Chapter 9 - The Slow Poison
I stared at the doctor, the words echoing in the silent hospital room.
Weeks.
The poison had been building up in my daughter's body for weeks.
"That is impossible," I said, shaking my head violently.
"Sabrina spiked the pink lemonade today."
"I have it on video!"
The doctor sighed and closed the manila folder.
"The pills in the lemonade were just a trigger, Mrs. Vance."
"They reacted violently with the neurotoxin that was already dormant in her blood."
"Whoever did this has been slowly poisoning your daughter a little bit every single day for at least a month."
My mind raced backward, tearing through every memory of the past thirty days.
Sabrina only visited us on weekends.
Nolan worked sixty-hour weeks at the precinct and barely saw Harper in the mornings.
My mother lived across town and only babysat once a month.
There was only one person who made Harper's breakfast every day.
There was only one person who packed her lunches, poured her juice, and gave her daily vitamins.
Me.
"Are you telling me that someone has been tampering with the food inside my own house?" I asked, a cold sweat breaking out on my neck.
"It appears so," the doctor said gently.
"We have administered the broad-spectrum antidote, and she should wake up very soon."
The doctor left the room, leaving me alone with my horrific realization.
I walked over to my purse and pulled out the orange pill bottle I had taken from my own medicine cabinet that morning.
It was supposed to be my daily anxiety medication.
I opened the cap and poured the pills out onto my palm.
Mixed in with my white anxiety pills were tiny, clear capsules filled with a strange green powder.
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Someone had been planting the poison in my own medication, knowing I would accidentally transfer the residue to Harper's food when I cooked.
I had been poisoning my own daughter without knowing it.
