Chapter 4 - The Poisoned Bottle
By Wednesday afternoon, a thick fog had rolled in off the valley, enveloping the high hill estate in a wall of gray mist.
Victoria returned at three o'clock, wearing a tailored black leather coat and dark sunglasses despite the dim light. She walked through the grand foyer with an air of cold superiority, two large shopping bags from high-end boutiques in Manhattan slung over her arm.
"Ethan!" she called out, her voice echoing through the marble hallways.
Ethan stepped out of his study. "Victoria. I thought you were in meetings today."
"I finished early, darling," she purred, walking up to him, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "I brought some designer baby clothes for little Leo. Soft organic cotton from Italy. I wanted to show you that I truly care about building a family with you."
Ethan offered a polite smile, though his eyes remained guarded. "That's very generous of you. Sarah is in the kitchen preparing his afternoon formula."
Victoria’s eyes flashed with a subtle, predatory gleam behind her dark glasses. "Oh, wonderful. Why don't you review those land deeds in your office while I drop these bags in the nursery?"
"All right," Ethan agreed, turning back toward his home office. "I'll be done in twenty minutes."
The moment Ethan’s office door clicked shut, Victoria dropped her warm smile. She walked swiftly down the hallway toward the service kitchen, her high heels clicking sharply against the white marble.
In the kitchen, Sarah was standing at the stainless-steel counter, measuring three scoops of powder formula into a sterile glass bottle, pouring warm distilled water over it.
Victoria stepped into the doorway, leaning against the frame, crossing her arms.
"You're persistent, aren't you, little maid?" Victoria sneered, her voice low so it wouldn't carry into the foyer.
Sarah didn't look up from her work. She capped the bottle and shook it gently. "I do my job, Miss Victoria."
"Your job is to clean floors and shut your mouth," Victoria spat, stepping into the kitchen. "Do you really think Ethan cares about you? You're a domestic servant in a gray uniform. I am a Vance. In two weeks, I will own this house, I will own his company, and the first thing I will do is throw you out onto the street without a dime of severance."
Sarah set the bottle down, turning around to face her directly. "Mr. Ethan hasn't signed the merger yet. And as long as I am employed here, you will not touch this baby."
Victoria let out a cold, mocking laugh. She stepped closer to the counter, reaching into her leather coat pocket. She pulled out a small, glass dropper bottle filled with a clear, odorless liquid.
"Do you know what digitalis extract is, Sarah?" Victoria whispered, her dark eyes glittering with absolute madness. "In small doses, it causes mild nausea. In larger doses... it causes a infant's heart to slow down until it simply stops beating. The doctors call it Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Tragic. Unpreventable."
Sarah’s blood turned to liquid ice. "You're insane."
"No," Victoria smiled, reaching out with lightning speed, trying to unscrew the cap of the clear dropper directly over Leo’s formula bottle on the counter. "I'm practical."
Sarah lunged forward!
She grabbed Victoria’s wrist, slamming her hand against the edge of the marble counter!
CRACK!
The tiny glass dropper slipped from Victoria’s fingers, shattering into a dozen pieces on the tile floor, the clear liquid pooling amidst the broken glass!
Victoria let out a muffled shriek of pain as Sarah twisted her wrist, pinning her back against the stainless-steel refrigerator!
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"Touch that bottle again," Sarah hissed into Victoria’s face, her gray eyes burning with lethal promise, "and I will feed the rest of that glass to you."
"Get your filthy hands off me!" Victoria screamed at the top of her lungs! "ETHAN! HELP! SHE'S ATTACKING ME!"
