Chapter 2 - The Medicine in the Morning Glass
The following morning, Isabella placed the button beside Margaret’s plate.
Breakfast was served in the glass room overlooking the southern garden. Margaret sat at the head of the table, reading financial reports while a silver pot of tea steamed beside her.
She looked at the button without touching it.
“Where did you find that?”
“Beside my bed.”
Margaret turned one page of the report.
“You must have carried it upstairs on your clothing.”
“It came from your coat.”
“I own several black coats.”
“Were you in my bedroom last night?”
Margaret finally looked at her.
“Why would I enter your bedroom?”
“To check on the baby.”
“The baby is not born yet.”
The answer unsettled Isabella more than a denial would have.
Elena entered carrying the morning drink. It was pale green and smelled faintly of mint.
Margaret gestured toward it.
“You should drink before it loses its effectiveness.”
Isabella looked at the glass.
“What exactly is in it?”
“Vitamins.”
“Which vitamins?”
“Dr. Mercer prepared the formula.”
Elena set it beside Isabella’s hand, but her eyes flickered toward the older woman.
There was fear in them.
Isabella noticed.
Margaret noticed too.
“Elena,” she said, “you may leave.”
The maid hesitated before obeying.
When the door closed, Isabella pushed the glass away.
“I don’t want it today.”
“You have taken it every day for six weeks.”
“And I have felt sick for six weeks.”
“Pregnant women feel sick.”
“My hands shake after I drink it.”
Margaret folded the report.
“My son works fourteen hours a day to provide a secure future for you. The least you can do is follow the doctor’s instructions.”
“This isn’t about Adrian.”
“Everything in this house is about Adrian.”
Isabella stood.
The room tilted slightly.
She gripped the table.
Margaret watched her without moving.
“Sit down before you fall.”
Isabella forced herself upright.
“What are you giving me?”
For the first time, Margaret smiled.
It was not a warm smile.
“If I wanted to harm you, Isabella, do you truly believe you would still be here?”
That afternoon, Isabella poured the drink into a clean perfume bottle and hid it inside her handbag.
She had no clear plan. She only knew she needed someone outside the Vale family to examine it.
But when she prepared to leave the villa, the security gate would not open.
The guard spoke through the intercom.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Vale. We have instructions not to allow you to drive.”
“Whose instructions?”
“Mrs. Margaret Vale’s.”
“I am Mrs. Vale too.”
The guard lowered his voice.
“She said the doctor considers it unsafe.”
Isabella called Adrian.
He did not answer.
She called again.
Then a third time.
Margaret appeared behind her in the entrance hall.
“You are behaving irrationally.”
“I am leaving for one hour.”
“You are carrying my grandchild.”
“My child.”
Margaret’s expression hardened.
“The baby carries the Vale name.”
“That does not make it yours.”
“Everything that carries our name belongs to the family.”
Isabella stared at her.
Margaret stepped closer.
“Do not force me to remind you what happens to people who become a danger to this family.”
Before Isabella could answer, Elena entered from the kitchen.
The maid’s gaze moved from Margaret to Isabella’s handbag.
She knew about the bottle.
Isabella was certain of it.
That night, someone searched Isabella’s bedroom.
Nothing valuable was taken.
But the perfume bottle was gone.
In its place, on the dressing table, someone had left a photograph.
It showed Adrian as a baby in Margaret’s arms.
Behind them stood another young woman.
The woman looked almost exactly like Isabella.
May you like
Written across the bottom in faded ink were five words.
The first child was a mistake.
