Chapter 4 - The Toxicology of a Marriage
The hospital was a blur of fluorescent lights and the smell of industrial cleaner.
Ryan was in the ICU, hooked up to a dozen machines that hissed and clicked.
The doctors said his brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long.
He was in a persistent vegetative state.
I sat in the waiting room, alone.
Margaret and Julia were in a private suite, talking to a man in a dark suit.
He wasn't a doctor. He was the family lawyer.
A detective approached me around 4:00 a.m.
His name was Miller, and he looked like a man who had seen too many "accidents."
"Mrs. Whitmore?" he asked. "I’m Detective Miller."
"We found a discarded packet in the bedroom. Titan Force."
I nodded, my voice gone.
"We ran a preliminary test on the residue," Miller continued.
"It wasn't just performance meds. And it wasn't a vitamin."
I looked up, confused. "What?"
"The powder inside that capsule was a concentrated dose of a blood thinner."
"When combined with your husband’s existing medication, it caused a massive hemorrhagic stroke."
The room began to spin.
"But I... I put a vitamin in there," I whispered.
Miller leaned in closer. "Is that what you want to go on the record with, Mrs. Whitmore?"
"Because we found your fingerprints on the inside of the foil."
"And we found a syringe in your vanity with traces of the same thinner."
I jumped to my feet. "That's impossible! I've never used a syringe!"
"Someone put that there!"
Miller didn't look convinced.
"Your mother-in-law told us about your 'episodes' of jealousy."
"She told us you were distraught over the merger and Ryan’s lack of attention."
I looked through the glass window at Margaret.
She was watching me.
She knew.
She had seen me swap the pill.
And after I left the kitchen, she had gone in and swapped it again.
She didn't want a vitamin in that packet.
She wanted a weapon.
Margaret wanted Ryan gone.
With Ryan in a coma, Margaret and Daniel—the "loyal" son—would inherit his shares in the medical company.
The merger would go through, and they would be worth hundreds of millions.
I was just the perfect scapegoat.
The jealous, "unstable" wife who poisoned her husband because he wouldn't touch her.
"I need a lawyer," I said, my voice trembling.
"I think that’s a good idea," Miller replied.
As he walked away, Julia walked up to me.
She leaned in, her breath smelling of peppermint and coldness.
"Margaret says thank you," Julia whispered.
"You made it so easy for us."
"The needle, the foil... your fingerprints are everywhere."
"By the time Daniel gets home, the story will be set."
"You're going to prison, Claire."
"And I'm going to be the grieving sister-in-law who tried to save him."
She turned and walked away, her heels clicking on the hospital tile.
I was alone.
The walls were closing in.
But then, I remembered something.
Ryan’s office.
The "Project Phoenix" merger files.
If Margaret was this desperate to get rid of him, it wasn't just about the money.
May you like
It was about what Ryan knew.
***
