Chapter 2 - The Silent Poison
Two hours later, Daniel sat in the back of his armored Maybach, staring out the window at the rain beginning to paint the streets of New York City. In his hand, he held a sleek black phone.
He didn't call the police. Not yet. A man of his stature couldn't afford a public scandal based on a child’s accusation. If the media got hold of a story that the billionaire Daniel Carter was being poisoned by his fiancée, stock prices in Carter Global would plummet, investors would panic, and his life's work would be dismantled in a single afternoon.
Instead, he called Dr. Harrison Vance, a private toxicologist who had worked for the Carter family for over a decade.
"Daniel," Vance answered on the second ring. "To what do I owe the pleasure? I thought you'd be busy with wedding planning."
"Harrison, I need a private favor. Extremely confidential," Daniel said, his voice low. "I'm sending my driver to your private lab with a sample. It's a food sample. I need a full toxicology screening. I need to know if there are any foreign substances, specifically crushed pharmaceuticals, in the butter."
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "Daniel... is everything alright?"
"Just run the test, Harrison. Call me the second you have the results. Do not log this into your system. Keep it completely off the record."
"Understood. Send it over."
Daniel hung up. He leaned his head back against the leather headrest, closing his eyes. His mind raced back through the last two years.
He had met Victoria at a charity gala. She was a rising star in the art curation world, sophisticated and deeply cultured. She had comforted him through the lingering grief of losing his first wife, Sarah, who had passed away from a sudden, tragic cardiac arrest three years ago.
Cardiac arrest.
The thought hit Daniel like a physical blow.
Sarah had been healthy. She was thirty-six, an avid runner, with no history of heart disease. Yet, one evening, she had collapsed in their bed, her heart simply stopping. The doctors had ruled it a tragic, sudden arrhythmic death syndrome.
At the time, Daniel was too consumed by grief to ask questions. But now, a terrifying pattern began to form in his mind.
Victoria had been a friend of Sarah's. She had been around the house during the final months of Sarah’s life.
Daniel opened his eyes, a cold dread washing over him. He grabbed his phone and dialed his head of private security, Marcus.
"Marcus. I need you to do a deep dive into Victoria Lang. I don't want the surface-level background check we did when we started dating. I want her financial records, her past relationships, her medical history, and her connections to any pharmaceutical companies. I want to know where she spends every dollar, and I want it by tonight."
"On it, Mr. Carter," Marcus replied. "Should I place a tail on her?"
"Yes. She’s currently at the Manhattan penthouse. Watch her. Do not let her know she is being watched. If she attempts to leave the city, let me know immediately."
"Understood."
Daniel ended the call. He felt like he was standing on a frozen lake, and the ice was beginning to crack beneath his feet.
By 4:00 PM, Daniel was sitting in his high-rise office overlooking Manhattan. He hadn't touched his lunch. His assistant, Clara, entered the room, looking nervous.
"Mr. Carter, Dr. Vance is on the secure line."
Daniel snatched the receiver. "Harrison. What did you find?"
Dr. Vance's voice was grim. "Daniel, I ran the sample twice to be absolutely sure. The butter on that toast was laced with a high concentration of Digoxin."
Daniel's grip on the phone tightened until his knuckles turned white. "What is Digoxin?"
"It’s a cardiac medication," Vance explained. "In small, controlled doses, it treats heart failure. But in high doses, or when accumulated over time in a healthy individual, it causes severe toxicity. It mimics the symptoms of a natural heart attack. It slows the heart rate down, causes nausea, confusion, and eventually, cardiac arrest. It is incredibly difficult to detect in a standard autopsy unless the coroner is specifically looking for it."
Daniel’s breath hitched. "How long would it take to kill someone?"
"In the concentration found in that butter? If you had eaten that slice, and had been consuming smaller doses over the past few weeks, your heart would have failed within days. It would have looked completely natural. A sudden cardiac event."
Daniel sat in silence, the blood rushing in his ears.
She was trying to kill me.
The woman he was going to marry, the woman who slept beside him every night, was systematically preparing to murder him.
"Daniel?" Vance’s voice called out, filled with concern. "Are you there?"
"Yes," Daniel whispered. "Thank you, Harrison. Destroy the sample. Do not speak of this to anyone."
"Daniel, you need to go to the police. This is attempted murder."
"I will handle it," Daniel said coldly, and hung up.
May you like
The pieces of the puzzle were falling into place, and the picture they formed was horrifying. But the nightmare was only beginning. Just as he set the phone down, Marcus walked into his office, a thick manila folder in his hand.
"Mr. Carter," Marcus said, his face grave. "We have a problem. A very big problem."
