Donald took my phone and stared at the photograph.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel whispered, \u201cNo, it isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
I grabbed Danielle\u2019s hand. \u201cStay beside me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald moved toward the hallway, but I caught his arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody\u2019s here\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s exactly why you don\u2019t walk blindly through the house.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel remained near the kitchen table. She looked smaller now, stripped of the authority she normally carried through our home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s another device,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Donald turned. \u201cWhat device?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA listening device.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer hit harder than I expected. Three years of breakfasts, arguments, birthdays, conversations with Danielle, private talks between Donald and me\u2014possibly heard by strangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgustin installed it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI never saw who installed anything. Agustin told me it was here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you said nothing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said nobody would be harmed if I cooperated.\u201d<\/p>\n
I pointed at the laboratory report. \u201cYou call this nobody being harmed?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel flinched.<\/p>\n
Donald dragged both hands over his face. \u201cWho is this man?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel looked toward the windows before answering.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone connected to a company you worked for when you were twenty-four.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald stared at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked at a hotel when I was twenty-four.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we told people.\u201d<\/p>\n
His expression hardened. \u201cWhat do you mean, we?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor six months you worked in pharmaceutical distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were doing deliveries and inventory work. You didn\u2019t know what the company was really moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald shook his head, but uncertainty had entered his face.<\/p>\n
Rachel continued. \u201cThe warehouse was raided. Records disappeared. Employees vanished. Your father made sure your name stayed out of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was involved long before you.\u201d<\/p>\n
I felt the room closing around us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to Agustin?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel\u2019s fingers trembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe found records he wasn\u2019t supposed to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat records?\u201d Donald asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperimental drugs. Human trials. Payments. People who had been given compounds without informed consent.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of the substance Charlene had found in my blood.<\/p>\n
Rachel looked at me. \u201cSome patients became permanently ill. Some died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Agustin tried to expose it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen why is he poisoning me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause what happened afterward changed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
She told us Agustin had disappeared after the warehouse investigation. Donald\u2019s father helped bury the scandal. Years later, Agustin resurfaced convinced that a ledger documenting everyone involved still existed.<\/p>\n
My father, Rachel said, had financed part of the company.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father hated pharmaceutical companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hated what that one became.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Rachel, my father discovered the illegal trials and eventually tried to stop them. He secured documents proving who had approved the experiments, who had accepted bribes and who had helped conceal deaths.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to him?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
Rachel looked away.<\/p>\n
I already knew I wasn\u2019t going to like the answer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father supposedly died after a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t the whole truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stepped toward her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel\u2019s voice fell.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
For several seconds I heard nothing except the refrigerator humming.<\/p>\n
Donald said my name, but I barely registered him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho killed him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Agustin believed your father possessed the ledger. He believed your father hid it before he died.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel looked around our kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomewhere connected to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
A metallic noise sounded upstairs.<\/p>\n
Donald and I froze.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanielle.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned.<\/p>\n
She was no longer beside me.<\/p>\n
I ran.<\/p>\n
The upstairs hallway was empty. Danielle\u2019s bedroom door stood open.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanielle!\u201d<\/p>\n
No answer.<\/p>\n
I entered and saw her backpack on the bed.<\/p>\n
The window was open.<\/p>\n
For one terrible second, I believed she had been taken.<\/p>\n
Then a tiny voice came from beneath the bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom?\u201d<\/p>\n
I dropped to the floor.<\/p>\n
Danielle crawled toward me, crying.<\/p>\n
I pulled her against my chest.<\/p>\n
\u201cDid somebody come in here?\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cA man.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he look like?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOlder. Gray hair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he touch you?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did he want?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandma.\u201d<\/p>\n
Footsteps sounded below us.<\/p>\n
Donald shouted my name.<\/p>\n
I carried Danielle downstairs.<\/p>\n
Rachel was gone.<\/p>\n
The front door stood open.<\/p>\n
Donald was in the kitchen staring at the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe disappeared while I was calling the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
Near the counter lay the shattered remains of Rachel\u2019s porcelain jar.<\/p>\n
Beside them was a folded note.<\/p>\n
I opened it.<\/p>\n
An address had been written beneath an instruction telling us to come to a warehouse.<\/p>\n
Donald read it over my shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
My phone vibrated again.<\/p>\n
The new message warned that involving police would put Danielle in danger.<\/p>\n
Donald saw it.<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not doing what they say.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re watching us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still call somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of Charlene.<\/p>\n
She answered immediately.<\/p>\n
I explained as quickly as I could.<\/p>\n
\u201cMadison, do not go anywhere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI reran the sample.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first screening showed immunosuppressive effects,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe compound is more complicated than that. It\u2019s designed to interfere with liver function while suppressing immune response.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow dangerous?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith repeated exposure? Potentially fatal.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Danielle.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan the damage be reversed?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf exposure stops early enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Relief barely had time to form.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s something else,\u201d Charlene said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe compound contains a tracer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA tracer?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething that could allow whoever supplied it to determine whether the substance was being consumed.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Donald.<\/p>\n
They hadn\u2019t merely been poisoning me.<\/p>\n
They had been measuring whether their plan was working.<\/p>\n
Charlene continued. \u201cWe also recovered biological material from the sample. DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhose?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may not have an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen stay inside and lock everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call ended.<\/p>\n
Donald checked the doors while I held Danielle.<\/p>\n
The lights went out.<\/p>\n
Darkness swallowed the house.<\/p>\n
Danielle screamed.<\/p>\n
I pulled her against me.<\/p>\n
Something struck the kitchen floor.<\/p>\n
Then came the unmistakable sound of a drawer sliding open.<\/p>\n
Donald illuminated the room with his phone.<\/p>\n
Footsteps crossed the kitchen.<\/p>\n
A man spoke from the darkness.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should have listened to Rachel.\u201d<\/p>\n
A flashlight clicked on.<\/p>\n
Gray hair.<\/p>\n
Dark coat.<\/p>\n
A face lined by age and something harder than age.<\/p>\n
Donald stared at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgustin?\u201d<\/p>\n
The stranger smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, little brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald\u2019s phone slipped slightly in his hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were two when your family decided that.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stepped in front of Danielle.<\/p>\n
Agustin looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve disrupted ten years of work, Madison.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy staying alive?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy asking questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy was I supposed to die?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause your father arranged everything so that control eventually passed to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Donald?\u201d<\/p>\n
Agustin looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald\u2019s face twisted. \u201cThen why involve my wife?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause your marriage connected two families that should never have been connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agustin removed an old photograph from his coat and placed it on the table.<\/p>\n
My father stood in it.<\/p>\n
Rachel stood beside him.<\/p>\n
A younger Agustin was on the other side.<\/p>\n
The fourth man was instantly recognizable.<\/p>\n
The doctor who had spent years dismissing my worsening symptoms.<\/p>\n
My hands began shaking.<\/p>\n
Agustin watched me recognize him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\u2019re finally asking the right questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donald took my phone and stared at the photograph. \u201cThat\u2019s impossible.\u201d Rachel whispered, \u201cNo, it isn\u2019t.\u201d I grabbed Danielle\u2019s hand. \u201cStay beside me.\u201d Donald moved toward the hallway, but I … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10433,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10413\/revisions\/10433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}