The Glass She Was Never Supposed to Finish
Chapter 01 - The Glass She Was Never Supposed to Finish
Claire Bennett had spent three months confined to a wheelchair in the Westmoor mansion.
The doctors said pregnancy complications had weakened her legs. Her husband, Ethan, believed the diagnosis because it came from Dr. Wallace, the physician who had treated the Westmoor family for decades.
Only Claire suspected something was wrong.
Each morning, her mother-in-law, Margaret Westmoor, personally brought her vitamins and a glass of water. Each afternoon, Claire felt dizzy, numb, and too exhausted to question anyone.
On the day Ethan was scheduled to return from London, Margaret entered the sunlit hall wearing a black dress and carrying the usual tray.
“Drink this,” she said. “The doctor was very clear.”
Nurse Olivia stood behind Claire’s wheelchair, tense and silent.
Claire looked at the water. A faint bitter smell rose from the glass.
“I already took my medication.”
Margaret’s smile disappeared. “Do not make everything difficult.”
Claire slowly raised the glass.
For weeks, she had hidden tiny doses beneath her tongue and later spit them into a cloth. That morning, however, Margaret watched every movement.
Claire drank.
Within seconds, the hallway tilted.
Her fingers slipped from the glass. It shattered across the marble as pain spread through her stomach. Claire fell from the wheelchair, curling around her unborn child.
Olivia screamed and dropped to her knees.
Margaret did not call for help.
Instead, she reached into her sleeve and pulled out a small blue-capped vial.
“You gave her too much,” Olivia whispered.
Margaret’s eyes flashed. “Be quiet.”
At that moment, the mansion doors opened.
Ethan rushed inside, still carrying his travel bag.
“Claire!”
He crossed the hall and knelt beside her. Margaret quickly hid the vial behind her back.
Claire struggled to speak.
“She put something in the water.”
Margaret shook her head. “She is confused. The pregnancy has affected her mind.”
Ethan looked from his wife to his mother.
Then the vial slipped from Margaret’s hand.
It rolled across the floor and stopped beside Ethan’s shoe.
No one moved.
Olivia stared at it.
Margaret’s face went pale.
Ethan picked up the vial and read the handwritten label.
It contained a medication Claire had never been prescribed.
May you like
And beneath the drug’s name was a second line:
FINAL DOSE BEFORE SIGNATURE.
