Chapter 3
The hospital waiting room smelled like antiseptic and fear.
Bright fluorescent lights hummed overhead, making everyone look sick and exhausted.
I sat in a plastic chair in the corner, watching my parents pace.
Richard was a wreck.
His tie was gone, his shirt unbuttoned at the collar, his hair sticking up where he’d run his hands through it a hundred times.
He paced back and forth, back and forth, like a caged animal.
Every few minutes he’d stop and stare at the double doors leading to the ER, his eyes red and swollen.
My mother sat on a bench, her face buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
She hadn’t spoken a word since we’d arrived.
No one had.
The only sounds were Richard’s footsteps and the distant beep of monitors down the hall.
An hour passed.
Then two.
Three.
Finally, a doctor in blue scrubs pushed through the double doors.
He looked tired.
Serious.
Richard practically threw himself at the man.
“Doctor! How is she? That’s my daughter! Madison Brooks! Tell me she’s okay!”
The doctor held up a hand, calm and steady.
“Mr. Brooks, please. Your daughter is stable. We were able to get her heart rate and breathing back under control.”
A huge, shuddering breath tore out of Richard.
He collapsed against the wall, covering his face with his hands, sobbing in relief.
My mother jumped up, grabbing the doctor’s arm.
“Thank God. Oh, thank God. Can we see her?”
“Not yet,” the doctor said gently. “She’s still unconscious. We’ve moved her to the ICU. She’ll need close monitoring for the next twenty-four hours.”
He paused, his gaze moving between all three of us.
“Mr. and Mrs. Brooks… Natalie. We need to talk about what happened.”
Richard went rigid.
I saw the color drain from his face all over again.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his voice too loud, too sharp. “You just said she’s stable. What else is there to talk about?”
The doctor’s expression didn’t change.
“Mr. Brooks, when we ran the toxicology screen… we found a very high concentration of a powerful sedative in your daughter’s system. Combined with the alcohol in her blood, it almost stopped her heart. If she’d had even one more sip… she wouldn’t be here right now.”
Silence.
Heavy, cold, suffocating silence.
My mother’s hand flew to her throat.
“A sedative? What… what are you saying? Madison doesn’t take sedatives. She’s never even had a headache that wasn’t cured by Tylenol. How—”
“That’s what we need to know,” the doctor said. “This wasn’t an accidental overdose of a prescribed medication. This was a large, single dose of something that isn’t sold over the counter. Something that’s very tightly controlled. Someone gave this to her. Intentionally.”
Richard made a strange, choking sound.
He looked at me.
Just for a split second.
His eyes wide, terrified, pleading.
Don’t say anything.
Please God, don’t say anything.
I stared back at him, my face completely blank.
I said nothing.
The police arrived ten minutes later.
Two plainclothes detectives.
One man, one woman.
They pulled my parents into a private family room to talk first.
I was left alone in the waiting room for another hour.
When they finally called me in, Richard was sitting in the corner, his face buried in his hands.
My mother was on the couch, her eyes red and puffy, staring at nothing.
Detective Carter, the woman, smiled gently at me as I sat down.
“Natalie. Thank you for talking to us. I know this has been a terrible night for your family.”
She was nice.
Calm.
But her eyes were sharp.
She missed nothing.
“Natalie,” she said, leaning forward slightly. “We understand you were standing near your sister right before she collapsed. Is that correct?”
I nodded.
“Yes. She came over to congratulate me. We talked for a minute. She had a glass of champagne.”
“Did you see where she got that champagne?”
Here it was.
The moment I’d been waiting for.
The moment I could end Richard right here, right now.
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.
He wasn’t looking at the detective.
He was looking at me.
His whole body was tense, coiled like a spring ready to snap.
If I said the words…
“I saw my father pour something into that glass.”
…his life would be over.
Instantly.
But I thought about the lawyers.
I thought about his money.
His connections.
I thought about how he’d spent twenty-two years making everyone believe I was the difficult, ungrateful daughter.
How easy it would be for him to turn this around.
To say I was jealous.
To say I’d put the powder in the glass myself and was now blaming him.
Madison was still unconscious.
She couldn’t back me up.
There was no physical evidence tying him to it.
He’d been careful.
The packet was long gone.
No.
Not yet.
I needed more.
I needed to make sure when I struck, he couldn’t get back up.
I turned back to Detective Carter, my eyes wide and innocent.
“I think she picked it up from the main champagne table,” I said softly. “There were a lot of glasses out. A lot of guests coming and going. Anyone could have… I don’t know. I’m sorry. I wish I’d seen more.”
I let a tear slide down my cheek.
Perfect.
Believable.
Richard let out a breath so loud I could hear it from across the room.
He slumped back in his chair, closing his eyes.
For now, he was safe.
But he’d spend every second until Madison woke up wondering when I’d decide to talk.
And that?
May you like
That was almost better than having him arrested tonight.
Almost.
