Chapter 2: The Poisoned Tea
The ICU waiting room was a sanctuary of flickering fluorescent lights and the smell of industrial bleach. Julian sat in the corner, his phone buzzing with urgent merger emails that he deleted without opening. He had officially stepped out of the game.
When the lead neurologist finally emerged, he didn't look like a man with good news. "Mr. Thorne, we’ve run the toxicology screen. This wasn't a stroke. Elena was poisoned."
Julian stood up, his chair clattering to the floor. "Poisoned? By what?"
"A derivative of hemlock, concentrated. It’s rare, expensive, and precise. It didn't kill her because she didn't ingest the full dose, but it was intended to stop her heart within minutes."
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Julian felt a cold fury settle into his marrow. Someone had walked into his home, into his kitchen, and tried to kill the only person who actually cared for his children. He thought back to the morning. Elena had been brewing the twins' herbal tea—the one she drank daily to help with her allergies.
He didn't need the police to tell him what to do. He checked the security feed on his phone. The house was his fortress; he had cameras everywhere. He pulled up the footage from 6:30 AM. There was Elena, humming softly as she worked. Then, a figure entered the kitchen—shadowy, calculated, and entirely too familiar. Julian’s heart shattered again. It wasn't an intruder. It was the woman he was planning to propose to next week.
