Chapter 1 - The Poison in the Milk
The freezing river water dripped from my soaked clothes, but the chill sinking into my bones had nothing to do with the temperature. I stared at Tobias in the shadows beneath the concrete pier. For fifteen years, I had bathed him, pushed his wheelchair, and structured my entire life around his disability. Now, he stood perfectly tall, his eyes sharp and unyielding.
"What has he been putting in my body, Tobias?" I demanded, my voice trembling over the sound of the rushing water.
Tobias reached into his waterproof pouch and pulled out a small glass vial. "Two weeks ago, I managed to swap Garrett's nightly concoction and send a sample of the milk to an independent lab in Switzerland. You thought he was giving you a holistic sleep aid because you worked long hours at the shipyard."
Tobias looked away for a fraction of a second, a flash of pure hatred crossing his features. "It was a customized, slow-acting chemical sterilizer, Rosalind. Mixed with a micro-dose of a paralytic neurotoxin."
I physically recoiled, hitting the damp concrete wall behind me. "Sterilizer?"
"The Baltimore Shipyard Trust has an ironclad succession clause," Tobias explained grimly. "If you die without an heir, your controlling shares default to your closest living blood relative. Me. But since everyone believes I am a helpless, legally incapacitated invalid, the shares would bypass me and go to your half-sister. Penelope."
The image of Penelope standing on the shore, heavily pregnant and stroking my husband's face, flashed in my mind. The betrayal hit me with the force of a freight train.
"Garrett couldn't risk you getting pregnant," Tobias said softly. "Because if you had a child, the empire would go to your baby. He sterilized you, knocked up Penelope to secure the bloodline, and then planned to drown you. With both of us dead in this river, Garrett and Penelope would inherit a billion-dollar naval empire by Monday morning."
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I pressed my hands against my face, a ragged sob tearing from my throat. The loving husband. The warm milk. The tragic accident. It was all a meticulously choreographed assassination.
"I'm sorry, Rosie," Tobias whispered, pulling me into a fierce hug. "I had to play dead for fifteen years. After Mom and Dad's brakes were cut by Garrett's father, I knew we were the next targets. I had to become entirely invisible so I could watch them. So I could build our defense. But we are not invisible anymore. And we are going to destroy them."
