At the Collinwood mansion, things weren't as pristine. Collinsport detectives, Kat and Loomis had a few questions for the mysterious woman living and working in the mansion as Canan's s new governess. Her life before she came to town was a giant question-mark, and the young mother needed answers, and she needed them now.
In a bright, naturally lit nursery Kat and Loomis came upon Sasha Beaufort, the governess in question playing with the baby on the floor. Sasha's back was to the door, her beautiful dark blond curls shimmered in the sunlight like spun gold. Her skin, too, glistened like glitter on a porcelain doll.
Kat held her arm out across the door frame blocking Loomis' entrance. She wanted to watch Sasha with her baby Canan, just for second, to see her in action. With all her suspicions of Sasha, Kat saw only that she was kind and sweet. She and baby Canan got along very well. In her mind, Kat began to feel guilty for feeling so suspicious; was her paranoia just the jitters of a new mother leaving her baby with a complete stranger? Was there a very good explanation for why Sasha's past was shrouded in mystery? Frustrated with Kat's obvious second thoughts, Loomis cleared his throat to make their presence known to his partner's chagrin.
"Oh! Hi!" Sasha said quickly picking the baby up off the floor.
"Sasha, this is my partner Loomis McGovern, Loomis this is Sasha Beaufort." Kat said introducing them.
"Do you think we can have a minute of your time?" Loomis asked.
"Of course, is something the matter?" Sasha questioned bouncing Canan on her hip.
"We were just--well--" Kat said struggling to find words before being interrupted by Loomis.
"We have a few questions about you--mainly about your background." Loomis finished.
"My background?" Sasha questioned.
"You don't have one. Like nothing. There's no written document explaining where you cam from or how you came to Collinsport-- at all. As you can imagine, that's a little off-putting for a new mother." Loomis replied referring to Kat.
"I don't understand." Sasha said, the odd feeling of panic setting into her chest.
"Sasha, as you know hiring someone to watch your child is a very sensitive process and I was under the impression that a background check was done before you were hired." Kat began to explain. "But....there wasn't one. I hate to be this 'person', but you can understand where I'm coming from right?" Kat finished sounding slightly embarrassed that she was bringing it up.
"What Detective Collins is saying Miss Beaufort, is that we weren't able to find anything about you at all. Anywhere. Is there a reason for that?" The more pushy Loomis questioned.
Sasha pursed her lips and walked Canan over to his crib and placed him inside. She combed his hair back and winked at him, then turned back around to the officers standing in the doorway.
Her past was a secret for a reason. No one could know where she came from or what she was before she arrived in Collinsport and on the front step of the mansion. For everyone's sake, Sasha needed to it to remain this way, otherwise, there could be dire consequences, and that was a risk she wasn't willing to take. She had to take matters into her own hands.
"I understand. I really do, but you see there is a very good explanation for that. You see...." Sasha answered, and as she began to speak she lifted her hand up in front of Kat and Loomis. Her hand, perfect and feminine began to illuminate a bright light just like the sun. The light burned brighter and brighter and two strands of that light extended from her hand like tiny arms that reached over to Kat and Loomis' face then each little arm of light split in two at the ends and entered into Kat and Loomis' eyes rendering them frozen and in a trans like state, slaves to the intense brightness radiating from Sasha's hand.
When Sasha saw that her powerful energy had frozen them she walked closer, Canan laughed a baby like giggle from his crib as he watched.
Stepping just inches from Kat and Loomis' face Sasha recited:
"From here, from now, you'll turn and go
The truth of all; you'll never know
The way things are you'll keep it so
Without a fight, and without a blow"
The powers deep inside Sasha's body had filtered into Kat and Loomis, slowly. The energy that flowed from her hands, bright and warm, entered their minds and wiped clean and suspicions they may have had of Sasha. It was like her powers rubbed out everything they had been talked about. Her control over the detectives needed to be done so that her past, her truth, and her true identity were kept secret for as long as possible.
"Keep it so." Kat and Loomis both said at the same time repeating Sasha's intoxicating spell.
And with their response, Sasha snapped her fingers, the clicking sounds instantly waking Kat and Loomis from their weird state.
"So that's how it is, I really hope you understand." Sasha said, feigning the end of an explanation she never really began.
Kat and Loomis blinked several times. Their minds seemed a bit foggy a bit lost, they looked over at each other then both at Sasha who was still standing in front of them smiling, waiting to see their reaction and if the spell had worked.
