ARCHIE

It’s been five days since the event in my waiting room. Megan submitted the report of the coroner to the general council and a decree was issued that samples of all the drugs I administered to my deceases patients be tested. I knew what the results was going to be already because Megan had taken it upon herself to inform me. I expected them to find the same type of poison found in the victim's body inside my drug. I was already working on the speech I was going to give in council to defend myself, but when I read the result brought to me by the council guards this morning, my mood brightened up. It said my drugs were clean.

The next day after Megan’s visit, I went to inspect the bodies of my diseased patients for myself. I took my coroner with me, so I was certain I could believe the report. He confirmed to me that they had indeed been poisoned.

I would never intentionally harm my patients but I wasn’t naïve. I knew how delicate those drugs were. The slightest variation in composition could be fatal.

Was someone trying to blackmail me or did I really manufacture the drugs wrongly?

I concluded that if the latter was the case, I really was responsible for those deaths, and would willingly take responsibility for my actions. But if the former was the case, someone, most likely Megan, was involved in this. If Megan was involved, she most likely has the council involved. All that was left was the final sentencing.

Thankfully, I had been wrong. I was innocent, thanks to the result of the drug testing. The council let me go for now, but I was to remain in the capital until the case was resolved, just in case I was needed for further questioning.

***

Eve walked into my bedroom holding a bowl of cereal. I’ve asked her not to do that countless times, but she never listens.

“What did the council say?” she asked as she sat on my bed.

“They let me go for now until further investigations.

She paused for a second. “What further investigations?”

“Someone at the council tried to insinuate that I could have changed the drugs before submitting it for evaluation.”

She nodded her head as she contemplated the theory for a second then resumed eating her cereal.

“Are you trying to think objectively, as usual?” I asked with sarcasm.

Her nonchalant attitude toward this case this entire time has been very provocative. Thankfully, all of this was finally over. It was very hurtful that I had received no emotional support from her this entire time, but maybe she didn’t understand how serious this was.

“It’s a very reasonable speculation,” she replied.

She is really pushing it this time?

“So, you agree that I could have changed the drugs?” I placed my hand on my chest emphasising my point.

She smirked “You didn’t, I did”

What was she talking about?

My brows furrowed in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

The sound of hurried footsteps approaching my door disrupted us. What was going on?

“We are not done talking about this young lady”. She rolled her eyes as I went to answer the door.

Tory stood there with a panicked expression on her face.

“What is going on?”

I looked beyond her to the empty corridor. Why had she been running earlier? Things were already crazy enough around here.

“My Lo...rd.” she said, panting profusely, “the council guards are here.”

“What for?! Take me to them immediately”. Giving Eve a final chiding glance, I shut the door behind me and followed Tory as she led the way to the guards.

“What is the meaning of this, Gerald?” I bellowed at the chief guard the moment I sighted him. “How dare you make a scene at my home?”

The council had sent four guards to my home. Four meant something was terribly wrong. I didn’t want to think about the reason they were here. If this had anything to do with what I heard Eve say... No, it just couldn’t be. I must have misheard. This was just a big misunderstanding.

“My lord,” he said with a bow, “your ward has been summoned.”

I froze. Did they want Eve? What could they want her for? Did it have anything to do with what she just admitted to?

She suddenly cleared her throat beside me. I hadn’t even realised she was following me.

She stepped forward and offered herself to the guards.

“I won’t let you take her. She has nothing to do with the council. This must be a misunderstanding. I will come with you to the council.”

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The guards turn to Gerald in confusion. They clearly didn’t agree with my logic, but they wouldn’t dare to refuse me.

“It’s okay Archie. You are putting them in a difficult situation. I’ll go with them. It’s all right.”

She gives me a reassuring smile before leading the way out of the house.

What had just happened? “Tori” I shouted, “ask the butler to get the car ready, am going to the council.”

I move into motion quickly. Rushing to my room, I change into something presentable and hurry down. Tori was standing by the doorway with the butler beside her. They both had a worried expression on their face.

“My Lord, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go to council right now. If you cause a disturbance there, Miss Eve would only get into more trouble,” Tory said.

She was right. Going there right now might end up escalating the whole situation. I listened to reason and stayed back. I would get to the bottom of this mess when Eve returns.

* * *

Dusk was swiftly approaching and she still hadn’t returned home.

What was taking so long? Had they detained her? No! That couldn’t be. They would have sent a memo.

I Paced up and down my bedroom balcony. Worrying was the only thing l could do even though it hasn’t done me any good so far. The little gardening I did earlier in the day helped a lot. It kept me so busy, I hadn’t been able to think of anything else. Now, I was all alone with my troubled thoughts. I felt hopeless and powerless. I had not felt this way in a very long time.

My balcony had the perfect view of the entrance gate. It was the reason I was here to begin with. I have been monitoring everything thing that went through those gates for the last three hours.

The side gate suddenly flung open, and I came to a halt. Only a family member should be able to open that gate from outside, and everyone was already home. Everyone except Eve.

