Chapter 3: The Revenge That Was Planned
Hospital security locked the exits.
Marissa tried to leave anyway.
Two officers stopped her before she reached the elevator.
"I want my lawyer."
Daniel didn't even look at her.
He stood beside Noah while infectious disease specialists cleaned every wound beneath the cast.
The orthopedic surgeon arrived minutes later.
After examining the arm, his face became pale.
"I never applied this cast."
"What?" Daniel asked.
"The emergency cast I installed was fiberglass."
He pointed toward the plaster lying on the floor.
"This one was replaced."
Everyone stared.
The hospital reviewed surveillance footage from three days earlier.
At 2:17 a.m.
A woman wearing a surgical mask entered Noah's recovery room.
She carried a medical supply bag.
Minutes later she exited carrying the original fiberglass cast.
The mask hid most of her face.
But not her bracelet.
A diamond snake bracelet.
Exactly like the one wrapped around Marissa's wrist.
Police searched the Vale mansion.
Inside a locked drawer in Marissa's dressing room they found:
Disposable medical gloves.
Veterinary sedatives.
An online receipt for exotic venomous insects.
And dozens of internet searches.
"Can centipedes survive in enclosed spaces?"
"How long before infected bites become dangerous?"
"Will doctors remove a cast early?"
Daniel collapsed into a chair.
The woman he'd married hadn't wanted Noah to suffer for a day.
She had planned weeks of agony.
When detectives questioned Marissa, she finally smiled.
Not kindly.
Coldly.
"You still don't understand."
She looked directly at Daniel.
"I wasn't trying to kill him."
"I wanted him to beg."
"The same way his mother begged you not to leave her alone every night while you chased another business deal."
Daniel's face drained of color.
The truth hit harder than any accusation.
His late wife had died believing she came second to his work.
Marissa had twisted that guilt into a weapon against an innocent child.