Chapter 4
Eleanor stepped backward.
Adrian moved between her and the hospital bed.
“What medicine?”
Lily pointed at her grandmother.
“The drops Vanessa put in Noah’s bottle.”
Eleanor’s face lost all color.
“That child is confused.”
Lily began trembling.
“She came to the house. Vanessa said the drops would make Noah sleep so he wouldn’t cry when they put us outside.”
Adrian’s hands curled into fists.
“You knew.”
“No,” Eleanor said. “I brought Vanessa medication for anxiety. I never told her to give it to a baby.”
Claire grabbed the nurse-call button.
“We need security.”
Eleanor turned toward the door, but Officer Ruiz was already standing there.
He had come to update Adrian.
Instead, he had heard everything.
“Mrs. Hale,” Ruiz said, “please remain in the room.”
“I have done nothing wrong.”
“Then answering questions should be simple.”
Doctors immediately ordered blood tests for Noah.
Adrian paced the hallway while Lily sat with a child specialist.
Every passing minute felt unbearable.
Finally, the pediatrician approached.
“We found traces of a sedative in Noah’s blood.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
“Will he be all right?”
“The amount was small, but repeated exposure can be dangerous. We’re keeping him under observation.”
Adrian leaned against the wall.
His baby had been drugged inside his own home.
Claire stood beside him.
“We’ll make them pay.”
“It won’t undo what happened.”
“No. But it may stop them from doing it again.”
Police took Eleanor to the station.
She insisted she had only delivered her prescription after Vanessa claimed she was suffering panic attacks.
But investigators found messages between them.
Vanessa: Noah will not stop screaming.
Eleanor: Two drops. No more. Adrian must not notice.
Another message was worse.
Eleanor: Marcus says the board vote is Friday. Keep Adrian distracted until then.
The conspiracy was no longer a theory.
It had a deadline.
Friday was the next morning.
Adrian called his company’s chief financial officer, but no one answered.
Then he called a trusted board member.
The man sounded nervous.
“Marcus scheduled an emergency vote. He claims you’ve suffered a violent breakdown.”
“I’m standing in a hospital because my children were abused.”
“He distributed medical documents.”
“What medical documents?”
“Records showing treatment for severe anger and paranoid episodes.”
Adrian had never received such treatment.
Marcus had created a false medical history.
“If the board votes me out, what happens?”
“Marcus becomes acting chairman. He’ll control the estate accounts and the family trust.”
Adrian looked at Claire.
“How do we stop the vote?”
“You must appear in person.”
The hospital was forty minutes from company headquarters.
The meeting began in one hour.
Adrian refused to leave the children until Claire promised she would stay beside them.
As he headed toward the elevator, Lily called his name.
He returned to her bed.
“Are you coming back?”
“Always.”
“Vanessa said people who leave don’t come back.”
Adrian crouched and held her face gently.
“Listen to me. I may walk out of a room, but I will never walk out of your life.”
Lily nodded, though fear remained in her eyes.
Adrian reached the Hale Tower with six minutes to spare.
Reporters crowded the entrance.
Someone had leaked Vanessa’s photographs and her accusations.
Questions flew at him.
“Did you assault your wife?”
“Are your children being removed?”
“Are you mentally unstable?”
Adrian said nothing.
He entered the boardroom just as Marcus appeared on a large video screen from the police station.
Marcus smiled.
“My brother is dangerous,” he announced. “For the company’s protection, he must be removed.”
Adrian placed Lily’s memory card on the table.
“My brother conspired with my wife to abuse my children and steal this company.”
Board members exchanged shocked looks.
Marcus laughed.
“That card proves nothing.”
The doors opened.
Officer Ruiz entered with two digital-forensics specialists.
“It proves more than you think,” Ruiz said.
One specialist connected a laptop to the room’s screen.
A bank transfer appeared.
Three million dollars had moved from a Hale trust account into a private company owned by Marcus.
The transfer had been authorized using Eleanor’s credentials.
Marcus stopped smiling.
Then every phone in the room buzzed at once.
An emergency alert from the hospital filled Adrian’s screen.
INFANT PATIENT MISSING.
Adrian called Claire.
May you like
She answered in tears.
“Someone dressed as a nurse took Noah.”
