Chapter 13 - A Poisoned Bloodline
The media war turned radioactive overnight. Cameras surrounded our lake house, and the boys had to be pulled from school as paparazzi chased their bus. Claire stood strong through every deposition, but on the fifth day of the custody trial, the unimaginable happened. Claire was standing at the podium during a press conference outside Sterling-Whitmore headquarters when her speech suddenly slurred. Her face went pale, her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the concrete, vomiting blood before live news cameras. I caught her before her head hit the pavement, screaming for an ambulance as terror seized my heart. At the hospital, the toxicology report delivered a lethal revelation: Claire had been suffering from chronic, low-dose thallium poisoning over the last three months—a rare, tasteless heavy metal. The police immediately executed a search warrant on our home. In my personal study, inside the locked desk drawer where I kept my vintage coffee beans, detectives found a glass vial half-filled with liquid thallium. Before I could process the setup, officers pulled my arms behind my back and snapped handcuffs onto my wrists. "Ethan Whitmore," the lead detective announced, "you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Claire Sterling."
