Chapter 3 - The Pharmacist's Warning
It was Carla's day off.
Instead of taking Nina to the park as usual, she dropped her off at a trusted neighbor's apartment.
Carla took a bus deep into the city, far away from Long Island and the watchful eyes of the Rinaldi men.
She walked into a dusty, old-fashioned pharmacy in Queens.
The man behind the counter, Mr. Abasi, was a retired chemist who had helped Carla's mother years ago.
"Carla, my dear. What brings you here?" the old man asked, adjusting his thick glasses.
Carla looked around nervously to make sure the shop was empty.
She pulled the tissue from her purse and placed the white pill on the glass counter.
"Mr. Abasi, I need you to tell me what this is. Can you test it?"
The old pharmacist looked at the pill. He frowned. "No markings. Black market or custom compound. Give me twenty minutes."
Carla paced the small aisles of the pharmacy, her heart pounding against her ribs.
Every time the door chime rang, she jumped, terrified that Dean's men had followed her.
Finally, Mr. Abasi emerged from the back room. His face was ashen.
"Carla... where did you get this?" his voice trembled.
"I found it. Please, what is it?"
"It's a synthetic neurotoxin. Highly illegal," Mr. Abasi whispered.
"In small doses, it mimics the symptoms of severe spinal nerve damage. It causes muscle atrophy, lethargy, and eventually... heart failure."
Carla gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.
"Someone isn't trying to cure the patient who takes this," the pharmacist continued gravely.
"They are slowly paralyzing them. And within a few months, it will kill them seamlessly. It leaves almost no trace in a standard autopsy."
The room spun around Carla.
The ambush. The bullets. The sudden decline in Massimo's health just as he was starting to heal.
Dean taking over the business. Camille planning to marry a dying man to inherit his estate. Dr. Hale dropping the pill.
It was an inside job.
Dean hadn't saved Massimo's life during the ambush. He had orchestrated it to look like a hero, gaining absolute power while slowly poisoning the true king.
Carla thanked Mr. Abasi, leaving all the cash she had in her wallet on the counter.
She rode the bus back to Long Island in a state of absolute terror.
She was a maid. A widow with a three-year-old daughter.
If she spoke up, Dean would kill her and Nina without a second thought.
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But if she stayed silent, the only man protecting them from the cruel reality of the underworld would die within weeks.
She had to warn Massimo. But she had to do it without anyone noticing.
