Chapter 4 - The Pharmacy in the Shadows
Beatrice sank into the armchair beside the window, all the air leaving her lungs. Her eyes were hollow, staring at the floor as if she could see the ground opening up beneath her.
"How did you find that?" Beatrice whispered.
"I told you," Mara said, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm very good at my job. But what I found most interesting wasn't the debt, Beatrice. It was the pharmaceutical supplier you've been using. Aegis Labs. It’s a shell company registered in Panama, but the physical warehouse is right here in the shipping docks."
I looked at the syringe in my hand. "The medicine they've been sending for Leo... it wasn't treating him."
"No," Mara said, her expression turning grim. "It was keeping him just sick enough to prevent him from recovering, but not sick enough to trigger an immediate autopsy. They were priming him, Julian. Slowly degrading his heart muscle over six months so that when the final dose was administered, it would look like a natural progression of his illness."
I walked over to Leo's bedside, kneeling down to look at his pale, sleeping face. The guilt that washed over me was a crushing, physical weight. I had trusted my family. I had trusted the doctors they recommended. I had let them poison my son under my own roof because I was too busy trying to keep the company afloat to see the monsters in my own hallway.
"We have to get him to a real hospital," I said, my voice shaking. "Now."
"We can't just walk out, Julian," Mara said, her eyes turning toward the window. "Look outside."
I looked down at the courtyard of our estate. Two black sedans were parked near the security gates. The headlights were on, cutting through the early morning mist.
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"Who are they?" I asked.
"The Macau syndicate’s local enforcement," Mara said. "They know Beatrice's time is up. And they know you've started looking into the accounts. They aren't going to let any of us leave this house alive if it means losing that forty-million-dollar payout."
