Chapter 3 - THE FIRST BLOOD RESULT
The routine bloodwork came back before midnight.
Mild anemia.
Common in pregnancy.
Electrolytes acceptable.
No major organ injury.
Coagulation studies reassuring.
Then one preliminary toxicology result.
Miles came into Lucia’s room alone first.
Then asked:
“Do you want your father present?”
“Yes.”
I stayed near the window.
Miles held the chart.
“The screen detected a sedating medication class that is not listed in your prescriptions.”
Lucia stared.
“What medication?”
Miles named it.
The specific name did not matter to me as much as what came next.
“Could the hospital have given it?”
“No.”
“Ambulance?”
“No.”
“Could it be false?”
“Screening tests can produce false positives or cross-reactivity. We’ve sent confirmatory testing using a more specific method.”
Good.
No instant certainty.
“When?”
“Likely tomorrow.”
Lucia looked at me.
“I told him.”
“Who?”
“Adrian.”
“What?”
“That I felt strange after tea.”
My stomach tightened.
Miles asked:
“How many times?”
“Four. Maybe five.”
“Did you take anything for sleep?”
“No.”
“Anxiety?”
“No.”
“Pain?”
“No.”
Then she remembered Adrian’s old prescription.
Months earlier he had injured his back playing tennis.
A physician prescribed him medication briefly.
Was it the same?
Lucia didn’t know.
Neither did I.
Miles did not speculate.
Police would verify legally if relevant.
Then Lucia said:
“I thought I was becoming one of those pregnant women who can’t handle anything.”
Her voice cracked.
“Who told you that?”
I already knew.
“Adrian.”
There.
Then:
“He recorded me twice when I was dizzy.”
The room went still.
I turned.
“Recorded you?”
“He said he wanted to show me how I acted.”
“Did you see the recordings?”
“One.”
“What happened?”
“I was sitting at the kitchen island trying not to fall asleep.”
“Anything else?”
“He kept asking whether I remembered arguing with him.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“What did he say?”
“That I’d threatened to leave him.”
Lucia covered her face.
“I believed him.”
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That was when the phone stopped being evidence of one staircase incident.
It might contain a pattern.
