Chapter 260 Found Her
ADRIANA
We’d been at the board for almost an hour when Leo stopped moving.
He was standing in front of the section we’d built around access and proximity, something in his posture had changed. The relaxed lean he’d had since sitting down was gone and he was very still.
“Leo.” I watched him. “What is it?”
“Lana’s maid,” he said slowly as he turned around. “I bumped into her a few weeks ago in the hallway. She dropped something and I bent down to pick it up for her and she snatched it before I could grab it.” He paused. “I saw part of it. I thought it was personal so I didn’t say anything. But I saw the seal and I saw — I thought it said tux. I thought she was reading something about formal wear and it seemed strange but I just—” He stopped.
“Leo.” I straightened. “What exactly did you see on the paper?”
“The red crown at the top. And a word that I thought said tux. Just the first part of it — she grabbed it before I could see the rest.”
Hazel and I looked at each other at the exact same moment.
“Toxin,” Hazel said quietly. “He didn’t see tux. He saw the beginning of toxin.”
I felt the pieces land in my chest like something physical.
“How many maids care for Lana?” I asked Hazel.
“Three on rotation.”
“Get all three. Now.”
Hazel left the room and I turned to Leo and looked at him steadily. He was fifteen years old and he was sitting in a room in the middle of the night helping me dismantle a conspiracy that had nearly killed his father, and he was holding himself together with the particular quiet strength I recognized because it was Elijah’s.
“Your father is being poisoned,” I said. I’d been keeping it from him and I couldn’t anymore, not with him sitting here holding the piece that changed everything. “That’s why he hasn’t woken up. Someone has been administering a toxin to him over months and we’ve been treating it but we needed to find the source.” I held his gaze. “You just found it.”
He said with an exhale. “The maid.”
“Yes.”
Something moved through his face, a cold anger that he kept very controlled. He nodded once and looked back at the board.
Hazel returned with the three women. They filed into the room and stood in a line and Leo looked at each face for approximately three seconds before he spoke.
“She’s not here. The one I’m describing. She’s not one of these three.”
Hazel turned to the senior maid in the group. “Stella. Where is she?”
The woman shifted her weight. “She resigned last week, Beta. I gave her notice, collected her things and left.”
“She resigned,” I said, “after seven months of poisoning the King, and nobody flagged it to me.”
The silence in the room had a different quality after that.
“Find her address from the employment records,” I said to Hazel. “Send people to every address connected to her, family, listed contacts, emergency next of kin, all of it.” I dismissed the three maids with a gesture and turned back to the board. “She won’t have gone far. He would have needed her accessible in case the treatment needed adjusting.”
The team came back forty minutes later with a man. They said he was her brother, his address was listed as her emergency contact.
He was brought to the throne room and I stood in front of him and looked at him directly.
“Your sister administered a toxin to the King of this kingdom over a sustained period,” I said. “She has now disappeared, which tells me she knew this moment was coming and she planned for it. I need to know where she is.”
“I don’t know.” He said it quickly. “I’ve been trying to reach her myself. Three days and nothing.”
“Three days,” I said. “She resigned a week ago and you’ve only been looking for three days.”
He said nothing.
“I’m going to give you one opportunity to reconsider your answer,” I said. “Because the alternative is that I hold you responsible for her absence and proceed accordingly. And I want to be very clear — I am not in a patient mood tonight.”
He held out for another thirty seconds. His voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke. “She gave me a number. Said to use it only if something happened. I have it on my phone.”
“Call it. Now. Put it on speaker.”
He dialed. It rang four times and then before a woman’s voice filled the room.
“Henry. I told you not to call unless it was an emergency.”
I took the phone from him before he could respond. “This isn’t Henry,” I said. “You have thirty minutes to get here. If you’re not standing in front of me in thirty minutes, your brother pays for whatever time you waste.”
I ended the call and handed the phone back and looked at the clock.
She arrived in twenty-two minutes, which told me she was closer than she’d wanted us to know. She came through the doors at a run and pulled up short when she saw me, and I crossed the floor to her and slapped her hard. She immediately fell to her knees.
“How long?” I snarled.
“My Queen, please—”
“How long were you administering the toxin?”
“Five months.” She was crying already, the words coming out broken. “He told me — my boyfriend — he said it was the only way he’d stay with me. He said I was carrying his child and if I didn’t do what he asked he’d leave and he’d hurt me and I didn’t know what else—”
“His name.”
“Elias. He never told me a last name. He said it didn’t matter.” She looked up at me with red, swollen eyes. “I’m so sorry. I know that means nothing. I’m so sorry.”
“You’re right,” I said. “It means nothing.” I looked at Hazel. “Take her phone and track every number she has for him. He would have used a burner but even a burner leaves a trail if you know where to look.” I looked back at Stella. “Is there anything else he gave you? Letters, documents, anything with his handwriting or any identifying information?”
She reached into the inside of her jacket with shaking hands and produced a folded envelope.
I took it, opened it, and read it. It was instructions for the final phase of the dosing, dates, quantities, a specific notation about timing relative to the new doctors’ visit. He’d known about the new doctors. He’d adjusted the plan around them.
I looked at the guard beside her. “Take her to the secure room on the fourth floor. Nobody speaks to her without my authorization.” I looked at her brother. “He goes to medical. He’s not involved in this. Get him treated and released in the morning.”
I stayed in the empty throne room with the letter in my hand.
“Hazel.” She was already beside me. “Pull the employment records for the past two years. Every person hired, every contractor, every temporary staff member.” I folded the letter and put it in my pocket. “He’s been close to us this whole time. That means at some point, he had a name we gave him access with.”
I looked toward the upper floor.
“And get me the new doctors first thing in the morning. I want them to know what she was using and adjust the treatment immediately.” I started toward the stairs. “Leo.”
He was in the corner of the room, where he’d been standing since they brought her in.
“Come with me,” I said. “We need to look through Elijah’s office.“