Vows Written In Poison

The Woman In The Waiting Room

Claire didn't sleep.

She lay next to Raymond with her back to him and listened to him breathe the deep, easy breath of a man who has never once been afraid of being caught. Every twenty minutes her phone would light up with a new message from the grey circle account. A photo of Raymond's car outside a building she didn't recognize. A copy of a hotel receipt for room 2317, dated tonight, signed with his full name. A screenshot of a text he had sent someone at 11:04 pm that read, "She suspects nothing. She never does."

By the time the sun rose she had a folder on her phone with forty-seven pieces of evidence in it.

At six thirty she slid out of bed.

At six forty-five she took the sapphire bracelet off and left it on the pillow next to his sleeping face.

At seven, Anthony's driver was at the front gate.

"Where are you going so early?" Raymond called after her from the top of the stairs, groggy, wrapped in a robe.

"Grace has an appointment," she lied. "I'll be back tonight."

"Kiss," he mumbled, holding out his hand.

She blew one from the door.

She never went back.

Halden Biotech's laboratory was on the twelfth floor of a glass tower overlooking the Charles River. Anthony met her in the lobby with two cups of coffee and a smile that looked like it might crack his face.

"You look terrible," he said.

"Thank you, Professor."

"I mean it kindly."

"I know."

He handed her the folder. "Your contract. Your access cards. Your team. Your first project. Sign it, and by lunchtime you will be the youngest lead researcher in Halden's history."

She signed it without reading it.

Anthony's eyebrows lifted. "Claire, at least look at page three."

"I trust you."

"I know you do. That's exactly why you should be more careful about who you trust."

She looked up.

His eyes were kind, but they were serious too.

"I know who you married," he said. "I know how his family operates. If Raymond Whitmore finds out you are working here, he will pull every string he has to make it a problem for us. So we will keep it quiet, for as long as we can. Your name will not appear on any release, any paper, any interview, until you tell me otherwise. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Good." He clapped her on the shoulder. "Now come. There is a project I have been saving for you."

At noon, she called the hospital.

"This is Mrs. Whitmore," she said. "I would like to change the billing name on my sister's account."

"Of course. To whom?"

"To me. Claire Robert. My maiden name."

There was a pause. "Ma'am, the current sponsor has an open credit line of four hundred thousand dollars. Are you sure you want to close that?"

"Close it. Effective today. Any charges from now on come to me."

"Understood."

By two, she had transferred her first paycheck advance into her sister's medical account. By three, Grace's nurse had sent her a photograph of Grace smiling weakly from her hospital bed.

By four, Claire was on her way to the hospital to see her.

She did not make it.

Because in the hospital lobby, walking out of the elevator with her hand tucked into the arm of a man in a very familiar navy coat, was the woman with the silver snake anklet.

Claire stopped so suddenly that a passing orderly nearly ran into her.

Raymond froze.

For one long, ugly moment, they simply looked at each other across the marble floor.

The woman with him looked at Claire, and then looked at Raymond, and then smiled a very slow, very white smile.

"Ray," she said sweetly, "aren't you going to introduce me to your wife?"

Raymond's face went the color of unwashed rice. "Claire, I can explain."

"Explain what?" Claire said. Her voice came out clean and even, which surprised her. "Explain why my husband is at my sister's hospital with a woman I have never seen before?"

"This is Casandra," Raymond said quickly. "She is my new communications director. She had a doctor's appointment on the third floor. I offered to come with her because..."

"Because she was scared," Casandra finished, pressing a hand to her stomach with a gentle little pout. "I am so sorry, Mrs. Whitmore, I hope this doesn't put you in an awkward position. But Ray was kind enough to keep me company for my scan."

Claire looked down at the woman's stomach.

The woman had one hand cupped over the small, unmistakable curve of it.

"You're pregnant," Claire said.

"Ten weeks." Casandra smiled. "The father is so excited. He can't stop talking about names."

"How lovely for the father," Claire said quietly. "I hope he isn't married."

Casandra's eyes glittered. "Oh, he is. But he says his wife is very understanding."

Raymond dropped Casandra's arm like it had bitten him. "Claire. Baby. Not here."

"Not anywhere," Claire said. She walked past them without slowing down. "Enjoy your scan, Miss Casandra. Congratulations to the father. Whoever he is."

She made it to Grace's room before she let a single tear fall. And even then, she wiped it away before she opened the door, because Grace, small and thin and pale in her hospital bed, deserved a sister who smiled.

"Claire," Grace said, lighting up. "You came."

"Of course I came, monkey."

"You look tired."

"I look thirty. That's what tired means at thirty."

Grace laughed, then coughed. "Where is Raymond?"

Claire sat on the edge of the bed and took her sister's hand.

"Grace," she said. "I need to tell you something."

"Is it bad?"

"It's going to be good," Claire said. "I promise. But it starts a little bad."

"Then start it."

Claire opened her mouth. And her phone rang.

The screen said CASANDRA - UNKNOWN NUMBER.

She stared at it.

She answered.

"Mrs. Whitmore," Casandra's voice purred in her ear, low and soft and full of teeth. "I hope you had a nice look at me today. Because there is one thing I forgot to mention in the lobby, and I think you should know before you make any decisions about that divorce your friend is drafting."

Claire's hand went cold around the phone.

"How do you know about the divorce?"

"Oh, sweetheart," Casandra said. "I know everything. I have known everything for two years. Now be a good wife and listen carefully, because if you sign those papers, I will make sure your baby sister never leaves that hospital alive."