Chapter 17: Poison
Isadora could only hesitate for a few seconds before she pulled her hands away from the chair and moved closer to where he was seated at the end of the table.
Pulling out a chair, even as she took in the smell of him which was strong enough to make her wonder what cologne it was.
Silently, Isadora sat down at the table, prepared to serve herself, only to hear a servant move closer to her and slowly begin to serve her according to what she pointed out.
Dante was silent, but instead of Isadora being relieved by this, she wasn’t. All she wanted was to finish eating and leave. The food had just been served and the male servant who had attended to her had just disappeared when she saw Berta—the same maid who had woken her up—enter with a tray in her hands.
Placing the cup of tea beside her, bowing her head and turning around to leave.
Isadora thought nothing of it, but it soon became clear that Dante thought different as he suddenly opened his mouth to speak.
"What’s your name?" he asked, startling Isadora who almost thought she was the one being spoken to, only to realize that it wasn’t the case.
Berta instantly turned around and bowed deeper, almost enough to hide the faint blush on her cheeks as she did so.
"Berta, Master Bellini!" she said, her eyes sparkling. Isadora knew the signs, even as she fixed her eyes on her food and tea, picking up the cup to take a sip as she heard Dante continue to speak.
"You’re a kitchen maid? You were sent to deliver tea?" he asked, his voice calm but crisp in a way that instantly demanded to be answered, even as Isadora tried hard to figure out what he was trying to do and why the sudden strain of conversation.
Only to pause as the cup froze on her lips as she heard Dante speak again.
"Drink the tea!" His tone was calm—extremely calm—so it made Isadora not feel any sense of unease. Or maybe that was why she slowly began to feel that something was definitely not right.
Lowering the cup a bit, she turned her gaze to Dante who hadn’t even looked directly at her since she sat down. His gaze was on the maid who seemed to lower her head even more.
"The tea? You want me to drink it?" she asked, her voice trembling with the slightest tremor as she spoke. "It’s Lady..." she began, but this time around when Dante spoke there was a visible strain of annoyance in his tone.
"I won’t ask again!" he said, and the maid seemed to dissolve on the ground, falling to her knees with tears in her eyes in a way that had Isadora’s eyes widening as she hurriedly dropped the cup with trembling fingers.
"Please Master Bellini! I was wrong!" she begged, but all Isadora could hear in her ears was a subtle but distinct white noise that was shrill in her ears.
She had almost died. Clearly there was something wrong with the tea. But what made her heart thump even harder than usual was the fact that the tray and the tea was clearly the same as the one Berta had served her in her room—which she had been too much in a hurry to drink.
There was an emotion that settled in Isadora’s chest, but she didn’t know what to call it as she stared at the tea and heard Berta, the maid, continue to beg even as men in black stepped into the dining hall in a way that made it clear they had been called, even though Isadora didn’t know how.
"Feed her the tea!" he said, which made Isadora’s eyes spring wider in shock as she jerked her head to look at him—but still, he wasn’t looking at her.
He was staring at Berta, who was in a puddle of tears and already confessing even though no one asked her to.
"You never bring women home! I’ve served you for three years and you’ve never looked at me! Someone approached me on my way yesterday after the night bus dropped us off and the money..." she wailed even as the bodyguard grabbed her, pulling her off the ground, and another picked the tea in front of Isadora.
At this point Isadora could no longer keep quiet. Her voice was as small as a mouse, but regardless she spoke as her hands lightly shook.
"Wha-what are you doing?" Isadora whispered in a low voice and alarmed gaze. "You should hand her over to the authorities..." she managed to continue, even as she watched Guila scream and struggle with tears running down her face.
Only to hear Dante respond, finally turning his head to look directly at her as he spoke with a light smile on his face—almost like he had been waiting to hear her speak.
"Authorities?" he asked with a trace of confusion in his tone that couldn’t be found anywhere in his gaze. "...Has a crime been committed?"
And Isadora felt a chill in her heart, grabbing the armrest of the chair she sat on as she watched Berta be fed the tea, the guards holding her down before letting her go.
Dante continued speaking, and she couldn’t close her ears even if she wanted to, as she stared at Berta who suddenly went still, crumbling back to the floor as she instantly began to cough and hold her throat—blood pouring out of the corners of her mouth with an expression of pure agony.
"Aren’t you curious to know how you could have died?" he asked, and the chill in her heart only increased as she stared at the maid who crumbled to the ground, groaning in terrible pain, choking on her own blood in a state that made it clear she was clearly dying.
Isadora couldn’t find the courage to speak, even as the sounds of choking echoed loudly in the hall for a while just before everything suddenly became silent. Yet instead of being relieved, the silence was heavier than before, because it signified that the woman on the floor was no longer alive.
