Chapter 5
PART 5:
Now the room was sealed.
The guards had been ordered to stay outside.
The old doctor called emergency services and a hazardous materials team from the hospital network.
No one touched the pillow.
No one touched the sheets.
Arthur sat wrapped in a clean blanket on the far side of the bed while Fiona held him steady.
He was shaking so badly his teeth clicked.
“Am I going to die?” he whispered.
Fiona’s throat tightened.
“No,” she said. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”
The old doctor heard her.
His face softened for half a second.
Then he turned back to the uncle.
“Who had access to the pillows?”
The uncle’s expression hardened again.
“Staff.”
“Names.”
“I don’t manage pillows.”
Fiona looked at him.
“You knew they didn’t go to laundry.”
His eyes snapped toward her.
“You should be careful.”
The doctor stepped between them.
“No,” he said quietly. “You should.”
The police arrived before midnight.
The family’s private guards tried to stop them at the front door.
Then the hazmat team arrived.
Then an officer with a sealed warrant from the district attorney’s office came in.
That was when the uncle stopped acting angry.
He became silent.
The pillow was bagged.
The mesh was photographed.
The insects were collected.
The tiny metal points were removed with forceps and sealed separately.
The black residue tested positive for a dangerous contaminant later that night.
Not enough to kill Arthur quickly.
Enough to poison him slowly.
Enough to keep him sick.
Enough to create symptoms that looked mysterious, expensive, and impossible.
Fiona watched from the hallway while Arthur was carried out on a stretcher, wrapped safely, his small hand gripping hers.
The uncle stood near the staircase, watching.
Arthur looked at him and turned his face away.
That hurt him more than the police.
May you like
Or maybe it only angered him.
👉 But at the hospital, Arthur’s body revealed what the mansion had been hiding for weeks…
