Chapter 2 - The Poisoned Blood
My father had been legally declared dead for over fifteen years.
I had personally attended his closed-casket funeral when I was just a grieving teenager.
The paramedics slammed the ambulance doors shut, leaving me standing completely paralyzed in my own driveway.
I sprinted to my truck and followed the screaming sirens all the way to the city emergency room.
The hospital waiting room felt like a freezing, sterile purgatory while doctors evaluated Maya and our unborn child.
A stern-looking detective finally approached me with a small, clear evidence bag in his hand.
"Mr. Thorne, we found this hidden in your mother's purse when she was booked," the detective said.
He held up a small, unmarked glass vial filled with a strange, cloudy liquid.
"Your wife is currently stabilized, but her toxicology report just came back with highly alarming results," he continued.
My chest tightened as I braced myself for the absolute worst news possible.
"Your mother wasn't just starving her in that shed," the detective explained grimly.
"She has been slowly poisoning your wife with a heavy, untraceable abortifacient for weeks."
The prenatal vitamins sitting on our kitchen counter had been meticulously laced with a lethal chemical.
If I hadn't come home from Chicago two days early, Maya and the baby would have both died tonight.
I asked the detective if I could finally see my wife.
He nodded and led me down a long, brightly lit corridor to a private recovery room.
Maya was hooked up to an IV monitor, looking incredibly fragile but undeniably resilient.
"They told me about the poison, Caleb," she whispered, tears slipping down her pale cheeks.
I kissed her forehead, promising that my mother would spend the rest of her life in a federal prison.
Suddenly, the heart monitor beside her bed began to blare an aggressive, deafening alarm.
Maya gasped for air, her entire body seizing violently against the white hospital sheets.
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A nurse rushed into the room, her eyes widening in absolute terror.
"Someone altered her IV bag!" the nurse screamed.
