Chapter 13 - The Bitter Coffee
I stared at Maya.
“What do you mean?”
“She had a little bottle.”
“What kind of bottle?”
“Brown glass. With a dropper.”
I tried to remember.
For months, my morning coffee had sometimes tasted bitter.
Simone called it a new vitamin blend.
She said she added supplements because I skipped breakfast.
I had laughed about it.
Trusted her.
“How often?”
“Mostly when you had meetings downtown.”
My heart began pounding.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought it was vitamins.”
Of course she did.
So did I.
Detective Rollins came over within an hour.
I showed him the kitchen cabinet where Simone kept supplements.
The brown bottle was gone.
But in the trash bin outside, underneath a tied garbage bag, we found an empty glass dropper bottle.
The label had been peeled off.
Rollins bagged it.
“Don’t jump to conclusions.”
I wasn’t jumping.
I was falling.
I remembered three strange mornings.
One where I felt dizzy driving.
One where I canceled a meeting because my vision blurred.
One where I slept nearly fourteen hours.
My doctor had blamed stress.
Maybe it was stress.
Maybe it wasn’t.
Rollins asked if Simone had ever increased my life insurance.
I showed him the policy.
Six months earlier, the coverage had doubled.
I had approved that change.
Simone had said it was responsible because the company was growing.
For the first time, fear replaced anger.
Not fear of Simone yelling.
Fear of what I did not yet know she was capable of.
The lab could take time, Rollins said.
Meanwhile, Melissa moved to freeze any disputed authority over the company and house.
I filed for an emergency protective order covering Maya.
The judge granted temporary restrictions.
Simone could not contact Maya directly.
When Caleb heard that, he asked, “What about us?”
His question hurt.
Simone was still his mother.
Zoe’s too.
They loved her despite everything.
Family court arranged temporary placement with their biological father, Marcus Bell, who lived twenty minutes away.
Marcus arrived nervous and angry.
Not at me.
At himself.
“I should’ve paid attention,” he said.
“You didn’t know.”
“Neither did you.”
Fair.
The children packed overnight bags.
Zoe hugged Maya so tightly neither wanted to let go.
Caleb slipped something into my hand before he left.
A small memory card.
“What is this?”
“From Mom’s old phone.”
My pulse jumped.
“How did you get it?”
“She threw the phone away after Uncle Darius yelled at her. I took the card because I thought it had my game videos.”
“Did you look at it?”
He nodded.
“There are voice recordings.”
I stared at him.
“What kind?”
His eyes filled.
“One has your name.”
That night, with Rollins present, we played the first audio file.
Darius’s voice came through the speakers.
Then Simone’s.
Darius said, “If he gets sick again, he’ll sign whatever you put in front of him.”
Simone replied, “I know.”
May you like
Then she said the sentence that stopped my heart.
“But Maya watches me too closely.”