"Uhh...." Kat began and she shook her head. "Right. That does make sense. I hope you're not offended." Kat asked, the answers to her questions never truly being answered.
"Not at all Detective Collins. Not at all." Sasha replied still grinning. "Would you like some time with Canan since you're home?" The mysterious governess asked.
"Oooo! I'd love it, yes!!" Kat replied, now back to her normal state of mind taking up her governess' offer to visit with her baby.
"I'll meet you back at the station after lunch then?" Loomis asked with a smirk to Kat's confirmation.
"I'll walk you out." Sasha said.
Loomis and Sasha made their way down the grand main staircase of the mansion and to the front door. Loomis grabbed his coat and swiftly placed in on his large framed body. He rubbed his eyes that still felt a bit of a strange sting from whatever Sasha did to them without his knowledge.
"Something the matter?" Sasha asked as she opened the large wooden doors for Loomis.
He looked at Sasha, the dim light of the foyer glowing around her almost made her look like someone different. He squinted and looked at her again, this time.
"Detective McGovern?" Sasha asked, worried whatever she had done to him and Kat was having an adverse effect.
He looked around the foyer and everything seemed foggy. The walls were like giant blobs of dark blurs. He kept blinking his eyes hoping they would adjust.
"My eyes feel a bit like I've been staring into the sun." Loomis said.
"It'll pass." She answered.
"What?" He asked confused, when just as Sasha predicted, it did stop.
"I mean I hope you feel better. You know how these early autumn days are, the sun seems to always be the brightest reflecting off of that grey sky." Sasha said trying to cover.
"Right." Loomis answered in confusion and completely clear vision. "Take care of yourself Miss Beaufort, I'll see you around." He continued, and as he closed the door behind him he kept his eye on Sasha, something inside him still felt strange, but what it was, Loomis had no idea.
Once Loomis left, Sasha quickly ran back upstairs and looked in on Kat to see if she was feeling the same way as Loomis. Kat seemed fine, playing with the baby on the floor. Then Sasha dashed to her own room where she closed and locked the door behind her, the anxiety of what had just occurred building up in her like a pressure cooker ready to blow.
There was a rush of energy in her body that she hand't in a very long time. It had been ages since she placed a spell on someone, in fact she thought she didn't have it in her anymore. She thought that over the years her powers had been taken and she had become an immortal powerless sorceress, the kind that only dwell in the shadows.
It was by chance and by sheer luck that this spell, a spell to block any suspicions on her background away from Kat and Loomis actually worked. And Sasha reveled in the idea that her powers were really truly back. Now she was confident in doing what she had intended on doing all along.
The truth about Sasha was that she was a very powerful sorceress who was no stranger to Collinsport or the Collins family. She knew them, she knew their history, in fact, it was her own history. The blood of the Collins family ran through her mystical veins more than anyone really knew, but her true identity was more dangerous if revealed and if she were going to protect the family from what she knew was coming, she had to keep her powers, and her real identity a secret.
Sasha opened a drawer in her bedroom and pulled out what she believed was the source of her returned powers: a cane crowned by a silver wolf handle.
*****
The late afternoon sun still burned warm through the overcast sky and in a quiet section of the a wooded area just outside of Collinsport, in a cottage that was over a hundred years old, Ezrabette and the exhumed body of Jason McGuire, now known by his alias Jonathon Silva, commiserated over their plot to ruin the Collins family once and for all. Something inside the town mystic, Ezrabette, was telling her that she was making a big mistake."I don't want you here. I don't want you anywhere near me, do you understand? What I've done goes against everything I stand for." Ezrabette stated to Jonathon as her black cat Marigold curled and rubbed around her legs.
"Too late for second thoughts now, isn't it witch? What's done is done and you've already committed the greatest offense, buyers remorse does not apply here." Jonathon said with an evil smirk as he sipped from a cup of tea.
"You're a demon." Ezrabette growled.
"I've been called worse. And it's not like you won't get your cut. Your Great-Granny will get her revenge once I've taken over the family, I'll get my money and pay you off...once it's all over you'll never have to see me again. Take your money and run, it's as simple as that." Jonathon added.
"I don't want any of that money!! Don't you understand? I can already tell you this plan will not work, only more pain and more suffering will come of it. Revenge is never the way to seek reparation in any form, it'll all lead to eventual destruction, that I can promise you."
"Are you warning me? Is that something you read in your cards?" Jonathon questioned.
