Chapter 8 - THE DRUGGED GLASS
Adrian stopped two feet from Bianca, his dark eyes searching his sister’s face with a horrifying realization.
"Almonds..." Adrian whispered, his jaw clenching so hard a muscle twitched near his temple. "Cyanide? No... Sedatives. Chloral hydrate."
"I woke up in the dark," Evelyn continued, her thin finger pointing weakly at Bianca’s cream dress. "I couldn't scream. I couldn't move my legs. I heard the floorboards above me being nailed shut while the wedding music was playing downstairs."
Bianca took a step back, her heel catching on the edge of the hallway runner rug, sending her stumbling against the wood paneling. "That's a lie! You're crazy! Adrian, she's trying to turn you against your own blood!"
"Why, Bianca?" Adrian roared, the sudden blast of his voice causing the glass lamps in the suite to rattle on their stands. "WHY?"
Evelyn leaned closer to Adrian’s shoulder, her eyes dropping toward the opened floor space where the white veil still lay.
"Because of the trust fund," Evelyn said softly. "The terms of your grandfather’s will. If you married before your thirty-fifth birthday, ninety percent of the Vance estate transferred to your bride. If you remained unmarried... control stayed with the family trustee."
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Adrian turned his head slowly, looking at Bianca. "The trustee... was you."
Bianca’s breath hitched in her chest. She backed away toward the top of the grand staircase, her eyes filled with the desperate, trapped terror of a predator that had suddenly become the prey.
