Chapter 4 - The Poison in the Silverware and the Swapped Vials
By the second week, my recovery transitioned from a battle against my own damaged nerves to a dangerous game of counter-espionage.
Tessa had taken total control over my diet and medication. Under the guise of strict nurse-patient protocol, she insisted on preparing my meals personally in the secondary staff kitchen, claiming that my gastrointestinal tract required specialized clinical nutrition.
In reality, she was flushing Arya’s poisons out of my system.
One evening, around 8:30 PM, Tessa walked into my room with a small, sealed glass vial she had confiscated from the butler’s pantry.
“Look at this,” she whispered, locking the door behind her.
She held the vial up to the lamplight. It was labeled as a common vitamin B complex, prescribed by the Corvino family physician—Dr. Robert Albright, a man who owed his medical license to Dominic’s political connections.
“I took a sample to an independent lab across the state line during my shift break yesterday,” Tessa said, her face grim. “It's Succinylcholine in micro-doses, mixed with heavy sedatives. Taken daily, it keeps your diaphragm weak and completely blocks the acetylcholine receptors in your motor endplates. If you took this for another sixty days, your heart would have quietly stopped in your sleep. The coroner would have ruled it respiratory failure secondary to spinal trauma.”
The depth of their malice was bottomless.
They weren't just content with stealing my companies; they were actively executing a slow-motion murder inside my own home, in the very bed where my father had slept.
“What did you replace it with?” I asked, looking at the small pill dispenser on my nightstand.
“Purified saline and crushed calcium tablets,” Tessa replied, setting a fresh glass of water on the table. “Arya watches you swallow them every night. As long as she thinks you’re taking the poison, she won't change the timeline. She thinks she has you entirely under control.”
“And Albright?”
“I have copies of his forged prescriptions and the pharmacy receipts Dominic paid for with corporate credit cards,” Tessa said, patting her scrub pocket. “I gave duplicates to Dr. Bennett. He has them locked in a safe deposit box under a pseudonym.”
I looked at this twenty-four-year-old woman. She was risking her freedom, her safety, and her sister's future to stand between me and a pack of wolves.
“Tessa,” I said softly.
She looked at me, startled by the change in my tone.
“When this is over,” I said, holding her gaze, “Dominic and Arya will be destroyed. But you... you will never have to worry about a bill, a hospital fee, or rent for the rest of your life. I swear that on my mother's grave.”
Tessa’s expression softened, but she shook her head slightly.
“I don't want a reward, Mr. Corvino. I just want to see you stand up and take back what belongs to you. Now, stop talking. We have two hours before Arya comes up for her evening check, and your quadriceps need three hundred repetitions.”
That night, the pain was blinding.
With Bennett’s guidance, Tessa applied high-frequency electrical stimulation pads to my thighs. Every jolt of current felt like boiling oil poured directly into the bone marrow.
I bit down on a folded leather belt to keep from screaming.
Tessa held my shoulders down with her entire body weight, her voice whispering urgently into my ear through the haze of agony: “Fight it, Vincent. Push through the fire. Don't let them win. Push!”
At the end of the session, both of my legs surged forward, kicking the stimulation pads off the mattress.
May you like
The fire wasn't just pain anymore.
It was power returning to the machine.
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