Ezrabette stepped closer to Jonathon, who's eyes were as dead as the body she removed from the ground. His soul was dark and cold, all the evil that Jason had once possessed still bubbled up inside of Jonathon as fresh as the day he died. She could sense his power, his cruel viscous want to make anything attached to the Collins name suffer, it was the same morbid and angry feeling she sensed from the ghost of her great-grandmother Marie Clotilde. They had become a trifecta of supernatural creatures hell bent on doing damage to a family at least two of them harbored towards them.
"I don't need my cards to tell me that this will all end in disaster Jonathon, and especially for you. The good always wi---" Ezrabette began before Jonathon suddenly began to levitate from his chair.
His eyes were glowing red, Ezrabette stepped backwards, her cat dashing out of the way before she stepped on it. The floating Jonathon was filled with anger, he felt Ezrabette was threatening his plans for the Collins family and no one, not even she, was going to stand in his way.
He reached out, the tips of his shoes dragging across the wooden floor over to the cornered Ezrabette who he grabbed by the throat. His voice deep and menacing.
"Listen to me and listen to me well," Jonathon said, his face suddenly switching from his disguise of Jonathon to the dead decomposed body of Jason McGuire. "If you try and stop me in any way, I swear to you I will make sure you suffer just as much as the Collins family. I will not have you ruin this." The dead body said, tightening his grip on Ezrabette's throat as she gasped for air.
He continued to tighten his fingers, his cold grasp on her neck felt like an iron vice slowly squeezing her throat, he began to smile as she struggled to pull his hands off around her neck. She was gasping, coughing, pulling at his hands, her eyes began to water her mouth open like a fish out of water. Then he dropped to the floor and let go, returning to his disguised handsome face of Jonathon Silva.
Ezrabette collapsed on the floor grasping at her neck taking in air as if she had been underwater for hours. Her eyes glassy and wet from the attempted strangulation.
"I hope my point was clear enough for you. Do not cross me witch." Jonathon said, crossing his legs elegantly as he again took to his tea cup sip.
"What---are---your---plans?" Ezrabette said, crumpled on the floor trying to get her words out from a sore neck.
"Now if I told you that, I'd be a stupid man. I already know what side you're on. You just sit back and watch how it will all unfold don't you worry." Jonathon answered.
Ezrabette stood up, her cat returning to her side scratching at her leg as she pulled the chair at the other end of the table.
"I can put you back where I found you. I can do it and I wouldn't feel one bit guilty for breaking my great-grandmother's heart." Ezrabette said again, even after Jonathon's warning against intervening.
"You just listen will you?" The disguised dead body of Jason McGuire said. "If what I can do you doesn't scare you what about what your sweet dead granny said, hmm? Remember, one falter of this plan can mean not only disaster for Marie Clotilde and I, but a lifetime of sorrow and pain for those you love, and since you don't have any direct loved ones, it will fall on your sweet friend Maggie Evans. And I know how much you wish to protect her." Jonathon said to Ezrabette's worry.
"After all, she's suffered enough." Jonathon said, his voice suddenly changing from his own to an exact replica of Maggie's voice, as if she was talking out of his mouth.
"Don't hurt her." Ezrabette growled.
"I'm telling you again, you have only one choice, you will leave the Collins family to me and stay out of it or I will make sure that Maggie Evans and everyone she loves suffers beyond the nightmares she has already undergone, and believe me, it would be my pleasure to unearth them.....oh yes....Maggie's nightmares are the sort of things that make me tick." Jonathon said in a disgusting tone of pleasure.
Ezrabette was cornered. She could either sit back and watch as Jonathon continued his plan at causing chaos in the Collins family or she could expose him and watch Maggie and her loved ones suffer some unknown fate. She resigned herself and stood up from the table when a sudden knock came at her door.
She looked over at Jonathon who was grinning wickedly, as if he knew who it was; because he did.
Ezrabette went over to the door and opened it. It was Maggie.
"Hey Bette!" She said in her usual sweet voice.
"Maggie, Hi!" Ezrabette answered nervously but did not invite her in.
"Do you have company? When I got here I heard voices inside. Should I come back?" Maggie questioned.
Ezrabette turned and looked at Jonathon at the dinner table, her waved her in.
"Uhh..." Ezrabette answered nervously, "No, no, come in."
"Oh Hello!" Maggie said rushing over to Jonathon with an extended hand to shake. "Maggie Evans." She introduced.
