Chapter 3 - The Missing PillsCharles Whitmore’s medication cabinet was kept in a private sitting room adjoining his bedroom.
Only five people had regular access.
Charles.
Adrian.
Mrs. Bell.
His nurse, Laura Cheng.
And Vanessa.
Vanessa had insisted on being included after the engagement, telling Adrian she wanted to become “part of the family.”
At the time, Adrian had found it thoughtful.
Now the memory made his stomach turn.
“What about my father’s medication?” he asked.
Nia lowered herself carefully into a chair.
“The pills started looking different.”
Dr. Rosen frowned.
“What pills?”
“The small white ones he takes after dinner.”
Dr. Rosen exchanged a glance with Adrian.
“His blood pressure medication.”
Nia nodded.
“I clean his tray every night. About two months ago, they changed shape.”
“That sometimes happens with generic substitutions.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Vanessa exhaled.
“There. See?”
Nia continued.
“But then Mr. Whitmore started getting dizzy.”
Adrian’s attention sharpened.
His father had suffered three unexplained episodes over the last six weeks.
Once during breakfast.
Once in the garden.
And once in the shower, where a nurse barely stopped him from falling.
Doctors had adjusted his treatment twice.
Tests had shown nothing conclusive.
“You think someone changed his medication?” Adrian asked.
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa laughed incredulously.
“Listen to yourself.”
Nia reached into her apron again.
This time she removed a tiny plastic bag.
Inside was one white tablet.
Dr. Rosen stepped forward.
“Where did you get that?”
“Under Mr. Whitmore’s bedside table yesterday.”
“You stole medication from an elderly man?” Vanessa demanded.
“It fell.”
“How convenient.”
Nia handed the bag to Dr. Rosen.
“I looked up the marking.”
Adrian stared at her.
“And?”
“It isn’t his blood pressure medicine.”
Dr. Rosen took out his glasses.
He examined the tablet.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
“This appears to be clonazepam.”
Adrian frowned.
“A sedative?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa immediately shook her head.
“There’s no way.”
Dr. Rosen turned toward her.
“Charles is not prescribed clonazepam.”
Nia’s voice grew quieter.
“Someone has been putting it in his evening pill organizer.”
The room became painfully silent.
Adrian looked toward Daniel.
“Lock down my father’s medications. Nobody touches anything.”
Daniel was already calling security.
Vanessa stepped toward Adrian.
“This is insane.”
He backed away from her.
The movement was small.
But Vanessa noticed.
“You believe her?”
“I believe evidence.”
“She has one pill in a plastic bag!”
“And photographs of forged signatures.”
“Alleged forged signatures.”
“And she almost died after you ordered her onto a broken ladder.”
“That has nothing to do with this!”
“Maybe it does.”
Vanessa stared at him.
Then something in her hardened.
“You’re humiliating me because the help made accusations?”
Adrian’s face went cold.
“You’re still calling her that?”
“What am I supposed to call her?”
“Her name.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Fine. Nia.”
She turned toward Nia.
“Congratulations. You got his attention.”
Nia stared back.
“I nearly broke my neck getting it.”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Adrian cut her off.
“Leave.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“Go to your apartment in the east wing.”
“You’re sending me to my room?”
“I’m telling you not to leave the property until Daniel has copied the security footage and my attorney has reviewed what Nia found.”
“You cannot detain me.”
“I’m not. You can leave whenever you want.”
Adrian glanced at Daniel.
“But if you leave, my attorney will contact the police with everything we currently have.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“You’d call the police on your future wife?”
Adrian looked at the ring.
“I’m beginning to question that title.”
For the first time, Vanessa’s confidence cracked completely.
She walked out.
Her heels clicked across the marble until the sound disappeared.
Nia released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
Adrian turned to her.
“You should have told me sooner.”
“I tried.”
His brow furrowed.
“When?”
“Three times.”
Adrian stared.
“Three?”
“The first time I asked your assistant for a private meeting.”
He remembered something vaguely.
A month earlier, his assistant had mentioned that one of the household staff had wanted to discuss “maintenance concerns.”
He had been leaving for Singapore.
He told the assistant to have the estate manager handle it.
“What happened?”
“Vanessa came to see me ten minutes later.”
Adrian closed his eyes briefly.
“She knew?”
“She said household employees didn’t bypass her over small problems.”
“What about the second time?”
“I left you an envelope.”
“When?”
“On your desk.”
“I never received it.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Nia looked toward the doorway.
“I saw it later in Vanessa’s fireplace.”
Adrian went still.
