Chapter 5: The Secret Under the Platter**
"Why did Lily point at you tonight, Clara?" Arthur asked, his voice shaking as he read his late wife’s final words. "Why did she say you gave her bitter medicine?"
Clara closed her eyes, letting out a ragged sigh. "Because for the last four months, Miss Victoria has been slipping micro-doses of arsenic into Lily’s evening cocoa. She wanted Lily frail, mute, and completely dependent on private institutional care so you would send her away to a boarding clinic in Switzerland."
Arthur felt his blood turn to boiling acid. "My daughter..."
"I couldn't stop Victoria from cooking for her without raising suspicion," Clara continued, her chest heaving. "So every night, I intercepted the tray. I poured away Victoria’s poisoned brew and replaced it with a bitter herbal emetic—a medicine that induces mild nausea and blocks heavy metal absorption. I made Lily throw up the poison every single night. To that poor child, I was the monster forcing bitter draughts down her throat before bed."
Arthur dropped the book on the nightstand, his vision blurring with hot tears. The pieces fell together with devastating precision. Lily wasn't accusing Clara of murder; she was remembering the agonizing nightly ritual of being forced to drink the bitter antidote from the silver tray.
"Why didn't you come to me?" Arthur choked out. "Why didn't you tell me the moment Eleanor died?"
"Because you were blinded by grief, Arthur! And Victoria held all the legal leverage!" Clara stepped closer, her weathered hands gently touching Arthur’s sleeve. "If I had accused her without undeniable physical proof, she would have had me fired, arrested, and Lily would have been left completely unprotected in that nursery."
Suddenly, the floorboards in the hallway outside creaked.
Arthur instantly silenced Clara with a raised hand. He moved swiftly to the doorway and pulled it open. The dark corridor was empty, but the heavy, intoxicating aroma of French gardenias lingered thick in the cold air.
May you like
Victoria had been listening.
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