Chapter 3: Playing the Game
Chapter 3: Playing the Game
Holding the medical report in my hands, my first instinct was to drive to the police station. I wanted Eleanor in handcuffs. I wanted Kenneth ruined. But Marcus, who met me at the clinic, caught my shoulder.
"If you go to the cops now, Eleanor’s high-priced lawyers will claim medical mishap. They’ll blame the doctor, she’ll play the clueless, grieving mother, and she’ll fight you for custody using your heavy travel schedule against you," Marcus warned. "We need to catch them together. We need to prove the financial motive and the conspiracy. We need to let them think they are still winning while we set the trap."
Returning Iris to her room just twenty minutes before Eleanor got home was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had to look at my daughter, knowing she was being poisoned, and tell her to pretend to be weak just a little longer.
"Daddy is going to fix this, Iris. I promise you, with everything I have. Just drink only the water bottles I put in your backpack, okay? Don't drink anything from the kitchen pitchers." She nodded, gripping my hand with surprising strength.
That evening, Eleanor returned, glowing from her spa day. She went into the kitchen to prepare Iris’s dinner—a bowl of soup. I watched from the shadows of the hallway. I saw her open a small cabinet above the refrigerator, pull out a unmarked amber vial, and drop three clear droplets into the broth.
My blood ran boiling hot, but I forced my fists to stay unclenched. I recorded her on my phone through the crack in the door. Evidence item number one.
Over the next three days, I played the part of the oblivious, overworked husband. I told Eleanor that my corporate meetings were getting even more intense and that I needed to take an overnight trip to Chicago to finalize a multi-million-dollar merger.
"Oh, honey, that’s wonderful for your career," she purred, smoothing my tie. "Go. Take care of business. We’ll be perfectly fine here."
"I know you will," I said, kissing her forehead, feeling a profound disgust.
Instead of going to the airport, I checked into a hotel three miles from my house. Marcus had spent the last forty-eight hours bugging my home office, the living room, and cloning Eleanor’s phone data after intercepting her unencrypted cloud backups.
By Thursday night, the trap was set. Marcus and I sat in the hotel room, staring at a bank of monitors displaying the live audio and video feeds from my home.
At 9:00 PM, a sleek black Mercedes pulled into my driveway. Dr. Julian Kenneth stepped out. He didn't knock; he used a key. My key.
On the screen, Eleanor met him in the foyer, throwing her arms around his neck. They kissed passionately—a betrayal captured in high-definition infrared light.
"Is the idiot safely in Chicago?" Kenneth asked, pouring himself a drink from my crystal decanter.
"He's there, obsessing over his spreadsheets," Eleanor laughed, leaning against him. "He actually thought Iris standing up was a miracle. I told him it was a muscle twitch, and he bought it like the fool he is."
"Good. The final transfer from the trust fund clears on Monday," Kenneth said, pulling a document from his breast pocket. "Once the fund is emptied to the shell account, we file the medical bankruptcy paperwork for Iris's treatment. Arthur will have to liquidate his personal stock options to cover the 'outstanding debts' we've fabricated. We’ll split that, and then you can finally file for divorce, claiming abandonment due to his travel schedule."
"And Iris?" Eleanor asked, her voice chillingly indifferent.
"We place her in a permanent state-funded residential care facility. With her medical records showing 'rapid degeneration,' no one will question it. We’ll be free, Eleanor. With over two million dollars of his money."
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I leaned back in my chair, my breathing shallow, staring at the screen. "You have all of this recorded, Marcus?"
Marcus smiled grimly, hitting the save button. "Every single word, byte, and frame. It's time to call the federal prosecutors and the local precinct. We have them for grand larceny, wire fraud, conspiracy, and child endangerment."
