The ballroom doors closed.
For the first time that evening, Nora understood how enormous the Whitmore estate really was.
There were six exits from the ballroom alone.
All of them were now guarded.
Nobody left.
Nobody entered.
"What exactly did you put in my glass?" Adrian asked again.
Celeste swallowed.
"I told you. It wasn't poison."
"Then tell me what it was."
"I can't."
Adrian gave a humorless smile.
"That is an unfortunate answer."
A man emerged from the crowd.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Thirty-something.
Black tuxedo, no tie, expression carved from stone.
Nora recognized him immediately.
Ethan Whitmore.
Adrian's only son.
CEO of Whitmore Global.
And according to almost every business magazine Nora had ever seen, the man most likely to inherit an empire estimated at eleven billion dollars.
Ethan looked first at his father.
Then Celeste.
Then Nora.
His gaze stopped on her phone.
"Give me that."
Nora instinctively pulled it closer.
"No."
Several guests reacted.
Ethan's eyebrows rose.
"You just accused my father's fiancée of trying to poison him."
"I showed you what I recorded."
"And I want the original recording."
"You can look at it."
"I said give it to me."
Nora stared back.
"I heard you."
Something almost like surprise crossed Ethan's face.
Adrian sighed.
"Ethan."
"I need to know whether the video was edited."
"It wasn't," Nora said.
"You'll forgive me if I don't simply take your word for it."
Nora's jaw tightened.
There it was.
She should have expected it.
In their world, a woman wearing a thousand-dollar dress could pour something into a man's wine and still receive the benefit of the doubt.
The waitress who caught her would be investigated first.
Nora unlocked her phone and held it out.
"Check it. But I'm watching."
Ethan took it.
Their fingers touched briefly.
His eyes flicked toward hers.
Then away.
He opened the file information and examined the timestamp.
"Eleven minutes ago."
"I told you."
"Why were you recording her?"
"I wasn't at first."
Nora pointed toward the screen.
"I was checking a message from my sister. Then I saw Ms. Monroe enter the service room. Guests aren't supposed to be back there."
Celeste folded her arms.
"So you decided to spy on me?"
"I decided to record when you took a vial out of your purse."
Ethan replayed the footage.
Once.
Twice.
He zoomed in.
"What happened after this?"
"She left. I went to find the banquet manager."
"And?"
"He wasn't there."
"Then?"
"I came back here."
"And conveniently arrived just before my father drank."
Nora stared at him.
"You think I staged this?"
"I think I don't know you."
"Ethan."
Adrian's warning was quiet.
Ethan returned the phone.
"I'm asking questions."
"Ask useful ones."
Before Ethan could reply, an older man approached the table.
Marcus Hale.
Adrian's longtime attorney and closest business adviser.
Nora knew him only because she had heard the staff whispering his name all evening.
"Adrian," Marcus said, "we should move this somewhere private."
"No."
Marcus frowned.
"No?"
"If somebody in this room tried to poison me, privacy benefits them more than me."
That silenced everyone.
Adrian turned toward the head of security.
"Daniel. Take the decanter and the glass. Nothing gets washed. Nothing gets thrown away."
"Yes, sir."
"And call Dr. Mercer."
Celeste shook her head.
"This is ridiculous."
Adrian ignored her.
Marcus lowered his voice.
"There may be another issue."
Ethan noticed immediately.
"What?"
Marcus hesitated.
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
"Say it."
Marcus looked around the room.
"The revised trust documents were scheduled to be signed tonight."
A silence even heavier than before settled over the table.
Nora didn't understand.
Ethan did.
His expression hardened.
"What revised trust?"
Adrian looked at his son.
"That discussion can wait."
"No. I think it can't."
Celeste suddenly turned away.
And again, Nora caught it.
That same look.
Across the ballroom.
Toward the far corner near the orchestra.
Nora followed her gaze.
A man stood there.
Mid-forties.
Tuxedo.
Champagne glass in one hand.
Watching them.
The instant Nora looked at him —
he smiled.
Then calmly disappeared into the crowd.
