She paused, then walked in. “I just wanted some water.” Nicholas didn’t say anything.
He just gestured to the stool across from him. Sarah poured herself a glass of water and sat down, keeping a respectful distance. For a long time, neither of them spoke. Just the ticking of a clock and the sound of their breathing. Then Nicholas spoke.
His voice was low and tired. “You’re different from the others.” Sarah waited for him to continue.
He took a sip of his drink. “All those doctors… they looked at me with fear. Like I was a monster they had to appease. But you don’t. You look at me like…”
He trailed off, but Sarah understood. “Should I be afraid?” she asked. Nicholas looked at her.
His gray eyes were deep in the shadows. “Most people are. Most people know it’s safer that way.”
Sarah set her glass down. “I’ve been through worse things than a wealthy man with a temper, Nicholas.” Her answer seemed to surprise him.
He tilted his head. “Worse things?” Sarah hesitated.
She didn’t talk about her past often. Those memories were scars she kept hidden. But something about the dark kitchen and the vulnerability in the man across from her made her lower her guard. “I grew up in seven different foster homes,” she said softly. “Some of them were… unkind.” She didn’t mention the hunger or the cold rooms.
But Nicholas understood. She saw it in his eyes. The silence that followed wasn’t awkward; it was the kind of silence that happens when two strangers find common ground. “Is that why you work at the city hospital?” Nicholas asked. “Helping the people no one else cares about?”
Sarah nodded. “I know what it’s like to be in pain and have no one listen. To be invisible. I don’t want anyone else to feel that. Especially not a child.”
Nicholas watched her. And for the first time, his gaze wasn’t cold. It wasn’t pity, either—she hated pity. It was respect. He really saw her.
He stood up and put his glass in the sink. “You’re not what I expected, Ms. Jenkins.”
Sarah looked up at him. “Neither are you, Mr. Bennett.” He walked toward the door but stopped at the threshold.
Without turning around, he said, “Nicholas. Call me Nicholas.” Sarah smiled slightly. “Goodnight, Nicholas.”
He left, his tall frame disappearing into the dark hallway. But before he was gone, he looked back at her one last time. Sarah realized then that something had shifted. For the first time in years, Nicholas Bennett felt a flicker of warmth in his chest.
The next morning, Sarah woke up early. She went straight to the nursery to check on Mikey. Without the silk pillow, he had actually slept for several hours, and his crying had quieted significantly.
His skin was still red, but he wasn’t arching his back in agony anymore. It was proof she was on the right track. She was examining him when her phone buzzed.
It was Mary. Sarah stepped into the hall to answer. “Mary? Do you have the results?”
Mary’s voice was incredibly serious. “Sarah, you need to sit down.” Sarah felt a chill.
“Just tell me.” Mary took a breath. “That fabric sample… it’s saturated with a delayed-release dermal irritant.”
“It’s industrial-grade. The kind that causes chronic skin inflammation and intense nerve pain with prolonged contact. This isn’t something you buy at a hardware store. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing.”
Sarah stood frozen. “Someone was poisoning the baby?” “Not to kill him immediately,” Mary confirmed, her voice full of disgust.
“But to make him suffer. Slowly. Painfully. Over months. If he’d stayed in contact with it, it could have caused permanent nerve damage. Whoever did this wanted maximum suffering with minimum evidence.”
Sarah felt sick. Someone was intentionally torturing a ten-month-old baby. “Thanks, Mary. I owe you big time.”
She hung up and took a moment to steady her anger. Then she went to find Nicholas. The mansion was a maze.
In her haste, she took a wrong turn and ended up in a wing of the house she hadn’t seen. The hallway here was darker, more utilitarian. The air felt heavy.
She was about to turn back when she heard voices behind a heavy door. Nicholas’s voice, but it sounded different—colder, more lethal.
She shouldn’t have looked, but she did. She peeked through a crack in the door. The room looked like a high-tech security office. Nicholas was standing there, his face like ice.
A man was sitting in a chair across from him, looking terrified. Two large men in suits stood by the door. “I asked you a simple question,” Nicholas said, his voice so calm it was terrifying. “Where is the missing shipment?”
Sarah realized then that Nicholas wasn’t just a businessman. The rumors she’d heard about the “grayer” side of the Bennett empire were true. She started to back away when a hand landed on her shoulder.
It was Max, Nicholas’s head of security. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said firmly. “This area is off-limits.”
Sarah didn’t flinch. “I don’t care about his business!” she snapped. “His son is being poisoned. I have proof. Let me in.”
Max hesitated, but the word “poisoned” stopped him. He opened the door. Nicholas looked up, surprised to see Sarah. He signaled for the other man to be taken out, and the room cleared. “Ms. Jenkins,” Nicholas said, his voice still carrying the edge of his interrogation. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“The pillow,” Sarah said, ignoring him. “It’s soaked in an industrial irritant. Someone has been poisoning Mikey for two months.”
Nicholas froze. For a second, he just stared at her. Then the storm hit. He turned and slammed his fist into the mahogany desk with enough force to crack the wood.
“Who?” he roared, his voice shaking the room. “Who touched my son?” The rage of a man like Nicholas Bennett was a terrifying thing.
But Sarah stood her ground. She waited for the initial explosion to pass. When he finally looked at her, he was breathing hard. “Who sent that pillow?”
“I don’t know yet, but we can find out. Check the delivery records.” Nicholas pulled out his phone and made a call. Minutes later, Steven appeared, looking pale.
“Steven,” Nicholas said, his voice like a razor. “The ivory pillow in the nursery. Find out where it came from. Now.”
Steven hurried off and returned ten minutes later with a tablet, his hands shaking. “Sir, I found the order. It was purchased from ‘Elysian Silks’ two months ago.”
“And?” Nicholas stepped closer. “Who ordered it?”
Steven swallowed hard. “The order was placed through an account belonging to Mrs. Eleanor Bennett. Sir.”
Dead silence filled the room. Sarah looked at Nicholas and saw his face turn into a mask of stone. But his eyes were a hurricane. He stood perfectly still, looking toward the wing of the house where his mother lived. “Leave us,” he said quietly.
“Everyone. Now.” Steven and Max scrambled out. Sarah stayed, unsure if she should go.
Nicholas turned to her, and for a second, she didn’t see a powerful mogul. she saw a man who had just been betrayed by his own mother. “Thank you, Sarah,” he said quietly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with my mother.”
Nicholas walked out of the room with heavy, deliberate steps. He pulled out his phone and called Max. “Lock down the estate. No one in or out. I mean no one. Put guards at every exit. If my mother tries to leave, stop her.”
He hung up and stood with his back to Sarah for a moment. His shoulders were tight. Sarah could feel the storm brewing inside him. A mix of fury and the pain of betrayal.
Katherine came running down the hall, looking frantic. “Nicholas! What’s happening? Someone told me… they said Mikey was poisoned? Tell me it’s not true.”
Nicholas didn’t turn around. He didn’t answer. He just stared out the window. Katherine turned to Sarah, her eyes full of desperation. “Is it true? Who would do this to a baby?”
Sarah took a deep breath. She didn’t want to be the one to say it. But Katherine deserved the truth.
“The pillow in the crib was the source,” Sarah said gently. “It was treated with a chemical irritant. And the records show it was ordered by your mother-in-law.”
Katherine froze. “Eleanor?” she whispered, horror dawning on her face. “No, that’s impossible. She’s his grandmother. She held him when he was born. She… she wouldn’t.”
“Is it really impossible, Kate?”
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