Chapter 2 2

The morning sun hit the penthouse windows with cruel brilliance. The papers on the nightstand hadn't moved. The bed on his side was pristine, uncreased.

A sharp knock echoed, and the door opened before Erica could answer. Karie Solomon, the housekeeper, marched in. She held a silver tray like a weapon.

"Time for your vitamins, Madam. Mrs. Antonina called to remind you."

Karie's eyes flicked to the nightstand. She saw the papers. She saw the signature. Her expression didn't change, but her lip curled slightly. She set the tray down with a clatter that threatened to crack the crystal coaster.

Erica looked at the two white pills. They looked innocent. Just calcium and folic acid, the bottle said. But Erica knew better. She had swiped a sample two years ago and run it through the mass spectrometer in her private lab. They were a cocktail of mild sedatives and a synthetic compound designed to suppress ovulation.

She had been taking them to maintain the facade, to keep Antonina from suspecting that the "dim-witted" wife was actually a threat. But she wasn't stupid. Every morning, an hour before Karie arrived, Erica took a binding agent she had synthesized herself-a charcoal-based compound that neutralized the toxins before they could absorb into her bloodstream.

She put the pills in her mouth and drank the water, careful to let the water wash them down to where the neutralizer was waiting. It was a dangerous game, but it was the only way to stay in the house long enough to finish her work for Grandfather Bentley.

A memory flashed, unbidden. Twelve years ago. A summer camp by the lake. A boy with messy hair and a scraped knee, holding out a wildflower to a girl who was crying because she had no family to visit her. "I will look out for you, Star. I promise."

Dillard's promise.

Erica swallowed the pills. The bitterness lingered on her tongue. Something felt different today. A metallic tang that hadn't been there before. Had they changed the formula? Or increased the dosage beyond what her neutralizer could handle?

Star was dead. She drowned in the ocean four years ago, the same night Dillard Bentley forgot who she was.

Karie stood by the door, arms crossed. "The car is ready. The family expects you at the manor for lunch."

"Is Dillard coming?" Erica asked, though she knew the answer.

"Mr. Bentley is busy. And Miss Brisa has her charity auction today. He is supporting her." Karie's tone implied that this was the natural order of things.

"Of course," Erica said.

She dressed in black. A high-collared cashmere dress that felt like armor. It was severe, mourning attire for a marriage that was still technically alive.

Downstairs, the black Bentley limousine waited. Erica slid into the back seat. The privacy partition was up. Finally, she could breathe.

As the car merged onto the highway toward Long Island, a cramp seized her lower abdomen. It was sharp, twisting, unlike anything she had felt before. Erica frowned. Her calculations for the neutralizer were precise. Unless... unless Antonina had switched to a transdermal compound or something that bypassed the stomach binding agent.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a slim, nondescript laptop. She didn't open Netflix or Instagram. She booted it up, bypassed the standard OS, and launched a Tor browser.

Her fingers flew across the keys. The screen filled with lines of code, complex algorithms modeling cellular decay rates.

Welcome, Dr. N.

The interface of Avis Tech hummed with activity. A message blinked in the corner from Chaim Barrera.

Global Summit is in three days. The board is asking if the ghost is finally going to show up.

Erica typed back: Soon.

She looked at the data. The lung cancer protocol she had designed was showing a 94% efficacy rate in the simulation. She had built this for Dillard's grandfather originally. Now, it was going to change the world. And Dillard didn't have a clue that the medical genius he was desperate to recruit was the same woman he refused to kiss.

Another cramp hit her, harder this time. She gasped, dropping the laptop onto the seat. Sweat prickled her hairline. This wasn't just a side effect. This was system failure.

The car slowed. They were passing through the iron gates of the Bentley estate. The gray stone mansion loomed ahead, a fortress of old money and cold hearts.

Erica shut the laptop and shoved it deep into her bag. She checked her reflection. Pale. Good. It matched the role.

The car stopped. Through the window, she saw her mother-in-law, Antonina, standing at the top of the stone steps. She looked like a vulture waiting for carrion.