Chapter 14 - WHAT SHE POURED INTO THE MEDICINE BOTTLE
The air inside the basement grew heavy, smelling of damp stone and buried secrets. Claire sat on the cold concrete floor, spreading the contents of Rachel’s hidden portfolio around her.
Among the financial records was a folded piece of medical stationery. It was a private toxicological screening Rachel had commissioned three weeks before her fatal fall. Rachel had been suffering from sudden, inexplicable bouts of vertigo, blackouts, and tremors. The local doctors had diagnosed early-onset neurological fatigue.
Rachel hadn't believed them.
Claire read the lab notes, her heart thumping in her ears: *Elevated traces of thallium sulfate detected. Non-lethal over single dosage; cumulative accumulation induces progressive motor failure, severe balance impairment, and hallucinations.*
Claire’s breath caught in her throat. Thallium was tasteless, odorless, and soluble in liquid.
She flashed back to three years ago. Her mother had hired an executive assistant for Daniel’s busy firm—a quiet, efficient woman who frequently dropped off blueprints and evening tea at their family home when Rachel was working late in her home office. A woman who called herself *Tori Vance*.
Tori. Victoria.
The fall on the cellar stairs hadn't been an accident caused by winter ice. Rachel hadn't slipped. Her nervous system had been systematically poisoned until she couldn't maintain her balance on a flight of stairs. Victoria had engineered an execution and disguised it as a domestic tragedy.
A sudden sound shattered the basement's silence: the sharp click of the cellar door upstairs swinging shut.
Claire froze.
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The basement stairs were plunged into complete darkness as the overhead bulb went out with a violent pop.
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