Chapter 3 - The Secret Poison
Nora was not naive. Before her family lost everything, her father had worked as a military logistics officer, and she knew what subtle poisoning looked like.
For weeks, Theo had suffered from inexplicable dizzy spells, nausea, and sudden fevers. Every doctor Julian brought in claimed it was trauma-induced stress. But Nora had noticed that Theo’s symptoms only peaked when Julian was scheduled to take him on weekend trips outside the heavily fortified perimeter.
On Wednesday night, after midnight, Nora quietly crept down to the commercial kitchen. The house was dead quiet. Moving like a shadow, she opened the walk-in pantry. In the small personal refrigerator reserved solely for Victoria’s specialty organic drinks, Nora found a hidden false bottom inside a silver tea canister.
Inside lay three small ampoules labeled *Atropine Sulfate* alongside an unregistered burner phone.
Nora's heart hammered violently against her ribs. Victoria was micro-dosing the child. She was deliberately keeping Theo frail, sick, and homebound so Julian would never take him out into society—ensuring the boy remained an isolated, defenseless target until the wedding was finalized.
Suddenly, the kitchen light flicked on.
"Looking for a midnight snack, rat?" Victoria’s voice purred from the doorway. She was wearing a silk robe, arms crossed, her eyes glinting like cold steel. Beside her stood Marcus, Julian’s trusted head of estate security, a man who had worked for the family for eight years.
Nora’s blood ran cold. Marcus wasn't guarding the house—he was Victoria’s insider.
"You're making him sick," Nora said, her voice shaking but defiant as she kept her hands behind her back, clutching the burner phone she had just slipped from the canister. "If Mr. Mercer finds out—"
Victoria threw her head back and laughed, a cruel, mocking sound that echoed off the stainless steel. "Julian listens to me, darling. To him, you are a replaceable pair of hands that scrubs his toilets. In two weeks, I will be Mrs. Mercer. And as for the boy... accidents happen to fragile children all the time."
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👉 But Nora had already pressed the voice memo button on the burner phone in her pocket.
***
