Chapter 4 - The Lab Result
The next forty minutes felt like four hours.
Caleb was moved to a family waiting area with a guard outside. He kept demanding updates. Nobody gave him any.
Nia received medication through an IV while Dr. Hale spoke with Poison Control.
I sat beside her bed and tried not to shake.
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
“Are you mad at me?”
I looked at her so fast my neck hurt.
“What? No.”
“For not telling you.”
I bent over her hand. “You did nothing wrong.”
She stared at our fingers.
“I thought you knew.”
That sentence nearly destroyed me.
“Knew what?”
“That he was weird about it.”
I swallowed.
“How weird?”
“He said you were too busy and he was helping.”
I closed my eyes.
Too busy.
I had heard those words before.
Caleb had said them whenever he took over Nia’s rides, her school forms, her doctor appointments, her bank deposits from her summer job.
You work too much. Let me help.
I had called it love.
The lab door opened.
Dr. Hale came back with a printed sheet.
He didn’t sit.
“The test is positive for a long-acting anticoagulant compound.”
I blinked. “In English.”
“Something is interfering with her body’s ability to clot. It’s the kind of compound found in certain rodenticides.”
For a moment, I heard nothing.
Then Nia said, “Rat poison?”
Dr. Hale looked at her carefully. “A chemical in that category, yes.”
I stood.
“No. No, that’s impossible.”
“It can happen accidentally,” he said. “But the level we’re seeing, along with the pattern in her previous bloodwork, suggests repeated exposure.”
Previous bloodwork.
“What previous bloodwork?”
He turned the screen toward me.
Three visits.
April. June. August.
Urgent care. Fatigue. Nosebleeds. Bruising.
I remembered every one.
Caleb had taken her to two of them.
I had been working.
Dr. Hale tapped the dates.
“The numbers were abnormal then too. Not as severe as tonight.”
My legs went weak.
Nia whispered, “He told me they said I was fine.”
Dr. Hale’s face hardened.
“They did not say that.”
A knock sounded at the door.
A police detective entered, introduced herself as Lena Ortiz, and asked to speak with me privately.
I kissed Nia’s forehead and followed her into the hall.
Detective Ortiz opened a small notebook.
“Mrs. Brooks, before we talk about your husband, I need to ask you something else.”
“What?”
“Does your daughter have money coming to her when she turns eighteen?”
I froze.
May you like
Because she did.
And Caleb was the only person besides me who knew exactly how much.
