Chapter 1 - THREE SPOONFULS
At our housewarming, my mother-in-law called me a freeloader in front of nearly sixty guests.
I smiled.
I had spent seven years becoming very good at smiling.
What Brenda did not know was that the California estate she was praising her son for “providing” had been purchased entirely through my late father’s private trust.
Carter hadn’t paid for the marble beneath her shoes.
I had.
I simply never corrected anyone.
Then Carter walked toward me carrying my favorite truffle mushroom soup.
“You haven’t eaten,” he said.
His smile was perfect.
I loved that smile.
That was my first mistake.
Three spoonfuls later, metal coated my tongue.
My stomach seized.
The room tilted.
Then I vomited blood across the white marble.
Carter became the perfect husband instantly.
“Honey! Stay with me!”
He lifted me while guests screamed.
“I’m taking her to the ER!”
But twenty minutes later, I realized we weren’t heading toward Los Angeles.
Pine trees crowded both sides of the road.
Angeles National Forest.
Carter stopped in a dark clearing.
Dragged me from the backseat.
Dropped me into the mud.
Then crouched beside me.
The terrified husband was gone.
“Your life ends here.”
I could barely breathe.
“Why?”
He smiled.
“Because I’m tired of carrying you.”
Then he told me about Vanessa.
His coworker.
His lover.
And the fifty-million-dollar life-insurance policy they believed would make them rich after I died.
“I poisoned the soup,” he whispered. “By morning, this will look like your body simply gave out.”
He drove away.
I lay beneath the trees feeling my heartbeat become slower and stranger.
Then my old education returned to me.
Before marriage, I had studied forensic toxicology.
The burning.
The numbness.
The abnormal heartbeat.
The bitter taste.
I suspected aconite.
And I knew one terrifying fact.
There was no forest trick that was going to magically cure me.
I tried to vomit what remained in my stomach.
I crawled.
I screamed until no sound came.
Then headlights cut through the trees.
A man ran toward me.
“Miss Chloe!”
Mr. Henderson.
My late father’s estate manager.
He dropped beside me.
“I found you.”
I tried to speak.
Nothing came.
Henderson lifted me.
“Stay with me.”
May you like
As he carried me toward his SUV, my heart gave one violent beat.
Then everything stopped.
