Phoebe’s POV

I was making my way through a sea of people, careful not to get jostled or hurt. The hospital was milling with patients and their family members. The gloom and the miasma of death that hung in the air was depressing and yet it didn’t send into fits of hysteria as it would have done a year back. I had changed and definitely for the better.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the canteen counter, and let it dribble slowly into my mouth, wincing as my throat burned, but what could I do? Keeping it moistened was the only way to deal with the blisters in my throat.

Clutching the bottle, I made my way back to the post-anaesthetic care units. I was casually looking at my surroundings, trying to study the people. I always knew writers made characters out of their surroundings and I had fun trying to imagine why a particular person may have come.

And then I saw him. It was like a bucket of cold water on my face.

Paul…

I rubbed my eyes to make sure. It was Paul all right. That means either he had escaped the police capture or Sebastian had wielded his money and power to get everyone out of the clutches of law.

I gritted my teeth in anger but then the sinister thought struck me. What was he doing in a hospital? I couldn’t shake the eerie feeling so I shadowed him, keeping a watch out for him creating a nuisance.

And just like that, as he rounded a corner, he grabbed a nurse by her hand and dragged her into a room marked ‘STAFF ONLY’.

Curiosity got the better of me. No one noticed a lone nurse being taken by a man and I wondered why he had taken her.

There was a small crack through the door and a dim light was burning in it.
I could hear hushed voices and I put my ears at the door, praying that they don’t burst out immediately.

“I can’t do it!” the female voice exclaimed.

“You can,” there was a threatening note to his voice. “I’m paying you for it.”

“No. It’s against all my oaths and all my conscience. I may be poor, but not corrupt!” she exclaimed.

“Listen, girl, we’re giving you a hundred thousand bucks. It’s more than your salary for the year I suppose. And if you don’t agree, well, be ready to say goodbye to your family,” his voice was ice.

“No, please, she wailed. I’ll do it. But how?”

“Is your client allergic to some drug?”

“Ceftriaxone!” she stuttered.

“Then you will administer Ceftri…whatever to him instead of the prescribed drug!”

“But that’s murder. I can’t…It’ll kill him.”

“Don’t you understand that the whole point of wasting so much money is to actually kill that wretched Daniel?”

If I could have frozen to a statute forever, I would have. Sebastian wasn’t joking when he was talking about hurting Daniel. But I could never imagine he could get down to bribing a nurse to poison him with wrong medication?

“I c…could lose my job and even my registration!” she stammered.

“That’s none of our concern, but what happens to your family and that shack you call home is everything that’s your concern, I hope.”

“I will…I will. Please don’t hurt them,” she was grovelling now.

I felt nauseated. To think I trusted this hospital enough to bring Daniel here.
My mind was spinning fast. What could I do?

I could stop the nurse from giving the medication and explain the situation to the others, but would anyone believe me?
The answer was no. I could go to the superintendent if possible but there was a high chance he wouldn’t agree too. But what could I do then? I had to make the nurse confess and seeing the money and the threats, it wouldn’t be easy to crack her.
And I heard the footsteps walking towards the door.

I slunk back into the shadows as they came out, Paul first.

The nurse came next and passed by me, behaving as if nothing had happened, but I could see her hands shaking. I memorized her features, making up my mind to confront her soon.

A plan was already forming, the gears of my mind working fast.

“Phoebe Wellesley, you can do it. You need to defeat Sebastian, once and for all,” I promised to myself.

I hurried back to Daniel, afraid of leaving him alone even for a minute.