Chapter 1 - The Kick
The maid kicked the bride so hard the wedding cake shook.
Someone screamed. Crystal glasses jumped. And Olivia Whitmore, beautiful in pearl-white silk and a long lace veil, flew backward under the chandeliers like a doll somebody had thrown away.
"Murderer!" a guest yelled.
The maid landed on one knee, black shoes scraping the marble. Her short white apron fluttered around her. She looked neither shocked nor sorry. She looked at Olivia's right hand.
"Don't touch her!" she shouted.
Ethan Whitmore was already moving. His charcoal-gray vest pulled tight as he shoved past a ring of guests. He had married Olivia thirteen minutes ago. Now her blonde updo had loosened against the floor, and her eyes were closed.
"You crazy bitch!" he roared at the maid. "What did you do?"
"I saved her," the maid said.
He grabbed her collar. "From what?"
The maid's gaze flicked toward the gilded staircase. A little girl in a pink dress clung to the rail. Her brown hair covered half her face, but Ethan could see the terror in her hazel eyes.
"From the thing she was about to pick up," the maid whispered.
Olivia's diamond-ringed fingers lay open beside the folds of her gown. An uncapped syringe rested an inch away. A smear of amber liquid stained its barrel. Ethan had seen that color once before, in a hospital room where his older brother had died.
A man in a burgundy tie bent to retrieve it.
"Back off!" the maid snapped.
The man's hand froze. Ethan recognized him: Dr. Adrian Vale, the Whitmore family's physician. Vale gave a polite, almost tired smile.
"It's probably nothing," he said. "Let me dispose of it."
The maid shot upright and slapped his wrist away. The syringe spun across the marble toward the orchestra platform. Ethan heard an ugly tiny crack.
"Everybody stay where you are," the maid ordered.
"Who are you?" Ethan demanded.
She looked straight at him. "Mara Bennett. And if you want your wife alive, stop trusting the doctor."
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At the foot of the stairs, the little girl lifted one shaking hand and pointed at Ethan's father.
"He told me," she whispered, "that the bride had to die.