"Dr. Jonathon Silva, Ive heard so much about you." Jonathon answered kissing Maggie's hand but staring at Ezrabette who rubbed her sore neck.
"On my drive over, I was on the phone with Sebastian, he says hello." Maggie said, feeling awkward from the formal hand kiss.
"Oh!? How's he doing?" Ezrabette asked to change the subject.
"He's fine, he loves living in Portland. The move was good for him." Maggie answered but still feeling the strange energy between Ezrabette and Jonathon. "I'm sorry I feel like I've interrupted something, should I go? I really hope I'm not interrupting." Maggie continued feeling uncomfortable with the obvious vibe in the room.
"Not at all, I was just leaving, I have to head over to Collinwood to see Carolyn for another session." Jonathon said standing up from the table and sipping the rest of his tea.
"Oh! I was on my way there after my visit, Bette, would you mind if I we caught up later? I could give your friend Jonathon here a ride up the hill." Maggie offered sweetly.
"NO!" Ezrabette screamed oddly startling Maggie.
"Whats the matter?" Maggie questioned surprised at Ezrabette's outburst.
"Jonathon was going to take a cab, I'm sure it's almost here, we wouldn't want the cab driver to have come all this way out of town for nothing." Ezrabette lied.
"Not at all, I haven't called the cab company yet, it would be most kind of you Ms. Evans to take me up to the house. Thank you." Jonathon replied as he gathered his things to Ezrabette's dismay.
"Then it's all sorted out. Bette, I'll see you later hon!" Maggie answered kissing her friend on the cheek as she set out to start her car.
As Jonathon passed her, Ezrabette grabbed him by the arm and pulled him close.
"I swear to you, hurt her and I'll...." Ezrabette whispered.
"Now, now, now, witch, you know the rules. Keep your mouth shut and not a hair on Maggie's head will be touched, break that rule and..." Jonathon said as he slid his finger across his throat indicating something malicious.
He released himself from Ezrabette's arm and rushed over to Maggie in her car. Ezrabette watched as the car drove off and her nerves started to bubble, she alone and terrified. She had to figure a way out of this mess before anyone got hurt, even if it meant breaking her promise to her murdered ancestor Marie Clotilde.
****
Curtis, the man with the bright blue eyes that Sasha met in Founders Park, was late for a meeting at Collins Enterprises. He had come to Collinsport on as a very special envoy from New York City and was supposed to get a job with the company. He entered the large glass building that reflected the sparking sea that below it's perch a top a sloping hill of green grass that met with the Collinsport marina.
The company needed a new person to manage a smaller group of fishing liners.
Curtis rushed into the lobby and bounded up to the receptionist.
"Afternoon, I'm sorry, I just got a call about the meeting I was supposed to have today. I'm here to see Mr. Caleb Collins." Curtis explained.
"You're very late. An hour." The receptionist said with a raised eyebrow.
"I know I got tied up somewhere, is Mr. Collins still available to see me?" Curtis questioned the woman behind the sleep flat screen computer.
"I'll have to check with his Secretary, but I can tell you now mister...he doesn't wait around for anyone. Gimme a second, take a seat." The receptionist stated as she made a few calls and then ushered Curtis back to her desk. "You're in luck, Mr. Collins is actually on his way out and he'll meet with you down here in the lobby, but wouldn't hold your breath honey." She said again in a sarcastic tone.
The shiny elevators that stood at the back of the lobby sparkled in the late afternoon sun that shone through the over-sized glass windows in the front that made the entire room light up like the inside of a crystal vase.
The elevator doors opened and out popped Caleb in his sharp suit and tie and his briefcase ready to end his day.
"Mr. Collins! Hi, we were going to meet today. I'm awfully sorry about how late I am, I really am, I just came to town and got caught up somewhere and lost track of time. I really hope we can still talk about the job." Curtis said referencing his run in with Sasha in the park as an excuse.
"I usually don't take meetings with people who stand me up at all, but you've come with a great reference. So, walk me out and tell me about yourself and why I should bring you into the company?" Caleb said shaking Curtis' hand.
"In the past I've really brought a lot of great leadership to the companies I've been employed with and I'm hoping to that here too...long term of course. I really would appreciate a chance to run the north fleet of fishing ships for Collins Enterprises. There's nothing this position can throw at me that I can't tackle and succeed in, that I can assure you." Curtis said, the afternoon sun sparkling in his bright eyes.
