Chapter 6 - A Dangerous Proof
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By six o'clock that evening, the effects of my deception were startlingly clear.
Without the chemical sedative coursing through his bloodstream, Noah didn't throw a single glass. He didn't scream. He didn't try to crawl under the furniture.
Instead, he sat beside me on the plush rug, quietly building a towering wooden castle out of red blocks.
“Clara?” he asked softly, placing a square block on top.
“Yes, Noah?”
“My head doesn't feel like buzzing bees today,” he said, looking up at me with clear, lucid dark eyes. “The white man... he makes the room turn upside down.”
My chest swallowed a knot of pure rage. “I know, buddy. But I’m going to make sure he doesn't do it anymore.”
The nursery door swung open. Dominic Vale stood in the threshold. He had removed his suit jacket, his white dress shirt sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing dark mafia tattoos stretching up his muscular wrists.
He looked at his son, then at the orderly room, then at me.
“He hasn't had an episode today,” Dominic noted, stepping into the room. His presence was overwhelming, filling the space with a quiet, lethal power.
“He hasn't had an episode because he wasn't drugged today,” I said directly.
Dominic’s gray eyes snapped to mine, deadly sharp. “Watch your tongue, Clara.”
“I’m telling you the truth,” I insisted, standing up and reaching into my apron pocket. I pulled out a sealed plastic ziplock bag containing the soaked cotton balls. “Dr. Julian gives him high doses of a neuro-suppressant every afternoon. I swapped it for grape juice today. Look at your son, Mr. Vale. Does he look psychotic to you?”
Dominic looked down at Noah, who was looking up at his father without a trace of the wild, animalistic fear that usually dominated his expression.
Dominic walked toward me, taking the sealed bag from my hand.
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“If you are lying to me, Clara,” Dominic whispered, his face inches from mine, “I will throw you into the Chicago River myself.”
“Test it,” I challenged, staring right back into the eyes of the city's most feared criminal. “Test the liquid, Dominic.”
