Chapter 2: The Bitter Brew
“Lies!” Esther hissed, taking a step forward. “I have done nothing but care for her! I brought her tea every evening to help with her morning sickness!”
“That tea is exactly what started this,” Valeria said, her eyes locked on Alejandro, desperate for him to believe her. “About a month ago, I started feeling dizzy.
My vision would blur, and my legs would give out. You were away on business so much, Alejandro. You didn’t see how weak I was getting. I thought it was just a difficult pregnancy.”
Alejandro remembered the phone calls. Valeria sounding exhausted, distant. He had written it off as hormones and the stress of managing the estate while he was negotiating the new corporate merger in New York. Guilt twisted like a knife in his gut.
“One evening,” Valeria continued, taking a shaky breath, “I spilled the tea she brought me into the potted fern by the balcony.
By the next morning, the plant was completely withered and dead. I stopped drinking it after that.
I pretended to take it, and poured it away. But when the dizziness stopped and I got my strength back, your mother realized her plan wasn’t working.”
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Esther’s face was a mask of cold fury. “You are insane. You expect my son to believe I would poison my own grandchild?”
“It wasn’t poison to kill me instantly,” Valeria clarified, tears finally spilling over her cheeks. “It was an abortifacient. A slow-acting herbal toxin designed to force a miscarriage and make it look natural.”
