Chapter 2 - What Dr. Harris Confirmed. .
Dr. Harris crossed the room immediately, carefully lifting the small brown bottle with a gloved hand, his expression shifting rapidly from confusion toward genuine, mounting alarm.
"This needs immediate laboratory analysis," he said, already reaching for his medical bag. "Mr. Vale, this could explain everything we've been struggling to properly identify these past several weeks."
Vanessa's composure had visibly cracked. "I have no idea how that got there," she said quickly. "Alessandro, you can't possibly believe I had any involvement with this."
I studied her carefully, my exhausted mind working through the devastating implications with growing, cold clarity. "That's my pillow, Vanessa. The one you've personally arranged and adjusted every single night for the past three months, insisting the household staff shouldn't handle something so personally important to my comfort."
"That doesn't mean I put anything inside it," she said, though her voice carried considerably less conviction than the denial required.
Lily, still sitting on the edge of my bed, spoke again with characteristic, unfiltered directness. "The pretty lady comes in every night after everyone leaves," she said. "I see her sometimes when I bring towels for Mama. She always touches your pillow before she goes."
The room's tension deepened considerably, every eye now fixed on Vanessa's rapidly paling face.
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"She's a child," Vanessa said desperately. "Children invent things constantly."
"Not children who've never once met you before tonight," I said quietly, understanding crystallizing with devastating, complete clarity.
