Chapter 2 - The Poison in My Veins
"What trap?" I asked, looking up from the vibrating phone. My heart hammered against my ribs, but the strange, heavy fog that usually accompanied my panic was fading.
My father sat down opposite me, placing a thick manila folder on the table. It didn't look like a divorce file. It looked like a criminal dossier.
"Daniel didn't just cheat on you, Emily," Dad said softly. "The tremors. The memory loss. The sudden inability to manage the Hayes Corporation. You thought it was early-onset dementia. The doctors Daniel recommended told you it was severe generalized anxiety."
I swallowed hard. "It was. The tests..."
"The tests were manipulated," my father interrupted, sliding a piece of paper toward me. "I took that strand of your hair you left at my house three weeks ago. I sent it to an independent toxicology lab in Boston."
I stared at the paper. It listed chemical compounds I couldn't pronounce. Heavy sedatives. Micro-doses of hallucinogens. Muscle relaxants.
"He was poisoning me," I whispered, the horror finally sinking in. Every cup of morning tea he brought to me in bed. Every vitamin he lovingly sorted into my pill organizer.
"He was chemically gaslighting you," Dad corrected, his jaw tight. "He needed the board of directors to see you trembling, confused, and unstable. He needed them to doubt your leadership so he could step in as acting CEO."
"But I stepped down," I argued, my voice shaking with rage. "I gave him control of the European subsidiary to save my health. If he had that, why try to spend a million dollars on a necklace tonight?"
Dad flipped the folder open. Inside was a photograph of Vanessa Cole.
"Because Vanessa isn't a 25-year-old Instagram model," he said. "Her real name is Veronika Vance. She's a corporate liquidator. She targets vulnerable, wealthy executives, gets them compromised, and drains their offshore assets."
May you like
The room spun, but this time, it wasn't the drugs. It was the sickening reality. Daniel hadn't just found a younger woman. He had hired a professional shark to help him steal my family's legacy.
And if my father hadn't made me change those PINs, Daniel's million-dollar test run tonight would have unlocked the master accounts.
