Chapter 6 - The Doctor's Envelope.
Dr. Nathan Hart's clinic occupied the top floor of a discreet medical building on East Sixty-Seventh Street.
At eight in the morning, it was supposed to be closed.
At eight fourteen, Lorenzo walked through the front doors with Marco, Serena, Elena, and Mia behind him.
No one stopped them.
That was because the receptionist desk was empty.
The lights were on.
Coffee sat warm in a paper cup.
A computer monitor glowed behind the desk.
Someone had been there recently.
Marco looked toward the hallway.
"Stay here."
Lorenzo ignored him and walked forward.
Every exam room stood open.
Cabinets had been emptied.
Files were gone.
The office looked less abandoned than erased.
Serena stood in the doorway of Hart's private office.
"This isn't right."
Lorenzo looked at her.
"You came here before?"
"Twice."
"Without me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
She closed her eyes for a moment.
"Because he told me your condition was getting worse."
"He told me the opposite."
"I know that now."
Lorenzo stepped into the office.
The desk drawers were open.
A framed medical diploma remained on the wall.
Everything personal had been removed.
No photographs.
No books.
No jacket.
No spare shoes beneath the desk.
Someone had known not to return.
Marco entered carrying a small plastic bag.
Inside was a torn piece of paper.
"Found this behind the shredder."
Lorenzo unfolded it.
Most of the page had been destroyed.
Three lines remained readable.
Patient: Lorenzo Duca.
Consult requested by S. Romano.
Protocol: discreet administration.
Serena stared at the paper.
"S. Romano could be me."
"Or your father."
"Or someone wanted it to look like either of us."
Lorenzo glanced at her.
"You're learning."
She almost smiled.
Then Mia made a quiet sound near the doorway.
The girl was looking at a photograph mounted beside the clinic's licenses.
It showed Dr. Hart at a charity dinner with several donors.
Mia pointed at a man standing behind him.
Gray suit.
Silver hair.
Half turned from the camera.
Elena moved closer.
"Do you know him?"
Mia shook her head.
Then she pointed at his hand.
A silver key hung from his fingers.
Not literally the estate key.
A decorative key-shaped charity pin.
Lorenzo leaned closer to the photograph.
The man was Victor Romano.
Salvatore's younger brother.
Serena's uncle.
Victor rarely appeared at family events.
He managed trusts, property companies, and the quiet legal structures that allowed powerful families to own things without appearing to own them.
He also held the Romano seat on the incapacity review board listed in section nine.
Serena whispered.
"Uncle Victor funded this clinic."
Lorenzo looked at her.
"You forgot to mention that."
"I didn't know."
"How many things don't you know about your own family?"
Her eyes flashed.
"How many things don't you know about yours?"
The question hung between them.
Marco interrupted.
"Boss, I found something on the computer."
The receptionist had left her account logged in.
Most patient files had been removed from the clinic's central system.
One appointment record remained in the deleted folder.
It showed a private consultation between Hart and Victor Romano four months earlier.
The same week Lorenzo's hearing problems began.
A second appointment involved Celeste Moretti.
Three days later.
Lorenzo stared at the screen.
"Why would my household manager meet my hearing specialist?"
Serena answered quietly.
"Because she controlled what entered your dining room."
Elena looked at her sharply.
Serena turned.
"What?"
"You knew where he kept the drops."
"He gave them directly to me."
"How many times?"
"Three."
"And when you ran out?"
Serena paused.
"I called his office."
"Who brought the next bottle?"
Her face changed.
"Celeste."
Lorenzo's voice was flat.
"You let my house manager deliver secret medication from a doctor I never authorized."
"I thought it was treatment."
"You keep saying that as if repeating it changes what you did."
Serena looked away.
The shame in her face seemed genuine.
Lorenzo did not know whether that made things better or worse.
Marco's phone rang.
He listened for less than twenty seconds.
Then he looked at Lorenzo.
"Lab called."
The room became still.
"They found a nonstandard compound in the wine."
Serena's hand went to her mouth.
"What does that mean?"
Marco glanced at Elena and Mia.
"It means Dr. Vale was right to be concerned."
Lorenzo's expression did not change.
"Can it explain the hearing problems?"
"They say it's possible, but they want a medical toxicologist to confirm."
Lorenzo nodded once.
"Send everything to Vale."
"Already did."
Serena sank into a chair.
For the first time since the party, she looked less like a Romano daughter and more like a woman realizing the full shape of her own mistake.
"I gave that to you."
Lorenzo did not answer.
"I actually gave it to you."
"Yes."
"I thought it was helping."
"I know what you thought."
"Do you?"
She looked up at him.
"Because you never slept."
Her voice trembled, but she kept it low.
"You would wake up at three in the morning and walk the halls because you thought someone was coming for you."
"Sometimes someone was."
"You stopped eating during negotiations."
"I was busy."
"You nearly collapsed in your office last winter."
"And none of that gave you the right to medicate me without telling me."
Serena looked down.
"No."
It was the first answer she had given that did not defend itself.
Mia walked toward her.
Everyone watched.
Serena looked at the girl with visible fear.
Mia pointed at Serena's purse.
Serena frowned.
"What?"
Mia pointed again.
Serena slowly opened it.
Inside were her phone, lipstick, keys, and a folded tissue.
Mia reached toward the side pocket.
Lorenzo stopped her gently.
"I'll do it."
He reached inside.
His fingers closed around a small paper envelope.
Serena stared at it.
"That's not mine."
Lorenzo opened it.
Inside was a memory card.
Marco inserted it into the clinic computer.
A single video file appeared.
The timestamp was from the previous evening.
The image showed the Duca estate service pantry.
Serena stood beside Lorenzo's wine glass.
She removed a small bottle from her purse and added several drops.
The camera angle was perfect.
Too perfect.
Then another person entered the frame.
Celeste Moretti.
She took the bottle from Serena.
Serena left.
Celeste waited three seconds.
Then she opened a drawer, removed a second bottle, and added something else to the same glass.
Serena stopped breathing.
Lorenzo stared at the frozen image.
The child had told the truth.
Serena had put something in his drink.
But she had not been the last person to touch it.
May you like
And Celeste had known exactly where the camera was.
Because she looked directly into the lens and smiled.
