Chapter 2 - The Doctor Who Never Prescribed Them
Marcus heard it too.
That changed everything.
The laugh lasted perhaps two seconds.
Soft.
Female.
Almost playful.
Then it disappeared beneath the humming ventilation system.
Marcus slowly turned toward the paneled wall.
“Elena.”
“You heard it.”
“Yes.”
“You heard her.”
“I heard something.”
“That was Victoria.”
Marcus walked toward the wall and pressed his ear against the dark walnut paneling.
Nothing.
He opened the narrow door leading to the butler’s pantry.
Empty.
He checked the hallway.
Empty.
Elena stood in the dining room clutching her belly.
“Marcus.”
“We’re still going to the hospital.”
“What about the capsules?”
“I’m taking them.”
He wrapped the three capsules inside a clean linen napkin.
Then he put the crimson dress into a garment bag without touching it again.
Forty minutes later they entered St. Matthew’s Medical Center through a private entrance used by the Ashcroft family for decades.
That was one of the things Elena hated about Marcus’s world.
Even emergencies arrived through special doors.
Dr. Claire Reyes was waiting upstairs.
She was Elena’s obstetrician.
Forty-three years old.
Calm.
Sharp-eyed.
Impossible to intimidate.
She immediately checked the baby.
Normal heartbeat.
Normal movement.
No signs of placental distress.
Only after Elena’s breathing had steadied did Dr. Reyes ask about the hallucination.
Elena described everything.
The dining room.
Victoria.
The attack.
The shattered glass.
The missing time.
The bathroom mirror.
The crimson dress.
Dr. Reyes listened without interrupting.
Then Marcus placed one of the capsules on the counter.
“She’s been taking these.”
Dr. Reyes looked at it.
“What is that?”
Elena frowned.
“My prenatal vitamin.”
“No.”
The word landed harder than expected.
Elena stared at her.
“You prescribed them.”
“I prescribed Ferona Prenatal.”
“That’s what this is.”
Dr. Reyes shook her head.
“Ferona capsules are blue.”
The room went silent.
Elena looked at Marcus.
“These have always been white.”
“How long?”
Dr. Reyes asked.
“Since May.”
“Who gave them to you?”
Elena hesitated.
“Victoria.”
Marcus looked away.
Dr. Reyes put on gloves.
“Did they come in a pharmacy bottle?”
“At first.”
“What pharmacy?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never picked them up?”
“No.”
“Victoria said the family pharmacy delivered everything to the estate.”
Dr. Reyes placed the capsule into a specimen container.
“I never authorized a private compounded prenatal for you.”
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
“Could something in these cause hallucinations?”
“Several things could.”
“Can you test it?”
“Yes.”
“How quickly?”
“I’m requesting emergency toxicology.”
Dr. Reyes turned toward Elena.
“I also want blood and urine samples.”
Elena’s face drained.
“You think I’m on drugs.”
“I think something happened to you.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“No.”
Dr. Reyes’s expression softened.
“And that distinction matters.”
An hour later Elena lay in a hospital bed with Marcus sitting beside her.
The lights were dim.
Her heart had finally stopped racing.
Her mind had not.
Every time she closed her eyes she saw Victoria raising the glass decanter.
She could feel the impact even though it had never happened.
That terrified her more than the hallucination itself.
Her body remembered pain that did not exist.
At 2:13 a.m., Dr. Reyes returned.
She carried no chart.
Only a tablet.
That worried Marcus immediately.
“What did you find?”
“The standard toxicology screen was negative.”
Elena exhaled.
“But?”
Marcus asked.
Dr. Reyes pulled up another page.
“There’s an abnormal compound in Elena’s blood.”
“What kind?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Marcus stood.
“Then how do you know it’s abnormal?”
“Because the laboratory detected a metabolite that doesn’t match any medication she’s currently prescribed.”
Elena stared at her.
“Could it be from the vitamins?”
“Possibly.”
Dr. Reyes sat beside the bed.
“I contacted a toxicology specialist.”
“And?”
“He recognized part of the molecular profile.”
Marcus’s voice hardened.
“Recognized it from where?”
“An experimental neurological compound.”
Elena’s stomach tightened.
“What does it do?”
“We don’t know enough yet.”
“Claire.”
Dr. Reyes hesitated.
“It was studied for its effect on fear conditioning and memory formation.”
Marcus looked confused.
“Why would that be in a prenatal vitamin?”
“It shouldn’t be.”
Elena’s mouth went dry.
“What side effects?”
“Dissociation.”
Dr. Reyes paused.
“Memory distortion.”
Another pause.
“Visual and auditory hallucinations.”
Marcus sat back down.
Elena stared at the blanket.
Every frightening moment of the past months began rearranging itself.
The footsteps outside her bedroom.
Victoria’s face appearing in mirrors.
The crying she sometimes heard from the empty nursery.
The afternoon Elena had found herself standing in the garden without remembering walking there.
She had blamed pregnancy.
Stress.
Insomnia.
Hormones.
Victoria had encouraged every explanation.
Marcus took Elena’s hand.
“How long would someone need to take it?”
Dr. Reyes shook her head.
“That depends on the dosage.”
“Could it hurt the baby?”
Elena asked.
Dr. Reyes did not answer quickly enough.
Elena saw the truth immediately.
“We don’t know.”
“No.”
Tears filled Elena’s eyes.
Marcus squeezed her hand.
“We’ll stop it now.”
Dr. Reyes nodded.
“That’s the first step.”
She stood.
“Do not take any medication, supplement, drink, or food prepared at the estate until we know exactly what happened.”
Marcus’s face hardened.
“You think someone poisoned my wife.”
“I think your wife has been exposed to something she was never prescribed.”
The distinction was careful.
Legal.
Medical.
But everyone in the room understood.
Someone had put it there.
Marcus reached for his phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
Elena grabbed his wrist.
“Wait.”
“Why?”
“If Victoria did this, she’ll destroy whatever is left.”
Marcus stopped.
Dr. Reyes said nothing.
Elena looked at him.
“She thinks I don’t know.”
Marcus slowly understood.
“So we don’t tell her.”
“Not yet.”
At 4:02 a.m., Marcus received a message.
The sender was Victoria.
He opened it.
Elena saw the color leave his face.
“What?”
He turned the phone toward her.
The message contained one photograph.
It showed Elena standing in the upstairs bathroom of the Ashcroft estate.
She was barefoot.
Her nightgown was stained with blood from her palm.
The bathroom mirror behind her was shattered.
In her right hand was the same piece of glass Marcus had taken away.
The photograph had been taken from inside the room.
From only six feet away.
Below the image was one sentence.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED WHEN I TOLD YOU SHE WAS DANGEROUS.
Marcus stared at the screen.
Elena whispered.
“She was there.”
But Marcus noticed something else.
May you like
The photograph had not been sent from Boston.
The embedded location data placed Victoria’s phone less than three hundred yards from the hospital.
