Chapter 3 - The Silver Foil
I grabbed the emergency key from the ledge above the door.
My hands were shaking so hard I almost dropped it.
I shoved the key into the lock and threw the door open.
The scene inside was a nightmare painted in the colors of a luxury bedroom.
The bedside lamp was smashed on the floor.
Julia was huddled in the corner, her nightgown torn, her eyes wide with animal terror.
Ryan was on the floor.
But he wasn't just lying there.
His body was arching in a violent, rhythmic seizure.
His eyes were rolled back into his head, showing only the whites.
A thick, yellowish foam was bubbling from his lips.
"Ryan!" Margaret shrieked, rushing to his side.
I stood frozen in the doorway.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
It was a vitamin.
It was an ordinary, over-the-counter Vitamin B capsule.
It couldn't have done this.
"Call an ambulance!" I yelled, finally snapping into action.
I grabbed my phone and dialed 911.
"My husband... he's having a seizure... he's non-responsive..."
As I spoke to the dispatcher, I watched Julia.
She wasn't looking at Ryan with love or concern.
She was looking at him with disgust.
She was clutching a blanket around her shoulders, her breathing ragged.
"He just... he took a pill," Julia whispered, her voice shaking.
"He told me he had something special. He took it, and then five minutes later... he started choking."
"He grabbed me... he couldn't breathe..."
Margaret was cradling Ryan’s head in her lap.
She looked up at me, and for a second, the mask of the cold matriarch slipped.
I saw something in her eyes that made my blood turn to ice.
It wasn't grief.
It was calculation.
The paramedics arrived in record time.
The house was suddenly filled with blue and red lights and the heavy boots of men with medical bags.
They pushed us out of the room.
I stood in the hallway, my back against the wall.
Margaret stood five feet away, her silk robe stained with Ryan’s foam.
She was holding something in her hand.
She was staring at it.
It was the black foil packet.
The Titan Force packet I had returned to Ryan’s jacket.
She looked at me, and her grip on the foil tightened.
"You did this," she whispered.
"What?" I gasped. "Margaret, I didn't—"
"I saw you," she hissed, stepping closer.
"I saw you in the kitchen today. I saw you with the needle."
My heart stopped.
She had been watching me.
"You thought you were so clever, Claire," Margaret said, her voice dropping to a terrifying crawl.
"You thought you would just embarrass him."
"But you didn't know what Ryan was already taking for his heart."
"You didn't know that mixing those powders would create a toxic reaction."
I shook my head, tears stinging my eyes.
"It was a vitamin, Margaret! Just a vitamin!"
"That's not what the police will find when they test the residue in this packet," she said.
She slid the empty foil into her pocket.
"Julia," Margaret called out.
Julia stepped out of the room, her face now a mask of cold resolve.
She looked at Margaret. They exchanged a look that told me everything.
They weren't enemies.
They were partners.
"Tell the paramedics what you saw, Julia," Margaret commanded.
Julia looked at me, a cruel smile touching her lips.
"I saw Claire lurking by the office earlier," Julia said to the air.
"She looked... unstable. Like she was planning something."
I realized then that the affair wasn't the secret.
The affair was the bait.
May you like
And I had walked right into the trap.
***
