Chapter 5 - The Hospital Corridor Confession
"She’s... she’s stable, Clara," Anton’s voice came through the receiver, sounding hollow, exhausted, and profoundly shaken. "The doctors managed to flush her system just in time. They said... they said she ingested a massive dose of a potent central nervous system depressant."
I let out a soft, breathy gasp of manufactured shock. "A depressant? Good heavens! How on earth did that happen? Could she have accidentally mixed up her prescriptions?"
"That’s what the doctors keep asking," Anton muttered, his voice dropping to a harsh, bewildered whisper. "They found traces of it in her bloodwork, and... Clara, the toxicology report matched the residue found on the rim of the glass she drank from at the reception."
"Oh, no..." I murmured, letting my voice crack with just the right amount of fragile disbelief. "Are you saying someone... someone spiked her drink? But who would want to hurt Doña Carmela?"
There was a long, heavy silence on the other end of the line. In that pause, I could practically hear the gears turning in Anton’s head as he tried to reconcile the untouchable, god-like image of his mother with the terrifying reality of what had just occurred.
"I don't know, honey," Anton finally whispered, a tremor of pure dread shaking his voice. "The police have already stopped by the hospital. They want to interview us both tomorrow morning. They’re treating it as an attempted poisoning."
"An attempted poisoning?!" I gasped, letting panic bleed into my tone. "At our wedding? Anton, this is terrifying. What if... what if the drink wasn't meant for her?"
Another chilling pause hung in the air. The implication hit Anton with the force of a freight train.
If Doña Carmela had accidentally consumed the glass that she had prepared... that meant the poison was originally intended for me.
"Clara..." Anton choked out, his voice breaking entirely. "Stay in the suite. Lock all the doors. Do not let anyone in. I’m coming back as soon as the doctors discharge her to a secure room. I won't let anything happen to you. I swear to God."
"I'll be right here, my love," I replied softly. "Hurry back."
I hung up the phone, lowered the device onto the counter, and let out a long, slow exhale.
The trap was fully set. Anton was now terrified for my safety, completely convinced that someone out there was trying to assassinate his new bride. And because he loved his mother while remaining blind to her darkest impulses, he would naturally assume an outside enemy—a disgruntled business rival, an old family enemy, or an unknown stalker—was behind the attack.
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He would never suspect that the monster who tried to kill me was the woman who gave birth to him. Not yet, anyway.
And that gave me the exact window I needed to dismantle Doña Carmela’s dynasty from the inside out.
