Then he placed some on his finger and rubbed it into the frosting.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Ethan’s face slowly lost its color.
A doctor was called immediately.
The ruined piece of cake was scraped from the floor and placed inside an emergency testing kit while everyone waited in silence.
But before the result came back, Dominic turned toward the service hallway.
The door stood slightly open.
And the newly hired maid who had called Anna away was nowhere in sight.
Her room was empty.
Her phone was switched off.
Her car was still parked on the estate grounds.
Then a guard’s radio crackled from somewhere beyond the ballroom.
A security camera covering the cold room had stopped recording.
Exactly when Lily said she saw the man.
Dominic looked at Anna.
Anna looked toward the hallway.
And suddenly, the broken cake was no longer the most frightening thing inside the house.
If Lily had seen who poisoned Ethan’s birthday cake, what would happen when that person realized the little girl could identify them?
The service door moved.
Only an inch, but Anna saw the brass handle turn, stop, and ease backward. She pulled Lily behind her so abruptly that the child’s shoes squeaked against the marble.
Dominic stepped between them and the doorway.
“Close the gates,” he told the guard. “Call the police. Nobody leaves alone.”
Across the ballroom, a chair scraped. Dominic’s younger brother, Victor, rose from a table beneath the windows. His birthday toast still sat beside an untouched glass of champagne.
“Dominic, think carefully. You’re frightening the children over something a toddler believes she saw.”
Ethan lowered his fork at last. It struck his plate with a small, bright sound.
Lily pressed her face into Anna’s skirt.
“The shiny bird,” she whispered.
Anna bent without taking her eyes off the doorway. “What, sweetheart?”
“On his hand.”
Victor’s right hand disappeared into his jacket pocket.
Ethan looked at that pocket. Then at his uncle.
“The cuff links,” he said. “I gave you those.”
For his uncle’s birthday, Ethan had chosen silver cuff links shaped like swallows. Victor had told him they were his favorite present. Now one glinted at his wrist as he withdrew his empty hand.
“Half the men here are wearing silver,” Victor said.
Dominic did not answer. He watched his brother glance toward the service door a second time.
The doctor approached with his emergency bag and motioned Ethan away from the tables. Dominic went with him, keeping one hand on his son’s shoulder.
“The screening test indicates peanut protein,” the doctor said quietly. “It needs laboratory confirmation, but nobody should touch or eat anything from that cake.”
Anna heard the words anyway. So did Ethan.
His knees softened. Dominic caught him beneath the arms and lowered him into a chair. The doctor examined him, asking whether anything had entered his mouth.
“No,” Ethan said. Then, with a sudden terrified urgency, “No. Lily knocked it away.”