“And the third?”
“I called your office.”
His jaw clenched.
“My assistant told me you weren’t available.”
“No. She told me you had instructed her not to accept personal calls from staff.”
“I never gave that instruction.”
“I figured that out today.”
Adrian felt sick.
For years, he had believed the estate operated smoothly because complaints rarely reached him.
Perhaps complaints rarely reached him because Vanessa had made sure they didn’t.
He looked toward Daniel.
“I want interviews with every employee.”
Daniel nodded.
“Privately?”
“Without Vanessa knowing who says what.”
“Understood.”
Dr. Rosen arranged for Nia’s X-rays.
This time she didn’t argue when Adrian insisted on driving her himself.
“You have other things to handle,” she said as they approached the garage.
“My father is being examined. Daniel is handling security. My attorney is coming.”
“And the gala?”
“Canceled.”
“That must cost a fortune.”
“I have a fortune.”
Nia looked at him.
He almost smiled.
“The hospital bill matters more.”
“I have insurance.”
“I’m paying.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Adrian stopped.
She stopped too.
Despite the pain in her ankle, Nia crossed her arms.
“You don’t get to billionaire your way through every argument.”
He stared at her.
Then unexpectedly laughed.
It was the first genuinely human sound she had heard from him all afternoon.
“I apologize.”
“Good.”
“I’m still paying.”
“That wasn’t an apology.”
“It was the beginning of one.”
She tried not to smile.
He opened the passenger door.
The clinic confirmed a severe sprain but no fracture.
By the time they returned, darkness had fallen over the estate.
The mansion that should have been filled with orchestra music and champagne was silent.
Daniel was waiting.
So was Adrian’s attorney.
And so was Charles Whitmore.
The elderly man sat in a wheelchair near the fireplace, blanket across his knees.
His voice was weak.
“Adrian.”
Adrian rushed to him.
“Dad, you should be upstairs.”
Charles ignored him.
His eyes found Nia.
“You fell.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Vanessa made you climb?”
Nia hesitated.
Charles nodded slowly.
“She made Thomas climb too.”
Adrian froze.
“Thomas?”
“The gardener.”
Thomas Alvarez had resigned two months earlier.
At least, that was what Adrian had been told.
Charles’s hand trembled.
“She made him climb the roof.”
Adrian stared at his father.
“Why?”
“He saw her.”
“Saw her doing what?”
Charles struggled to remember.
The room waited.
Then his eyes cleared.
“My safe.”
Adrian turned toward Daniel.
“What safe?”
Charles pointed weakly toward the east hall.
“My office.”
Adrian knew the wall safe in his father’s private study.
It contained family documents, a handful of antique watches, emergency cash, and important legal records.
“Dad, what did Thomas see?”
Charles’s voice dropped.
“Vanessa opening it.”
Daniel was already moving.
They crossed the mansion together.
Adrian entered the code.
The safe door clicked open.
At first everything looked normal.
Then Adrian began checking folders.
Property deeds.
Trust documents.
Insurance records.
He stopped.
One folder was gone.
A dark blue folder labeled:
WHITMORE FAMILY TRUST — SUCCESSION & BENEFICIARY DOCUMENTS.
Adrian stared at the empty space.
His attorney whispered a curse.
“What was in that folder?” Nia asked.
Adrian slowly turned toward her.
“My father’s original trust.”
“And?”
His expression darkened.
“If I die before he does…”
Adrian looked toward the hall where Vanessa had disappeared earlier.
“Vanessa inherits almost nothing.”
Nia felt cold.
“What happens after you marry her?”
“My prenuptial agreement protects most assets.”
“Most?”
Adrian didn’t answer immediately.
His attorney did.
“Not the controlling voting shares Adrian receives outright at marriage under Charles’s revised succession plan.”
Nia understood.
Marriage gave Vanessa access to enormous power.
But only if Adrian stayed alive long enough to marry her.
Adrian’s phone rang.
Daniel answered.
His face changed instantly.
“What?”
Everyone looked at him.
He lowered the phone.
“The gate camera caught Vanessa leaving twenty minutes ago.”
Adrian stared.
“You said security had the property locked down.”
“She used Charles’s old service gate code.”
“Where is she going?”
Daniel looked at the tablet in his hand.
“We tracked her car.”
He turned the screen around.
The vehicle was heading south.
Fast.
And according to the GPS, Vanessa wasn’t alone.
Someone else’s phone was moving with her.
Someone Nia recognized immediately when Daniel displayed the account name.
May you like
She whispered:
“Thomas Alvarez.”
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