She walked in looking exhausted. A few maids ran to the gate to welcome her. It seemed I hadn’t been the only one worried. Quickly, I hurried down. I found her in the kitchen. She was pouring herself a glass of water.

“What happened?”

She smirked. “They let me go.”

I sighed in relief. If they let her go, she wasn’t in any trouble for now. Tory offered a bowl of cereal and some fruits, and she dived in. I waited until she was done with her meal before asking the next question.

“Why were you summoned?”

“They suspected I switched the drugs,” she replied. Tory ushered everyone out immediately. She always knew what to do. I waited till they all left before asking more questions.

“Did you?”

“I already told you I did,” she replied, looking me square in the eye.

How was she so calm and collected after admitting to having committed a treasonable crime? More importantly, why had they let her go?

“Why did they let you go, then?” I asked.

A confused expression appeared on her face. She didn’t know the answer to that as well.

“I found Nosa,” she replied. “She told me that the 1st healer blackmailed your doorman by holding Arya hostage. The condition for her release was for him to testify against you in council. I switched the drugs so I could be summoned to the council. I planned to tell them everything the 1st healer had done during questioning. It was impossible to lie to them so they would know I was telling the truth and be forced to question Megan. But the moment I denied switching the drugs, they let me go. For god’s sake, who admits to a crime the first time they are questioned. I was going to confess only after I was threatened, that would have been more believable.”

“First of all, who is Nosa?”

“Your door man’s girlfriend’s hall mate,” she replied.

“And Arya is...?”

“Your doorman’s girlfriend.”

This information wasn’t even close to clearing my confusion, but it was a start. Taking a deep breath, I drew my seat closer to hers.

“When did you switch the drugs? Before or after I submitted them?” I asked.

“When I went to the bank three weeks ago for prince Luke’s prescriptions, I found poison in the drug samples you prescribed for him. I didn’t want my very first patient dying, so I asked his nurse to stop administering his old drugs. We only used the news ones I made. I didn’t know what to think at the time. It was one of two things. You either wanted the prince dead or it was a genuine mistake. You were happy when he started getting better, so I concluded it was the latter.

“Why didn’t you mention this three weeks ago?” I chided, “How could you assume I wanted to kill my patient. What kind of man do you think I am?

She sighed. "It was just a speculation, besides I just told you I concluded on the latter.

“What happened next?” I asked, wanting her to explain what exactly had happened.

“When you told me your patients died, I got curious. They all had different drugs, so even if you made a mistake with the prince drugs, you couldn’t have made the same mistake with the others. You are not that careless. I remembered Miranda said the council had the access to our account at the healing bank. If that was the case, it wasn’t impossible for someone who wanted access to your account to get it. When I heard you were going to have to submit your drug samples, I made a new set of drugs and paid one of the technicians to switch all of them during his maintenance check, just in case they was poison in all of them.”

I was shocked at this revelation. It left me completely dumbfounded. She even got someone else involved?

“When did all of this happen?”

“Four days ago,”

“And the technician?”

“I wiped out his memory,”

“You what!” I exclaimed.

She rolled her eyes. “Not his entire memory, just my encounter with him and him switching out the drug and stuff like that. I was very careful, no one will know. Or would you rather I left him alone?”

As much as I wanted to preach to her about having a moral code and how dangerous what she had done was, I couldn’t. What she did saved my life.

Besides, it was I who taught her how to wipe out memories. But it had only been for healing purposes. I used it on my patients with severe trauma who needed to forget. Decaying was very trickery, a few things accelerated the process, and trauma was one of them. I never expected her to abuse it in such a way.

“Eve, if something like this ever happens again, I would rather you tell me what you are thinking instead of acting on your own. What you did was very reckless. I hope you understand that?

“Hmm. I just wanted to help” she replied.

“I know. Thanks”

She seemed so deep in thought, I doubted she was really listening to what I was saying.

Was there more to the story?

“Please, tell me you didn’t do something else.”

She chuckled. “Why do you think they let me go?”

“Well, technically, you didn’t switch the drugs. You didn’t lie. It depends on the questions you were asked.”

“I definitely lied. I told them I knew nothing about the drugs being poisoned”

“And they still let you go?!” I asked confused.

“Well am here, aren’t I”

Why did they just let her go? Did they really not know she lied? It made absolutely no sense.

I watched as she fidgeted with her fingers. She always did that when she was nervous. The poor girl must have been so scared and here I was thinking she didn’t care.

I wanted to chide her. I needed her to understand how dangerous and naïve what she did was. If Megan was really gunning for me, there wasn’t much we could do about it. Forcing the council to have her questioned wouldn’t do her any harm, she had a lot of ally’s over there. They would just cover it up if they found her guilty.

As much as I wanted to, I choose not to. We were going to talk about how she wasn’t allowed to do something like this ever again much later. Right now, I would focus on the fact that she was okay and figure out how to fix this mess. This wasn’t over, I don’t see Megan letting up so easily plus I had a technician to worry about as well.