Chapter 2 - A NEEDLE IN THE DARKWithout losing a second, Emma turned and ran. Her little legs churned down the stairs, racing back to the dark basement room. She threw open her pink rabbit backpack, unzipping the inner compartment, and grabbed the EpiPen auto-injector inside.
It was her very last EpiPen.
Just that morning, her mother had carefully tucked it into the bag, holding Emma’s hands with tearful eyes: "Emma, this is your only spare. I can't afford another one right now. Never use it unless you cannot breathe, do you understand?"
Emma stared at the injector in her trembling hands. It was her guardian angel. If she used it now, what would happen the next time she suffered an allergic reaction? Where would Mama get the money to buy another?
But then the image of Alejandro’s desperate eyes and purple lips flashed in her mind. Upstairs, he couldn't breathe at all.
Emma bit her lip, squeezed the injector tightly, and sprinted back up the stairs with all the strength her tiny body possessed.
When she burst back into the study, two towering guards were already standing over the fallen tycoon. One of them spotted Emma, instantly grabbing her arm and hauling her backward. "Where did this kid come from? Get out of here!"
"Let go of me!" Emma cried out, holding the injector high. "He needs this! He can't breathe!"
The guard glided his eyes over the EpiPen, then down to Alejandro, who was slipping into unconsciousness. A cold, strange flicker passed through the guard's eyes. He tightened his grip on Emma’s wrist. "You touch him, and your mother loses her job. You’ll both be thrown into the streets."
The threat hit Emma like a bucket of ice water. Her mother. The basement room. The meals her mother skipped just so Emma could eat. If Mama lost her job, they would have nowhere to go.
Emma hesitated for a single second. But looking past the guard, she saw Alejandro’s fingers stop clawing. His eyes were drifting shut. Death was closing in on him.
In that instant, fear evaporated, replaced by a fierce, instinctual bravery.
"Then fire her!"
Emma twisted her body and bit down hard on the guard’s hand. The man roared in pain and let go. Emma dropped to her knees beside Alejandro. She ripped off the blue safety cap, reciting the chant her mother had rehearsed a hundred times: Blue to the sky, orange to the thigh!
"Stop her!" the guard screamed.
CLICK!
The sharp mechanical crack sliced through the silent room. The needle drove through the heavy trousers, plunging deep into Alejandro’s outer thigh.
"One… two… three…" Emma counted loudly, pressing down with both hands.
One second… two seconds… three seconds passed in agonizing silence. Alejandro remained motionless.
Emma’s face turned pale. Her heart sank into her stomach: Did I fail?
Suddenly, Alejandro’s massive hand shot upward. His thick fingers locked around Emma’s tiny wrist like an iron vise. A violent, deep gasp tore through his lungs as his chest heaved, pulling air back from the brink of death. His sharp, dark eyes snapped open, locking directly onto the four-year-old child kneeling beside him.
He was alive.
Maids and guards rushed into the room, but as life surged back into Alejandro, the second guard slowly raised his head toward the massive bookshelf in the corner. His eyes widened in absolute horror as he caught sight of a tiny red light blinking steadily between two leather-bound books.
The guard’s face turned completely ghost-white.
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It was Alejandro Moretti’s hidden security camera. It had captured everything: the moment Alejandro entered, the poisoning of the wine, and the exact face of the person who had slipped the bitter tablet into his glass before walking away to let him die.
And the four-year-old girl who had broken the rules was the only living witness who had just shattered a perfect assassination.
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