Chapter 2 - NO EXPLANATION
Ethan picked up the bottle without touching the pills.
"Who gave her this?"
Margaret recovered quickly. She always did.
"Your wife has been unstable since the accident. Her doctor changed her medication. She gets confused. You know that."
Ava pushed herself onto one elbow. "That doctor is dead."
Margaret's mouth tightened.
Lena helped Ava stay still until paramedics arrived. Ethan followed every movement, his face turning harder by the second.
"She fell," Margaret told the first paramedic.
"No," Lena said.
Margaret shot her a warning look.
Lena didn't flinch. "Her wheelchair was hit. I saw it."
At the hospital, Ava was treated for a badly bruised shoulder and a cut near her hairline. Nothing was broken, but the physician ordered bloodwork after Ethan handed over the bottle and the untouched glass of juice.
Margaret was kept outside the treatment room.
"Ethan," she hissed in the hallway, "you are humiliating your own mother over the word of a maid."
Lena heard her from a plastic chair.
"My name is Lena," she said quietly.
Margaret ignored her.
Ethan didn't.
"You hit Lena. You pushed Ava's chair. I saw what was on that desk. So right now, Mom, you don't get to tell me what I'm seeing."
Margaret's face changed. Not hurt. Calculation.
"If you turn against me because Ava is scared, you will regret it."
Inside the room, Ava heard every word.
She had heard versions of that sentence for years.
When Ethan came back in, she looked at him and said, "You need to know something."
He pulled a chair close.
"I've been losing hours. Whole pieces of days. I thought it was the pain medicine. Margaret kept telling me the accident damaged my memory."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Ava laughed once, bitterly. "I did. Three times. You told me your mother said the neurologist expected it."
Ethan's face drained.
The doctor entered before he could answer.
She closed the door behind her.
"Mr. Hale, we ran an initial toxicology screen. Your wife has a sedative in her system that is not listed anywhere in her current medical chart."
Ava stared at Ethan.
The doctor continued.
May you like
"And based on the concentration, this was not a one-time dose."
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