Chapter 1 - The First Drop
The heavy air in the dining room felt thick enough to suffocate everyone present. Jax stood over the shattered remains of the grandfather clock, his knuckles stinging from the sudden impact. The other man, Marcus, groaned on the polished floor, clutching a bruised jaw. Across the room, Grandmother Eleanor clutched the crystal decanter of red wine to her chest as if it were a shield, her elegant pearls trembling against her gold beaded dress. Near the doorway, little Lily buried her face in the white cardigan of her nurse, sobbing quietly after repeating those chilling words.
Jax took a slow, heavy breath, ignoring the hot rage pulsing through the ink-stained tattoos on his hands. He stepped over the scattered debris of porcelain plates and advanced toward his mother with a terrifying, calculated calm.
“Put the decanter down, Mother,” Jax said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous register that commanded absolute obedience. “Or I will break more than just a clock tonight.”
Eleanor backed away until her spine hit the mahogany sideboard, her eyes wide with a mixture of fear and calculated defiance. “You are out of your mind, Jax! This is a family gathering, not a roadside execution!”
“Family?” Jax laughed, a harsh, humorless sound. “You and Katherine tried to poison my child’s mind, and quite possibly my drink. You wanted me dead, didn't you? So the board would vote you back into absolute control.”
“That is an absurd lie!” Eleanor spat back, her chin held high despite her trembling hands. “The girl misheard a casual remark about your health. You are paranoid, Jax, just like your father before you.”
“My father died under very similar mysterious circumstances at this exact table,” Jax reminded her, stepping closer until he could smell the expensive French perfume masking the scent of panic. “Now, I am going to ask you one last time. You have to drink this entire bottle of wine right here, right now.”
Marcus pushed himself up from the floor, wiping a smear of blood from his lip. “Don't do it, Eleanor. He’s bluffing. He wouldn't dare poison his own mother in front of witnesses.”
Jax didn't even look back at Marcus. He kept his dark eyes locked on his mother, his expression carved from stone. “Try me.”
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Eleanor looked at the dark red liquid swirling inside the heavy crystal. A single droplet leaked past the glass stopper, staining her manicured thumb. She looked up at her son, seeing a stranger where a malleable boy used to be. Slowly, with shaking fingers, she began to twist the stopper loose.
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