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NINE
“Good thing you got in here as quickly as you did, Ms. Dawson,” the ER doc said.
Eden felt groggy, cold, and vulnerable. After what had happened with her head injury, being in the hospital shouldn’t faze her, but this was different. There was no chance this was an accident. Someone breaking into her house and poisoning her coffee? It had to be intentional. Someone wanted her dead.
As the doctor checked her vitals again for the umpteenth time, Eden swallowed hard and closed her eyes, willing away the lingering dizziness and nausea from the poison. The doctor frowned down at his tablet screen as he scrolled through her records. “We received your lab results and can confirm that you ingested a small dose of cyanide.”
“Cyanide,” she repeated softly with a glance at Chandler, who stood near her. Even though they’d suspected it, hearing it confirmed felt like a slap in the face. Things seemed hyper real now. God, it was bad enough she couldn’t remember anything about the murder. From here on out, she’d have to worry and triple check everything all the time in order to stay alive until the trial.
The doctor continued explaining exactly how the poison had affected her, making Eden want to draw into a tiny ball and disappear more and more. “I won’t give you a long biology lecture, Ms. Dawson,” he said, giving her a kind smile. “As I doubt you’d retain much of it at the moment, but suffice it to say, cyanide poisoning is something we take very seriously.”
“Excuse me a second,” Chandler said, his expression grim. “Be right back.”
She swallowed hard, her throat sore from the throwing up she’d done before leaving the house, and she managed to croak out words. “Will there be any lasting effects?”
The doctor finished his typing, then set his tablet aside, giving her a level, reassuring stare. “As I said, Ms. Dawson, you were very lucky to get here as fast as you did. Based on your quick action, your clean medical history and lack of any underlying conditions, and your overall fitness and health levels prior to the poisoning, I don’t believe you’ll have any lingering issues from this. However,” he stated firmly, “you must rest and take it easy until you recover fully. And you should definitely do a thorough clean out of your entire home, wearing protective gloves and masks to dispose of any food or beverages there. Cyanide can be absorbed through the skin as well, so be extra cautious. Wash all of your clothes and bedding at the very least, again, while wearing protective gear. Or even better, dispose of all of it and buy new things. And definitely discard your toiletries.”
“Got it. So…how long will I need to stay here?”
“Depends on what the second set of lab tests show and how well you feel,” the doctor said.
“I feel okay,” she said. She couldn’t lie and say she felt good—she felt a lot of things, and “good” definitely wasn’t one of them. But she felt a little steadier now. Still queasy and drowsy, but more clear-headed than she’d been before.
“Let me go check on those results now,” the doctor offered. “Sit tight.”
He left and Eden blinked hard to force away the stinging in her eyes. Crying wouldn’t help anything right now and it would only make her headache worse. She’d mostly pushed the tears back by the time the doctor walked back in again. “Good news,” he said. “Relatively speaking. The activated charcoal the EMTs gave you in the ambulance seems to have done its job and absorbed the poison in your system while the cyanide antidote will work to bind with the molecules of poison in your system so they can be safely flushed out of your body in your urine.”
He tapped his screen a few more times before glancing up at Eden again. “You’re stable now, Ms. Dawson, and it’s just a matter of getting as much fluid into you as you’ll need to flush out your system and get you back to full health again. We can certainly do that here, or, if you’d feel more comfortable outside the hospital, we can release you. Though if you chose not to stay, we’ll need your assurance that you’ll follow up with your primary physician in a few days to repeat your lab work and make sure the poison is gone from your body.”
Crappy as she felt, Eden knew she’d feel even crappier staying in the hospital. There was something about the antiseptic smell and sterile environment that drained her like nothing else. “I’d like to go home, please.”
“Understood,” the doctor said with a nod. “Now, is someone here to take you home?”
“Yes,” she answered automatically, then looked around for Chandler who hadn’t returned yet. “I mean, I think so? My…my friend who was with me, the one who called 911. He’s here somewhere. I think he had to make a phone call or something? His name is Chandler Ruthven.” The doctor dispatched a nurse to fetch Chandler, and a few moments later, he was hovering outside her door, tucking his phone into his pocket.
“You can come back in,” the doctor reassured him, and Chandler looked over at her to double-check.
She managed to muster up a weak smile. “It’s fine,” she said. “The doctor was just telling me that I can go home. Where’d you go?”
“Tell you in a minute.” Chandler finally stepped up to her side, taking her hand and giving the doctor a curt nod. His warmth gave her the strength she needed to keep it together. “I’ll be there to help her, doc,” Chandler promised. “Don’t worry.”
“Good.” The doctor smiled. “Let me go over a few things with the nurse at the desk, then we’ll get you ready for discharge. Be right back.”
He walked out and for a moment, the room was silent.
Finally, Eden said, “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Me either.” His mouth formed a thin white line. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For letting this happen to you on my watch.” He exhaled slow through his nose, giving her hand a little squeeze. “I’m supposed to be protecting you.”
“This wasn’t your fault, Chandler. There’s no way either of us could have known someone would break into my house and poison my food and—”
Her words cut off abruptly as she was hit again with the terrifying certainty someone had tried to kill her. The thought left her more sore and shaken than the aftereffects of the poison itself. Her mind kept flashing up memories of the first day after she’d woken from her coma, when her brother and Chandler had warned her that her life was in danger. She hadn’t taken the danger seriously, had figured the murderer was in jail, so what did she have to fear?
Now she knew the answer. And the answer had her terrified.
