Chapter 1 - THE FINAL DOSE AND THE POLICE TRAPThe sterile lights of San Gabriel Hospital hummed like an electric heartbeat, echoing the fragile rhythm of my own life. Valeria stood beside the bed, her fingers gracefully wrapped around a small paper cup containing a single, innocent-looking pill. Her eyes, which had mirrored devotion for four years, were now cold glass.
"Take it, my love," she whispered, her voice honey-dripping poison. "It will make the pain go away."
I kept my eyes half-closed, mimicking the heavy lethargy of a man slipping into the final curtain. My pulse thundered in my ears, not from the digoxin slowly accumulating in my tissues, but from adrenaline. Hidden just behind the cream-colored privacy curtain, Detective Morales and two officers from the Mexico City Police Department held their breath, their body-cam lenses tracking every movement.
"I... I can't swallow," I rasped, forcing a weak tremor into my vocal cords.
"Don't be stubborn, Ernesto," Valeria sighed, though a sharp edge of impatience pierced her tone. She checked her diamond-encrusted watch—a gift I had bought her for our third anniversary. "Iván is waiting for me in the parking garage. We have a flight to book to Puerto Vallarta tonight to celebrate the down payment."
She set the cup down on the bedside table, unaware that the glass she had placed it on had been swapped out ten minutes earlier by Mateo. The real pill—laced with a lethal overload of digoxin—had already been dropped into a secure, sterile evidence vial sitting in the notary's briefcase in the hallway. In its place, Mateo had substituted a harmless calcium supplement.
Valeria reached down, forcing my jaw open with manicured nails, and dropped the fake pill onto my tongue. I pretended to struggle, swallowing with a dry rasp.
"Good boy," she purred, wiping a fake tear from her cheek. "Rest now. When you wake up, you won't have to worry about anything ever again."
She turned on her heel, her expensive Louboutin heels clicking rhythmically against the linoleum floor. The door clicked shut.
Ten seconds later, the curtain pulled back. Detective Morales stepped forward, his face grim.
"Mr. Salgado," Morales said, his voice low and professional. "That was textbook attempted murder. We have the audio from this morning, the confiscated pill currently heading to the forensics lab, and your signed testament leaving everything to young Mateo and his charitable foundation. Shall we go pick up your wife and her little friend?"
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I sat up in bed, the artificial weakness vanishing. The color had not returned to my cheeks, but the fire in my eyes was unmistakable.
"Not yet, Detective," I replied, a cold smile forming on my lips. "Let them taste paradise first. Let Iván think he has won the world. I want them to feel the height of the mountain before I push them off the edge."
