Chapter 2 - THE CAMERA THAT SAW EVERYTHING
Alejandro’s fingers tightened around my wrist.
For one terrifying second, I thought I had hurt him.
Then he sucked in a breath.
It was thin.
Broken.
But it was air.
His chest rose again.
The guard beside me stared as if I had performed a miracle.
I hadn’t.
Mama had taught me what to do.
That was all.
Blue to the sky.
Orange to the thigh.
Ten seconds.
Then get help.
“Call an ambulance!” I screamed.
Nobody moved.
The guard who had grabbed me was still looking at the bookshelf.
At the tiny red light.
At the camera.
His face had become pale.
Alejandro dragged in another breath.
His hand stayed locked around mine.
“Camera,” he rasped.
The guard flinched.
That was when the second guard moved.
His name was Mateo, and unlike the first man, he did not look frightened by the camera.
He looked furious.
He drew his pistol.
“Rafael.”
The first guard slowly turned.
“What?”
“Step away from the door.”
Rafael laughed nervously.
“Are you insane? The boss is dying.”
“He’s breathing.”
“Barely.”
“And you’re watching the camera instead of helping him.”
Rafael’s face changed.
I did not understand everything adults understood.
But I understood guilty.
Children learn guilty very early.
It is the look grown-ups make when they have broken something and hope you will blame the dog.
Rafael took one step backward.
Mateo raised his gun.
“Don’t.”
Footsteps thundered through the hallway.
Three more guards rushed inside.
Then Mama appeared behind them.
Her hair had come loose from its bun.
Her face was white.
“Emma!”
I had never heard my name sound like that.
She pushed past everyone and dropped beside me.
“What happened?”
“I used my EpiPen.”
Her eyes moved to the empty injector in my hand.
Her expression changed.
“That was your last one.”
“He couldn’t breathe.”
Mama looked at Alejandro.
He was struggling upright now.
His breathing was still rough, but the gray color had begun leaving his face.
“You did exactly right,” Mama whispered.
She kissed my forehead so hard it hurt.
Behind us, Mateo repeated, “Rafael. Hands where I can see them.”
Rafael’s eyes moved toward the door.
Alejandro noticed.
Even half-conscious, he noticed everything.
“Lock…” he rasped.
Mateo leaned closer.
“What?”
“The house.”
Mateo straightened.
“Lock down every exit. Nobody leaves.”
Rafael stared at Alejandro.
“Boss, you don’t know what happened.”
Alejandro’s eyes found him.
No one in that room needed to be told that the dying man on the carpet was becoming Alejandro Moretti again.
“I know enough.”
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Rafael took another step.
Then he ran.
He made it three feet.
Mateo tackled him into the wall.
A gun clattered across the floor.
Mama pulled me against her chest.
“Don’t look.”
I looked anyway.
Rafael struggled until two guards pinned him down.
“I didn’t poison anything!”
Nobody had accused him yet.
That made the room go quiet.
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed.
Mateo slowly turned.
“What did you say?”
Rafael stopped fighting.
“I mean—obviously somebody poisoned him.”
Mama looked at me.
I looked at the wine.
The bitter smell still sat in the room.
Wrong.
Sharp.
Medicine and almonds and something metallic.
Paramedics arrived minutes later.
They placed Alejandro on oxygen.
One of them asked who administered the epinephrine.
Every adult pointed at me.
The paramedic stared.
“You?”
I nodded.
“How old are you?”
“Four.”
He blinked.
“Of course you are.”
Mama almost laughed.
Almost.
Alejandro was placed on a stretcher.
Before they carried him out, he reached toward me.
I stepped closer.
His voice was still weak.
“You saved my life.”
I held my rabbit backpack straps.
“Mama says if somebody can’t breathe, you help.”
His eyes moved to Mama.
Then back to me.
“Your mama is smart.”
“I know.”
A tiny smile touched his mouth.
Then the stretcher rolled away.
The moment Alejandro was gone, the mansion changed.
Everyone started talking at once.
Security sealed doors.
Phones rang.
Staff were ordered into the dining room.
Nobody was allowed to leave.
Mateo took charge.
He had been Alejandro’s chief personal guard for nine years, and apparently that meant nobody argued when he spoke.
Except Mama.
“We’re going to the hospital.”
“No.”
Mama’s head snapped toward him.
“My daughter injected herself’s emergency medication into your employer. We need a replacement tonight.”
Mateo hesitated.
That was enough.
Mama stepped closer.
“Emma has a severe peanut allergy. That EpiPen was the only one I could afford after the insurance company rejected the replacement. If she has a reaction tonight, what exactly do you suggest I use?”
Mateo’s face hardened.
Not at her.
At the situation.
“I’ll have a doctor bring two.”
