Chapter 3 - The Race Against Time
Arthur drops to his hands and knees in the puddle of blue liquid.
He frantically uses his bare hands to scoop up whatever is left of the antidote.
"Leo, get me a spoon from the kitchen immediately!" Arthur commands in a panic.
Leo sprints down the hallway faster than he ever has in his entire life.
He returns seconds later and hands the silver spoon to his frantic father.
Arthur carefully scrapes the remaining drops of the blue liquid from the floorboards.
He lifts Helena's head and gently forces the tiny amount of liquid past her pale lips.
"Please swallow it, Helena," Arthur whispers, tears falling onto her face.
Helena lets out a weak cough and manages to swallow the small dose.
Her violent convulsions slowly begin to stop, but her breathing remains dangerously shallow.
"Sam, call an ambulance right now!" Arthur shouts over his shoulder.
Sam is already on the phone with the emergency dispatcher, his hands shaking wildly.
Within minutes, the loud wail of sirens echoes up the long driveway of the mansion.
Paramedics rush into the grand hallway with a stretcher and heavy medical equipment.
They quickly load Helena onto the stretcher and place an oxygen mask over her face.
"Her pulse is incredibly weak, we are losing her," one paramedic announces urgently.
Arthur grabs his car keys and looks at his two terrified teenage sons.
"Get in the car, we are following them to the hospital," Arthur orders.
The drive to the emergency room feels like an absolute nightmare that will never end.
The boys sit in the backseat in complete, stunned silence.
They are still trying to process the shocking reality that the maid is their biological mother.
Arthur grips the steering wheel so hard that his hands go entirely numb.
They arrive at the hospital and rush into the bright, chaotic waiting room.
An hour passes like a slow torture before a grim-faced doctor finally walks through the swinging doors.
Arthur jumps to his feet with desperate hope in his eyes.
"Did the antidote work?" Arthur asks the exhausted physician.
The doctor sighs heavily and looks down at his clipboard.
"The small dose you gave her stopped the immediate cardiac arrest," the doctor explains.
"However, the poison has already caused catastrophic damage to her nervous system," he adds sadly.
"She has slipped into a deep coma, and we do not expect her to wake up," the doctor concludes.
Arthur collapses into a plastic waiting room chair and buries his face in his hands.
Suddenly, his cell phone vibrates aggressively in his jacket pocket.
He pulls it out and sees a text message from Victoria.
May you like
The message reads that he should check the news immediately.
Arthur looks up at the hospital television screen and drops his phone in sheer horror.
