Chapter 1 - The Scent of Olive Oil on the Stone
The impact of the fall against the pale stone floor of the Marquetti mansion was accompanied not by the smell of blood or antiseptic, but by the unmistakable scent of cooking olive oil. Having slipped on the back staircase while carrying a medication tray at 6:15 on a freezing November morning, I lay trapped with a broken wrist and a bleeding temple, watching my ninth predecessor’s fate nearly claim me as well. When my scream pierced the multi-story silence, Gideon Marquetti—the formidable, usually immaculate head of the household—rushed down the stairs barefoot and half-buttoned, dropping to his knees to assess my injuries. As Gideon caught his hand on the slick floor and realized the oil was intentionally placed, the illusion of a simple domestic accident shattered into a terrifying reality. We weren't just dealing with a clumsy nurse; someone inside the mansion had deliberately laid a trap to eliminate the tenth nurse in a row, and for the first time, Gideon didn't blame the victim. The ice had begun to crack beneath the foundation of the Marquetti empire, setting the stage for a dangerous confrontation between the household’s hidden saboteurs and a nurse who refused to break.
