“What?” Riley was so shocked that she audibly gasped from the other end of the line. “What did you just say? Adam had the drug all along?”
“Yes,” I answered grimly.
“Riley, can you go to Adam’s secret chamber for me? If you can’t find an antidote there, can you take the drug to me? The doctor needs the drug to develop the antidote. The secret chamber is in Adam’s study. Just move Luca’s oil painting to the side and it’ll open the secret passage.”
Riley was even more shocked. “What? There’s a secret chamber in his study?”
“Yes,” I replied simply.
Riley fell into another bout of stunned silence.
I guessed that she was busy processing all this information.
After a long while, Riley finally agreed.
“Okay, I’ll do whatever you ask, Debra. But I hope you’ll explain to me what’s going on after you save Caleb.”
“Of course,” I agreed readily.
A N G E L A ‘s L I B R A R Y
So far, it seemed that I had bet on the right person.
But I didn’t know how Riley would react when I told her that Adam was trying to sell the town.
My hope relied on Riley’s kindness
After hanging up, I stayed outside the emergency room and waited with bated breath.
I kept offering up silent prayers to God to save Caleb.
After a long time, the light in front of the door finally went out.
They had finished operating on Caleb. He was still in a coma, lying pale-faced in the hospital bed.
“Well?” I asked uneasily, my hands trembling
Brian shook his head and sighed.
“The poison has destroyed many of his body functions. Without the antidote, I can only temporarily put him in a coma to slow down the spread of the poison.”
Looking at Caleb’s pale face, I felt so terrible.
If he hadn’t tried to save me, things wouldn’t have ended up Like this.
I clenched my fists, more determined than ever to save him. I had to see the day he woke up.
I begged Brian, “Can you buy as much time as possible?”
Brian hesitated for a moment and said, “I can, but I’ll need Melany’s help. If there’s someone in town who knows about this poison, it’ll be her. Adam had secretly assigned her to execute the criminals using the poison. She left because she couldn’t stand the work anymore.”
