Poisoned By His Choice

Synopsis

I married the most renowned physician in town. Everyone said I was lucky. Then he brought back a young orphan, Cecelia Ochoa, and took her in as his apprentice. When I fell ill during pregnancy, he repeatedly let her—trained for barely half a month—treat me. I vomited until I was on the brink of collapse. He only said she needed experience. The day I lost the child, I drank the medicine she prescribed and immediately started bleeding. He held the crying girl in his arms and said it was my own carelessness. When his mother, Carlie Keller, suddenly fell gravely ill, he thought it was my mother instead. He let Cecelia "practice" acupuncture on her. Carlie died. And Cecelia shoved a medical into my hand, screaming, "Eleanor killed her." When everyone rushed in, I stood there, holding the medical tool beside the bed. He looked at the dead woman—his own mother—and slapped me hard across the face, eyes red with fury. "How vicious!" I slowly lifted my ruined right hand—the hand that once saved him from a blade. It could no longer even hold a medical tool. "Zander." I wiped the blood from my lips. "You protected her and killed your child. Now you've killed your own mother. This divorce letter—I should be the one writing it to you." Years later, I ran a tavern kitchen. Zander and his prized disciple were driven out of town after botching the treatment of the mayor's wife. When we met again, he was begging on the street. I calmly instructed the staff, "Fresh slop today. Don't forget to feed the dogs."