Chapter 10
Nestor froze, his gaze shifting to the entryway behind him. The front doors stood quietly shut, not a sound from the other side.%
He glanced at the gift box in the server’s hands but didn’t take it. Without thinking, he asked,%
““Where’s Daphne? Why didn’t she come herself?”
The server wore a practiced smile, giving a polite shake of the head and still holding the box out. “Ms. Sterling is simply our employer, sir. We have no authority to question her whereabouts.”
Josephine reached over and took the box, glancing at it with casual curiosity. She didn’t notice anything unusual and turned back to Nestor, chiding him, “You’re acting so strange today, distracted and distant. And Daphne didn’t even bother to show up.“%
Once the server saw the box had been delivered, he nodded and quietly slipped away.
Nestor wanted to press for more answers, but Josephine’s voice snapped him out of his daze, reminding him where he was–and who he was supposed to be.% He turned back just in time to see Josephine lifting the lid off the box. A moment later, her scream split the air.%
“Aaah!”
The instant she saw what was inside, pure panic took over. She reflexively flung the box away from her as if it had burned her.%
The guests‘ attention snapped to the commotion. With a dull thud, the contents of the box tumbled onto the gleaming floor, unmistakable for all to see two small, lifeless fetuses.
Chaos erupted at once.
What the hell is that?!“%
what
“Oh my God–is that… a fetus?“}
“Twins? Stillborn twins? Who would send something like this? On someone’s anniversary? Are they insane?“%
Josephine’s face had gone ghostly pale, her breathing ragged, hands trembling uncontrollably.%
“Why would my sister send us this? What does she mean by it?” Her voice cracked with terror and confusion. Instinctively, she turned to Nestor for reassurance–but when she saw his face, it was even paler than hers.
“Honey… honey, are you okay?” she stammered, reaching for his hand. His skin was ice–cold to the touch.%
The moment Nestor saw those two tiny bodies, his mind exploded with a single, blinding thought:
Daphne was pregnant.
But why would she end the pregnancy–and why would she send the remains here?%
A dreadful certainty began to crawl up from deep inside him. He fumbled for his phone, found Daphne’s number, and called. The phone rang and rang, but never connected–only a recorded message said the line was unavailable.
He called again. And again. Each time, the same empty tone.”
Had she blocked him?%
Josephine, still left without any answer, saw Daphne’s name glowing on his screen. Her anger boiled over, obliterating every shred of composure. She tore the phone from his hands and hurled it across the room.
“Leonardo, what is wrong with you? She sent this horrific thing to ruin our party, and you’re still calling her?”
She was screaming now, wild and unrestrained, oblivious to the guests who now watched in stunned silence.
Nobody knew where to look or what to say. Should they leave? Should they stay? Uncertainty hung thick in the air, people shrank into the background, desperate to disappear
Nestor, his mind still recling, watched in a daze as his phone shattered on the marble. Only Josephine’s shrill voice broke through the fog, and when he finally looked at her, her face was twisted with rage–a side of her he had never seen before.
Maybe the real Leonardo had never seen it, either.
He stared blankly at the broken phone, then at Josephine–now suddenly unfamiliar to him. His reason slowly returned, but he simply gazed at her, wordless! Maybe she sensed her own loss of control. Or maybe it was the heavy silence pressing in from all sides. Her expression shifted to one of wounded accusation, meeting his eyes as if sdently blaming him for not coming to her defense
