Chapter 8 - THE LOCKED HOSPITAL ROOM
Robert reached the hospital twenty-eight minutes later.
Michael waited outside the emergency department, his white shirt stained with blood from a cut on Ellen’s hand.
“What happened?” Robert demanded.
“She was making tea. Then she started slurring her words.”
“Did she drink it?”
“One sip.”
“Where is the cup?”
Michael looked confused.
“At home.”
“Did anyone enter the house?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I was upstairs.”
Robert pushed through the emergency doors.
A nurse blocked him.
“Sir, you need to wait.”
“That is my wife.”
“The doctor will speak with you.”
Robert saw Ellen through the glass partition. She lay unconscious beneath a white blanket while two physicians worked beside her.
Michael came up behind him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Robert turned.
“Someone may have drugged her.”
Michael stared.
“Why?”
“To stop her from talking.”
“About the clinic?”
Robert nodded.
Michael ran a hand over his face.
“This is my fault.”
“You did not poison her.”
“I brought Cassandra into this family.”
Robert looked at his son.
“You also left your injured mother on a floor.”
Michael flinched.
“I know.”
“You will answer for it. But right now, we keep her alive.”
The doctor emerged twenty minutes later.
“Mr. Whitaker?”
“Yes.”
“Your wife has a sedative in her system. It is not a medication commonly prescribed today.”
“Can you identify it?”
“We’re running toxicology tests.”
“Will she recover?”
“We believe so. Her breathing is stable.”
Robert looked through the glass.
“Can I see her?”
“In a few minutes.”
The doctor walked away.
Michael sat heavily.
“Cassandra called me.”
Robert turned.
“When?”
“While you were gone.”
“What did she say?”
“She was crying. She said her father had taken her phone and locked her inside the Cross estate.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I don’t know.”
“What else?”
“She told me not to trust Leah.”
Robert’s attention sharpened.
“She knows Leah?”
“She said Leah tried to extort her family.”
“For what?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
Michael handed Robert his phone.
“She sent a location before the call ended.”
It was the Cross estate.
Robert returned the phone.
“We are not going there yet.”
“But Cassandra may be trapped.”
“And your mother was poisoned in her own kitchen.”
Michael stood.
“You think Cassandra did it?”
“I think we know very little about the woman you married.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“You never liked her.”
“This is not about whether I like her.”
“Mom believed Cassandra could be my sister.”
“Do you?”
Michael looked away.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
Robert studied him.
“Did you and Cassandra ever take a DNA test?”
“No.”
“Then you will.”
Michael laughed nervously.
“Today?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Why?”
“Because the truth does not become less true when we avoid it.”
Before Michael could answer, a police officer entered the waiting area.
“Robert Whitaker?”
Robert turned.
“Yes?”
The officer approached.
“We need to ask you some questions about your wife.”
“Why?”
“We received a report that she may have attempted to harm herself.”
Robert stared.
“From whom?”
“I can’t disclose that.”
“She was poisoned.”
“We were told she had a history of emotional instability.”
“That is a lie.”
The officer opened a notebook.
“Were there any arguments in the home?”
Michael stepped forward.
“My mother did not harm herself.”
The officer looked at him.
“You are?”
“Michael Whitaker.”
Recognition flickered across the officer’s face.
“The groom from the Cross wedding?”
Michael stiffened.
“Yes.”
The officer closed his notebook slightly.
“I was informed there was an incident involving your mother at the venue.”
Robert’s voice hardened.
“What incident?”
“A fall.”
“She was pushed.”
The officer looked at Michael.
“By whom?”
Robert held his son’s gaze.
“Michael.”
The color left Michael’s face.
The officer reopened his notebook.
“Mr. Whitaker, I’m going to need both of you to remain here.”
Michael looked at Robert with shock and betrayal.
“You’re reporting me now?”
“I am telling the truth.”
“You said we had to keep Mom alive.”
“We do. That does not require lying for you.”
The officer asked Michael to step into another room.
Michael’s eyes remained fixed on his father as he followed.
Robert felt pain, but no regret.
Ellen had protected their son until protection became permission.
Robert would not make the same mistake.
A nurse soon allowed him into Ellen’s room.
She remained unconscious.
Robert sat beside her and held her hand.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I should have seen what was happening.”
Her eyelids did not move.
He placed Margaret’s letter on the bedside table.
A shadow passed beneath the door.
Robert looked up.
Someone stood outside.
He rose and opened the door.
The hallway was empty.
Then he noticed an envelope on the floor.
Inside was a photograph of Ellen lying in the hospital bed.
It had been taken only moments earlier.
On the back was a handwritten warning.
Give us the recovered footage, or next time she will not wake up.
Robert looked toward the security camera at the end of the hallway.
Its indicator light was dark.
Someone had disabled it.
His phone rang.
Daniel, the venue manager, was calling.
Robert answered.
“Daniel?”
The man sounded breathless.
“Mr. Whitaker, someone broke into my office.”
“Is the footage gone?”
“The laptop is gone.”
“What about the backup?”
A pause.
“Only you have it.”
Robert touched the flash drive in his pocket.
“No,” he said quietly. “Someone believes I do.”
Behind him, Ellen’s heart monitor suddenly began to alarm.
Robert spun around.
A woman in a nurse’s uniform stood beside Ellen’s IV.
She was injecting something into the line.
“Stop!”
The woman dropped the syringe and ran.
Robert lunged after her, but she disappeared through a stairwell door.
Doctors rushed into Ellen’s room.
May you like
Robert stepped back as they surrounded his wife.
On the floor near the IV pole lay a silver crescent charm.
