."
Vivienne looked at her.
"You saw nothing."
"I saw the bottle."
For the first time, something shifted in Vivienne's expression.
Small.
Almost invisible.
But Maya saw it.
Fear.
Then every chandelier in the ballroom went dark.
Someone screamed.
The mansion plunged into blackness.
"Nobody move," Jonathan shouted.
The emergency lighting should have activated immediately.
It didn't.
Maya heard footsteps.
Fast.
Close.
Then the hand gripping her right arm vanished.
Someone collided with her shoulder.
Glass shattered.
A man cursed.
Maya dropped toward the floor on instinct.
A second later, dim amber emergency lights flickered on.
The ballroom returned in fragments.
Faces.
Shadows.
Marble.
Overturned chairs.
Ethan still lay beside Dr. Mercer.
Jonathan was standing above him.
Vivienne remained near the silver tray.
But the glass was gone.
Maya stared.
"No."
Jonathan saw the empty tray.
"Where is it?"
Nobody answered.
"Where is the glass?"
Security guard Curtis Hale released Maya and hurried toward the tray.
"It was right there."
"I know where it was."
Jonathan's voice shook the room.
"Find it."
Guests began protesting.
A hedge fund manager demanded to leave.
A woman near the entrance started crying.
A politician insisted his security team be admitted.
Jonathan pointed toward the doors.
"Seal every exit."
Curtis turned to the second guard.
"Briggs, east corridor. I'll take the kitchen."
The other guard nodded.
Maya caught something odd.
Briggs wasn't surprised.
Not by the blackout.
Not by the missing glass.
He looked annoyed.
Maya stored the detail away.
Dr. Mercer called Jonathan.
"Jonathan."
He dropped beside Ethan again.
Mercer opened his medical bag.
"His heart rhythm is unstable. I need an ambulance."
"Call one."
"I already did."
Jonathan looked at his son.
Ethan's eyes fluttered.
Maya stepped closer.
Curtis blocked her.
"Stay back."
"He asked for me."
"You're not going near him."
Jonathan looked up.
"Let her through."
Curtis hesitated.
"Sir."
"Now."
He moved.
Maya knelt on Ethan's other side.
His skin looked almost gray.
"Ethan."
His eyes opened.
"Maya?"
"I'm here."
His voice was faint.
"I didn't drink from that glass."
Everyone froze.
Jonathan leaned closer.
"What?"
Ethan swallowed painfully.
"I hadn't touched it yet."
Maya looked at Dr. Mercer.
Mercer stopped moving.
Jonathan stared at his son.
"Then why are you sick?"
Ethan closed his eyes.
"I don't know."
Maya felt cold creep through her stomach.
Vivienne spoke from behind them.
"Perhaps because your maid has no idea what she is talking about."
Maya stood.
"Then why did you put something in his drink?"
Vivienne did not answer.
Maya stepped toward her.
"What was in the bottle?"
"That is none of your concern."
"It became my concern when Ethan collapsed."
Vivienne's eyes sharpened.
"Do you imagine you understand this family because you have polished its furniture for four months?"
"No."
Maya reached beneath the collar of her uniform.
She pulled out a thin silver chain.
A small brass key hung from it.
Vivienne's face went white.
Jonathan noticed.
"What is that?"
Maya held the key between two fingers.
"Something my mother left me."
Vivienne whispered a name.
"Anna."
Jonathan looked at her.
Maya's heart hammered.
Her mother's name had been Anna Reed.
She had never told anyone at Ashcroft Manor.
Jonathan rose slowly.
"Mother."
Vivienne said nothing.
"How do you know Maya's mother?"
Vivienne looked at him.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then she turned toward Maya.
"You should never have come back here."
A distant siren sounded beyond the mansion gates.
Maya tightened her hand around the key.
"I think you knew I would."
Vivienne's composure returned.
"Then you are as foolish as she was."
Jonathan stared at his mother.
"What happened to Anna Reed?"
Before Vivienne could answer, Curtis returned from the corridor.
His face was tense.
"Mr. Ashcroft."
"What?"
"We found something."
Curtis held up a small evidence bag.
Inside was the shattered stem of the missing glass.
Maya recognized the engraved rose.
Jonathan frowned.
"Where?"
Curtis looked at Vivienne.
"In Mrs. Ashcroft's private study."
The entire room seemed to inhale.
Vivienne did not blink.
May you like
Then Curtis added the detail that changed everything.
"And the security camera covering that hallway was shut off exactly seven minutes before Maya entered the ballroom."
