The Poisoned Table

​The signature on the screen blurred as tears of hot, stinging fury pricked my eyes. Liam Sterling. His elegant, arrogant script was unmistakable. He hadn't been surprised at the flower shop. He hadn't been "frozen" by the sight of Mia. It had all been an act—a cold, calculated performance to bring the "spare" back into the vault once the heir started to malfunction.

​"Mommy? Why are you crying?"

​I jumped, nearly knocking the monitor over. I slammed the laptop shut and turned to see Mia standing there, clutching her blue rabbit. Leo was a few feet behind her, watching me with those haunting, hollow eyes.

​"I'm okay, baby," I lied, my voice cracking. "Just... some dust in my eyes. Go on, get your pretty dress on. We have to have dinner with your... with the family."

​The word family felt like ash in my mouth.

​I spent the next hour in a daze, dressing Mia in her best floral dress and straightening Leo’s stiff collar. I caught my reflection in the gilded mirror: a woman in a borrowed silk dress that Liam had sent over, looking like a trophy while feeling like a prisoner.

​The dining room was a cathedral of cold marble. A long, mahogany table stretched between us, lit by a chandelier that looked like falling shards of ice.

​Liam sat at the head, the king of his hollow empire. Eleanor sat to his right, her posture as straight as a blade. To my horror, Vanessa was there too, seated next to Liam, her hand resting possessively near his.

​I sat at the far end with the children. The distance felt intentional.

​"A toast," Eleanor said, raising a glass of dark red wine that looked suspiciously like blood. "To the reunification of the Sterling bloodline. May we move past the... irregularities of the past."

​"Irregularities?" I challenged, my voice ringing out louder than I intended. I looked directly at Liam. He was staring at me, his expression unreadable. "Is that what you call a daughter you abandoned for five years?"

​The clinking of silverware stopped. Vanessa smirked behind her wine glass.

​"Nora," Liam said, his voice a low warning. "Not tonight."

​"Then when, Liam? When the next contract is signed? Or when you decide which twin is more 'useful' to the firm?"

​Liam’s eyes flashed with a sudden, sharp anger. "I brought you here to care for the children, not to interrogate me at my mother’s table."

​"I saw the file, Liam," I whispered. The table went deathly silent.

​I saw Eleanor’s hand tremble slightly as she set her glass down. Liam’s brow furrowed.

​"What file?" he asked.

​"Project Gemini," I spat. "I know you signed the order. I know you knew about Mia from the second she was conceived. The 'shock' in my shop was a lie. You just wanted her back because Leo stopped talking, didn't you? She’s just a spare part to you!"

​Liam stood up so abruptly his chair screeched against the marble. "I have no idea what you’re talking about. I saw those twins for the first time together five years ago in the Hamptons—"

​"Liar!" I screamed, pulling the flash drive from my pocket and throwing it onto the table. It skittered across the wood, stopping right in front of him. "Check the signature. Check the date."

​Liam picked up the drive, his face pale. But before he could speak, Eleanor laughed. It was a dry, rattling sound.

​"Liam, don't be tedious," Eleanor said, cutting into her steak with surgical precision. "Of course you signed it. You sign hundreds of papers a day. You trusted your mother to handle the 'logistics' of your legacy. I simply ensured that the Sterling name wasn't diluted by... emotional excess."

​Liam looked at his mother, then back at the drive. "You told me the second twin died in utero. You showed me the medical report."

​"I showed you what was necessary for the empire to thrive," Eleanor said, her eyes turning to me with a chilling lack of remorse. "And now, Nora has brought the evidence herself. How helpful."

​"You monster," I breathed, looking at Eleanor.

​But then, the most unexpected thing happened.

​Leo, who hadn't made a sound in two years, suddenly dropped his silver fork. The clang echoed like a gunshot. He stood up on his chair, his small face contorted. He reached out and grabbed Mia’s hand, pulling her toward him.

​Then, he looked directly at Liam.

​"Bad," Leo croaked. It was a tiny, raspy sound, but in that silent room, it was a thunderclap. "Bad... man."

​Liam looked like he had been struck by lightning. "Leo? You... you spoke?"

​But Leo didn't look happy. He looked terrified. He scrambled off the chair, dragging Mia with him toward the heavy velvet curtains at the end of the room.

​"Leo, wait!" I cried, starting to rise.

​Suddenly, the lights in the penthouse flickered and died. The entire city skyline outside the windows seemed to vanish as a blackout plunged us into total darkness.

​"Liam!" Vanessa shrieked.

​In the shadows, I heard the sound of a heavy glass door sliding open—the balcony. A rush of cold, night air blasted into the room.

​"The children!" I screamed, lunging toward where I had last seen them.

​When the emergency lights kicked in ten seconds later, the room was empty. The balcony door was wide open, the curtains fluttering in the wind.

​Leo and Mia were gone.

​And on the mahogany table, in the spot where the children had been sitting, lay a single, dead white lily—the signature flower of my shop—with a note pinned to it through a gold dagger.

​The debt isn't paid until the blood is returned.

​The twins have been snatched from the heart of the Sterling fortress. Is it a kidnapping, or has the "Secret Enemy" finally made their move? And whose blood is the note demanding?