Chapter 2 - THE DRINK MEANT FOR SOMEONE ELSE
Harper regained consciousness in the emergency room forty-three minutes later.
She was frightened and confused, but she was breathing normally again. I sat beside her bed while Nolan spoke quietly with Dr. Leah Morgan in the hallway.
When he returned, he closed the door behind him.
“What did they find?” I asked.
He glanced at Harper before answering.
“A sedative.”
My stomach tightened.
“What kind?”
“Zolpidem. A prescription sleep medication.”
“I don’t have that in the house.”
“I know.”
“How much did she drink?”
“Enough to be dangerous for a child her size. The doctor believes she’ll recover completely, but they’re keeping her overnight.”
I looked at my daughter beneath the hospital blanket. A glittery birthday sticker was still attached to her white shirt.
“Who would do this to her?”
Nolan pulled a chair closer.
“I don’t think Harper was the intended target.”
I stared at him.
He placed my phone on the table and opened the security footage.
The first camera showed the dining room from above. Twenty minutes before Harper collapsed, I stood near the cake table speaking with relatives. On the kitchen counter beside me was a tall glass with a gold rim.
My glass.
I always used it during family gatherings because my mother complained that disposable cups looked cheap.
The footage showed Sabrina enter the kitchen alone.
She looked toward the dining room, removed something from her cardigan pocket, crushed it with the back of a spoon, and stirred the powder into my lemonade.
My entire body went cold.
“She was drugging me.”
Nolan nodded.
The next clip showed my mother clearing space near the cake. Harper approached her and held up the empty unicorn cup.
Mom picked up my untouched glass, poured its contents into Harper’s cup, and handed it to her.
She had transferred the drug without knowing it was there.
For several seconds, neither Nolan nor I spoke.
Then I remembered Sabrina’s smile.
“She expected me to drink it.”
“Yes.”
“And when Harper collapsed, she realized what had happened.”
“She knew exactly what was in that cup.”
A knock sounded at the door.
My mother entered before either of us invited her.
Sabrina and Preston stood behind her.
Mom looked toward Harper and pressed a hand dramatically over her mouth.
“My precious girl.”
“Stop,” I said.
She froze.
Sabrina stepped forward. “Camille, I know you’re upset, but accusing people before we understand—”
“We understand.”
Nolan turned my phone toward them.
The footage played without sound.
Sabrina watched herself crush the pills.
Her face became blank.
Preston recovered first.
“That proves nothing. Camille takes medication all the time.”
“No, I don’t,” I said.
“You’ve been seeing a therapist.”
“Therapy is not a prescription.”
Mom looked from Sabrina to me.
“What is this?”
I replayed the footage showing her pour my drink into Harper’s cup.
Mom backed against the wall.
“I didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
She looked at Sabrina.
Sabrina’s voice became sharp. “Do not say anything.”
My mother began to cry.
“I thought it was only something to calm you down.”
The room seemed to narrow around me.
“You knew?”
“I didn’t know what she used.”
“But you knew she was putting something in my drink.”
Mom shook her head desperately. “Sabrina said you had been impossible lately. She said you were going to ruin the company sale because you were emotional about Granddad retiring.”
“The company sale was rejected.”
“Not officially.”
“It was rejected by me. I hold fifty-one percent of the voting shares.”
Preston folded his arms.
“And that is precisely the problem. You are destroying an offer that would secure this family’s future because you have some sentimental attachment to warehouse employees.”
“Those employees built the company.”
“They are replaceable.”
Harper shifted beneath the blanket.
Nolan stepped between Preston and the bed.
“Lower your voice.”
Sabrina looked at me with sudden coldness.
“You were supposed to drink one glass, become sleepy, and embarrass yourself during the family meeting after the party. No one was supposed to get hurt.”
I stared at my sister.
“You planned to drug me in front of my child.”
“You planned to block a forty-million-dollar sale.”
“You needed me declared incompetent.”
Mom wiped her cheeks. “It was not supposed to go this far.”
A hospital security officer appeared in the doorway with a police detective.
Sabrina’s confidence vanished.
Nolan handed the detective the evidence bag containing Harper’s unicorn cup.
“Start with this,” he said.
Sabrina turned toward our mother.
“You said she would never involve the police.”
Mom looked at me as if I had betrayed them.
May you like
I looked down at Harper’s small hand wrapped around mine.
“You poisoned the wrong person,” I said. “But you exposed exactly who you are.”
