Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER LEFT
Sophia visited the hospital the next morning carrying flowers.
She looked exhausted. Her eyes were red, and her voice trembled when she
approached the bed.
“I was so frightened when you left the house.”
Ethan watched her carefully.
“Who told you I was admitted?”
“Your driver.”
“Did you know the independent laboratory found an unprescribed drug in
the tablet Maya gave me?”
Sophia’s fingers tightened around the flowers.
“No.”
“The bottle was in your dressing room.”
She set the flowers down.
“I keep spare supplies. You know that.”
“Not medication that isn’t prescribed to me.”
“Ethan, I would never hurt you.”
He wanted to believe her. That was the cruelest part. He remembered her
sitting beside him after the crash, holding his hand while he cried
because he could not stand without assistance. He remembered the first
time she helped him transfer into his wheelchair. He had mistaken her
attention for love.
“Did you change the labels on my medicine?” he asked.
Sophia looked wounded.
“I organized your prescriptions because you were forgetting things.”
“My records say the pharmacy never issued those bottles.”
“Then the pharmacy made a mistake.”
“Several times?”
She moved closer.
“You’re tired. You’re frightened. And Naomi is filling your head with
suspicions because she wants control of the company.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“Naomi has represented me since before I had a company worth
controlling.”
Sophia leaned down.
“Please. Let me take you home. I’ll handle everything.”
“No.”
The word surprised them both.
Sophia straightened.
“You can’t manage without help.”
“I have doctors. Nurses. A legal team. And people who don’t need me to
stay sick.”
Her face went still.
Then she picked up her handbag.
“You’ll regret shutting me out.”
After she left, Ethan asked Naomi to check the security system.
The housekeeper had already copied footage from the kitchen corridor.
One recording showed Sophia entering the medication cabinet after the
visiting nurse had left. Another showed her carrying two bottles into
the pantry and returning with one.
The time stamps matched the days Ethan had reported sudden weakness.
There was more.
A camera in the garage showed Adrian Voss arriving after midnight on
three separate occasions. He had not signed the visitor log.
Naomi watched the footage twice.
“Your chief operating officer has been meeting your fiancée in secret.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Get the original files to the detective.”
May you like
Naomi hesitated. “Are you ready for what this might mean?”
“No,” he said honestly. “But I’m done letting that decide what I do.”
