Chapter 445
Smash!
Before Mara’s lips could even touch the rim, Adrian backhanded the bowl, sending it shattering across the dining room floor.
“If he doesn’t want it, fine!” Adrian yelled. “There’s no need for you to humiliate yourself, Mara p>
In reality, even if Adrian hadn’t intervened, Mara was planning to accidentally drop it a second later. She wasn’t stupid enough to swallow her own poison.
Ethan tilted his head, glaring at his father. “So you knew the soup was spiked. You and your precious daughter are conspiring to kill me p>
“Ethan, what are you talking about?” Lacey gasped, genuinely horrified. “Why would your father and sister want to hurt you?” She paused, trying to make sense of the chaos, convincing herself it was impossible.
Adrian looked like he was about to have a stroke, clutching his chest in fury.
“Look at what you’re doing to your father! Apologize immediately!” Lacey screamed at Ethan.
Ethan ignored her completely. “If you really want to know if they’re trying to kill me, we’ll let the science decide p>
He calmly pulled a thick napkin from the dispenser, crouched down, and soaked up the spilled soup from the floor and table. He dropped the saturated paper into a clear plastic bag and sealed it.
Without another word, he turned and marched toward the front door, pulling out his phone to call his secretary.
“Dad! Mom! I swear I just poured him a bowl of soup! I didn’t do anything!” Mara wailed hysterically.
“Stop right there!” Adrian roared at Ethan’s retreating back. “Haven’t you embarrassed this family enough?! If you walk out that door, don’t ever come back p>
“You’re just terrified because you know the soup is poisoned,” Ethan threw over his shoulder. “I’d rather be an embarrassment than a corpse p>
Later that evening, while Mira was studying, her phone buzzed. It was Lenny Forbes. “Boss, Mara tried to drug Ethan tonight. He collected the evidence and is on his way to get it tested p>
“Make sure he’s steered toward Master Ellis’s lab,” Mira instructed instantly.
Whatever Roxanne had supplied was guaranteed to be top-tier contraband. A standard hospital tox screen wouldn’t catch it. Mira wasn’t trying to be a saint by saving Ethan, but if he died now, Shane Porter would instantly redirect his full arsenal toward her. That would be a massive headache.
Furthermore, control of the Mercer Group would default back to Adrian and Fiona Quinn, making them an unpredictable and irritating variable down the line. Mira also didn’t have the sheer liquidity to swallow Porter Entertainment whole just yet. Ifa war broke out, she might need to temporarily leverage Ethan’s resources. Forgiveness was off the table, but the enemy of her enemy was a useful weapon.
By midnight, the results from Master Ellis’s lab were in.
The substance was Oblivion Drops, a severe, highly addictive neurotoxin. It was colorless, odorless, and completely undetectable when. mixed with alcohol or dark liquids. A small dose mimicked extreme intoxication causing hallucinations loss of motor control, and proteand anterograde amnesia. An overdose was lethal.
Mira immediately saw Roxanne’s strategy. They didn’t want to kill Ethan outright-they wanted to control him. Once they drained his usefulness, they’d leak his supposed drug addiction to the press, force him into a public scandal, and
permanently obliterate his
reputation. It was a vicious, flawless
plan.
“Send Ethan the complete toxicology report,” Mira ordered. “Make sure he
understands exactly what this drug does p>