Chapter 6 - THE VITAMIN
Marcus watched the footage three times.
His face changed each time.
Shock.
Denial.
Then rage.
“What did she put in there?”
Elena sat beside him.
“I told you.”
He stood.
“I’m calling the police.”
“No.”
He turned.
“What?”
“Not yet.”
“Elena, she drugged you.”
“We need to know with what.”
“Let the police figure it out.”
“And what happens when your mother tells them I’m mentally ill and shows them fake medical records?”
Marcus went quiet.
Exactly.
Elena picked up the silver pillbox.
“We test this first.”
They drove to a private toxicology lab forty miles away.
No family doctor.
No Hale money.
No warning.
The technician told them results could take time, but Marcus paid for expedited analysis.
Back at the estate, Victoria was gone.
Her room was empty.
Her car was missing.
Her phone went straight to voicemail.
“She knows,” Elena said.
Marcus looked at the hidden camera in his hand.
“She knows we found the footage.”
They searched Victoria’s office.
Locked.
Marcus kicked the door in.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“I always wanted to do that.”
She almost laughed.
Almost.
Inside, everything was organized.
Too organized.
Folders.
Receipts.
Estate documents.
A locked cabinet.
Marcus smashed it open.
Inside were bottles.
Dozens of them.
White labels.
Asterion Maternal Trial Compound.
Elena picked one up.
“Experimental prenatal vitamins?”
Marcus read the warning sheet.
His face drained of color.
“Possible adverse reactions.”
“What kind?”
“Insomnia. Anxiety. Visual disturbances.”
Elena grabbed the paper.
There was more.
“Dissociation,” she whispered.
Hallucinations.
Emotional volatility.
In rare cases, paranoid psychosis.
Her hands began to shake.
Marcus caught them.
“Hey.”
“She’s been poisoning me for months.”
“We’ll prove it.”
Elena looked at the bottles.
“Why?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
She looked toward the desk.
One drawer was locked.
Marcus broke that too.
Inside was a legal document.
A trust amendment.
If Marcus died without an heir, Victoria retained control of the Hale estate.
If Marcus had a child, controlling shares transferred to a new family trust upon the child’s birth.
Victoria would lose everything.
Elena stared at him.
“She didn’t want me pregnant.”
Marcus shook his head slowly.
“No.”
Elena looked at the drug bottles.
“She wanted me gone.”
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
His voice was low and terrified.
“Is this Marcus Hale?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Daniel Cruz.”
Marcus and Elena stared at each other.
Daniel continued.
“You need to get Elena out of that house.”
Elena grabbed the phone.
“Daniel?”
Silence.
Then he whispered:
May you like
“Victoria did this to me too.”
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