Chapter 5 - The Snake in the Silk Dress
By eight o'clock that evening, the rain had returned, tapping rhythmically against the glass of the hospital room window.
Lila was awake.
She lay propped up by pillows in the ICU bed, thin plastic tubes running into her nostrils, IV lines taped to both her bruised wrists. Her large, dark eyes were hollowed out by pain, fixed staring at the ceiling.
The door clicked open softly.
Eleanor walked into the room, holding a small paper cup of warm tea. She stopped at the edge of the bed, suddenly feeling smaller than she ever had in her life. The harsh, arrogant woman who had marched up the stairs with a wooden stick felt like a shadow of someone else.
"Lila," Eleanor whispered.
Lila slowly turned her head. When her eyes met Eleanor’s, she didn't flinch. She didn't look angry. She just looked terribly, hopelessly tired.
"Mother," Lila rasped, her voice barely a whisper.
Eleanor set the cup down on the table, pulled up a vinyl chair, and sat down. For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The steady beep-beep-beep of the heart monitor was the only sound in the small room.
"I’m sorry," Eleanor said, the words falling from her lips like heavy stones. "I came into your room this morning with a stick in my hand, thinking you were selfish. Thinking you were lazy. I was cruel to you, Lila. From the day you entered my house, I treated you like an intruder."
A tiny, bitter tear squeezed out of the corner of Lila’s eye, tracing a line down her pale cheek.
"You didn't know," Lila whispered.
"I should have looked at you," Eleanor said, her voice breaking. "I should have seen that you were in pain. But I was so full of my own bitter pride... so focused on how much I had suffered when I was young, that I thought every woman after me deserved to suffer too."
Eleanor reached out, her rough, calloused fingers gently touching Lila’s thin hand. For the first time, Lila didn't pull away. She let Eleanor hold her hand.
"Lila," Eleanor said, leaning closer. "The police found poison in your blood. The doctor said you swallowed something last night. Did you take those pills yourself?"
Lila shook her head slowly, a look of profound terror filling her eyes.
"No," Lila breathed. "I wanted... I wanted that baby so much. It was the only thing in that house that felt like mine."
Eleanor felt a sharp pain in her chest. "Then who gave it to you?"
Lila swallowed hard, her throat dry. "At the party... Chloe came to the bride's room while Adrian was downstairs drinking with his cousins. She brought a glass of spiced wine. She said... she said it was a traditional family recipe from Adrian’s grandmother to help with fertility."
Eleanor’s grip tightened on Lila’s hand. "And you drank it?"
"She watched me drink it," Lila whispered, her chest heaving. "Every drop. And then... then she leaned down and whispered in my ear."
"What did she say?"
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Lila looked Eleanor dead in the eye, her voice trembling with cold horror.
"She whispered, 'Adrian belongs to a family that matters, little girl. You are just a stray dog he picked up off the street. Let’s see if your mutt blood can survive what’s coming.'"
