PART 2
Liam went down the stairs barefoot, stumbling on the steps, while Gwen shouted his name from above. Outside, several neighbors had already gathered by the tree.
A woman covered her mouth. A young man held his cell phone with a trembling hand.
As he approached, Liam recognized Nora’s white nightgown. But when he knelt down, he discovered something he hadn’t expected.
Nora was alive. She was barely breathing, her lips were purple, and she had one hand closed over a crumpled piece of paper.
“Call an ambulance!” Liam shouted, feeling his voice crack.
At the Community Hospital of Flint, doctors admitted her to intensive care. Liam spent hours in a white hallway, smelling chlorine, cold sweat, and fear.
When the doctor came out, her face did not bring relief. “We managed to stabilize her,” the doctor said, “but your wife arrived with severe poisoning.”
Liam put his hands to his head. “Poisoning? Why? What happened?”
The doctor took a deep breath. “We found sedatives in her blood, but that’s not the most worrying thing. An industrial chemical, used in certain agricultural products, also appeared. It didn’t enter her body all at once, because it has been accumulating for days.”
Liam felt the floor disappear. It wasn’t just desperation, someone was poisoning Nora.
The doctor asked him if she had eaten anything unusual. Then Liam remembered something important.
Gwen had brought some wild herbs from Petoskey. She said they were good for the stomach and that Nora should prepare them in broth.
Nora ate it. Liam also tried a little.
Gwen said she was full and didn’t touch the plate.
Liam returned to the apartment, his mind shattered. He searched the kitchen, the glasses, and the food scraps.
On the balcony, he found something that didn’t belong to either of them. It was a cigarette butt hidden behind a flowerpot and a short, light brown hair.
Neither he nor Nora smoked. Gwen didn’t either, or at least that’s what he thought.
When Gwen saw him checking the balcony, she stiffened. “What are you doing there?”
Liam put the cigarette butt in a napkin. “I seek the truth.”
Gwen lowered her gaze. Desperate, Liam called Owen, his best friend, who worked for the municipal police.
They met at a coffee shop near the town square. Liam handed him the glass, the cigarette butt, the hair, and told him everything.
Owen listened without interrupting. “This is no longer a marital problem,” Owen finally said. “If there’s poison, there’s a crime.”
Hours later, Owen arrived at the apartment with a sealed envelope. “The glass had traces of the same substance,” Owen said. “And the hair belongs to a woman named Paige Brewer.”
Liam frowned. “I don’t know her.”
Owen looked at him seriously. “But Gwen did. They were friends since high school, and Paige works in an agrochemical factory.”
At that moment, a door opened upstairs. Gwen slowly descended the stairs.
Liam stood up. “Gwen, who is Paige Brewer and why did her hair appear on my balcony the night Nora almost died?”
Gwen went white. And for the first time since it all began, she couldn’t come up with a quick lie to defend himself.