“Three.”
He blinked.
Mama folded her arms.
“One for the basement room. One for her backpack. One for school.”
Mateo almost smiled.
“Three.”
I liked Mama when she negotiated.
She could make kings nervous.
An hour later, a doctor arrived with four EpiPens.
Mama said nothing.
Neither did Mateo.
But I saw them exchange a look.
The mansion security team recovered the study footage before midnight.
Nobody let me watch.
I was sitting on Mama’s lap in the kitchen eating toast when Mateo entered.
He looked exhausted.
Mama stood.
“What did you find?”
Mateo glanced at me.
Then at her.
“You should come upstairs.”
“I’m not leaving Emma.”
“She comes too.”
The surveillance room was in the basement behind a steel door I had always thought contained boring electrical equipment.
There were twelve monitors.
Alejandro appeared on one.
The recording had begun at 8:42 p.m.
He entered the study alone.
He sat.
He read documents.
At 8:57, Rafael came inside carrying a tray.
On it was one wineglass and an unopened bottle.
Rafael poured the wine.
Alejandro said something.
Rafael smiled.
Then left.
Nothing suspicious.
Mama frowned.
“That doesn’t prove anything.”
Mateo fast-forwarded.
At 9:11, a woman entered.
My stomach tightened.
I knew her.
Everyone did.
Vivienne Moretti.
Alejandro’s fiancée.
She was tall, blond, beautiful, and always smelled like expensive flowers.
She had never once looked directly at me.
On the screen, she kissed Alejandro’s cheek.
They spoke.
She laughed.
He stood and walked toward the bookshelves.
While his back was turned, Vivienne reached into her purse.
She took out something small.
A vial.
Mama stopped breathing.
Vivienne emptied it into the wine.
Mateo froze the image.
There was no sound in the room.
None.
Then another figure appeared at the study door.
Rafael.
He saw her.
Vivienne saw him.
Neither looked surprised.
They spoke briefly.
Then Rafael closed the door.
Alejandro returned to the desk.
Vivienne handed him the glass.
He drank.
My stomach hurt.
Even though I knew he survived, watching it felt like seeing him die again.
Mateo stopped the footage.
Mama whispered, “My God.”
The door behind us opened.
Every guard straightened.
Alejandro stood there.
Hospital bracelet still around his wrist.
Black coat over his shirt.
Face pale.
But alive.
Mateo stared.
“You left the hospital?”
“They wanted to keep me overnight.”
“They generally do that after attempted murder.”
“I got bored.”
Mama looked at him as if he had lost his mind.
Alejandro’s eyes went to the monitor.
Vivienne’s frozen face filled the screen.
Something inside him seemed to break.
Not visibly.
Alejandro Moretti did not break visibly.
But I saw it.
He had trusted her.
That hurt worse than poison.
He looked at Mateo.
“Where is Rafael?”
“Secured downstairs.”
“And Vivienne?”
“Her room is empty.”
Alejandro went still.
“What?”
“Security searched the house.”
“She’s gone.”
“How?”
Mateo hesitated.
“Someone opened the east service gate eleven minutes before the lockdown.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
Alejandro looked at the screen again.
Then he noticed me.
I was standing beside Mama clutching my pink backpack.
His expression softened.
“You should be asleep.”
I answered, “You should be in the hospital.”
Mateo coughed into his fist.
Mama closed her eyes.
Alejandro stared at me.
Then, impossibly, he smiled.
“Fair.”
He came closer and crouched.
I noticed his hands were shaking.
Just a little.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“If you hadn’t come into the study tonight…”
He stopped.
I knew what he meant.
“You would have gone to heaven.”
His eyes closed briefly.
“Yes.”
I reached into my backpack.
I pulled out my stuffed rabbit.
Mr. Buttons.
His left ear was bent because I slept on it too much.
I held him toward Alejandro.
“You can borrow him.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“Why?”
“He helps when scary things happen.”
Alejandro looked at Mama.
Mama looked like she might cry.
Then Alejandro took the rabbit.
Very carefully.
“Thank you.”
“You have to give him back.”
“I understand.”
Another guard rushed into the room.
“Sir.”
Alejandro stood.
“What?”
“We searched Vivienne’s suite.”
“And?”
The guard held out a photograph.
Alejandro took it.
His face went cold.
Mama leaned closer.
I could not see everything, but I saw enough.
It was a picture of Mama and me.
Walking outside my preschool.
Taken from across the street.
On the back, someone had written:
THE MAID KNOWS TOO MUCH.
Alejandro looked at Mama.
“What do you know?”
Mama went pale.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But her voice shook.
Alejandro saw it.
So did I.
And suddenly I realized something worse than the woman poisoning his wine.
May you like
Mama was hiding something too.
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