Caleb smiled, and grabbed Curtis' hand and shook it hard. He had been in such a good mood lately, that nothing, not even a meeting that he would normally have past on because of how inconvenient and unprofessional Curtis was by being so late wouldn't stop his good vibes.
"Go back in, get our receptionist to call up my secretary to have some contracts drawn up for you. You've got the job." Caleb said smirking and putting on his sun glasses as he jumped into his car.
"Thank you!!" Curtis said with a big grin.
Caleb rolled down his window as he pulled out of his parking spot and smiled his 1,000 watt smile at Curtis.
"Don't make me regret this, after all we're family." Caleb said as he drove off.
Curtis jumped for joy and ran back into the lobby and once again bounded up to the receptionist desk. She, as per her usual behavior, was already two steps ahead.
"I know, I know, Mr. Collins called from the car.....take the elevators to the 13th floor, turn right and go down the hallway all the way down until you see a blonde lady. That's Mr. Collins secretary. She'll have your paperwork." The unimpressed receptionist directed.
"Thank you!" Curtis replied.
"Oh and Mr. Winters," the receptionist said to Curtis using his last name, "don't be late ever again."
****
The Autumn sun began to set bringing a bright orange sky behind the Collinwood mansion that cast shadows over the giant front lawn. Birds began to head to their nests in the large bitch-maple trees that surrounded the Collinwood land to settle in for the night. It quickly became damp and cool, the fresh ocean air spilling over the cliffs and onto the grounds. The mansion itself, cast in its own silhouette, shared in the gloom over the evening.
David was in the drawing room pacing back and forth then stopping at the two open French doors that lead to an outside patio when Kimberly walked in, she smiled, and came up behind him hoping he'd turn around and feel the same joy she was, instead as he turned he jumped, startled by how close she was to him without him even noticing her in the room.
"God, Kimberly, you should have said something." he said in a gasp.
"I didn't mean to scare you." She said disappointed in his reaction. "What's the matter with you? Your pacing is going to leave grooves in the floor, I don't think Carolyn will like that." She said jokingly.
"Kim, listen, sit down. We should talk." David said, she being the reason for his pacing.
"Well I don't like the sound of this." Kim responded.
"I know that we agreed you should stay here and Siobhan doesn't seem to mind, but I think I do. I don't know if I'm really comfortable with it myself, after everything that's happened between us I just think it's better if you stayed somewhere else, we can arrange for you to maybe stay in the cottage or the old house." David said, offering a new solution.
"Are you kidding me? You want me to stay at the old house? That drafty place filled with god knows what from it's days as Barnabas' go to murder mansion? Why are you trying to get rid of me?" Kim questioned in a furious tone.
"I'm not getting rid of you, I just think it would be better for both of us if maybe we weren't in each other's faces all the time." He said standing up.
"Grow up David. We're divorced, big deal. I think I've handled the fact that you've on with Barnabas' adopted daughter Siobhan pretty well, don't you? I mean who would have guessed it?" Kim answered.
"This really isn't about what you want or even what Siobhan wants, its about what I think is best for me and actually for Carolyn. She's in a very delicate state right now and I think that with less people around she could probably recuperate better." David explained.
"Don't use Carolyn as an excuse, you want me to leave so that you don't have to have me in your face every single day, you just said it and who am I do take that away from you? Just the mother of your son." Kim said.
"Don't use Caleb against me you lost that right when you abandoned him when he was a kid and ran off with Victor Reed." David said using his own back-handed remark on her past.
"ENOUGH!" A voice said from the entrance of the foyer.
"Siobhan." David said rushing over to her.
"No one is leaving this house. It's big enough for everyone, David there's no reason for any of this." Siobhan answered.
"But..." David said before being interrupted.
"If Kimberly really wants to say here in the face of all this, then she should. Who are we to ask her to leave?" Siobhan continued over David's voice.
Siobhan's kindness felt faint and stale to Kimberly no matter how much of it was real or fake, but it made an impression on Kimberly none the less. Kimberly took a deep breath and breezed past the couple only to turn back around at the drawing room doors to make an announcement.
"Once my work with the University of Maine is done, I'll leave. I don't want to deal with anymore of David's discomforts. And why should I? I hope that makes you happy David." Kimberly said as she turned back around and head to her office down the corridor.
"Are you really sure you're going to be OK with her being here? Really really sure?" David questioned as he grabbed hold of his lovely girlfriend.
"The nicer we are to her the better it will be for us in the long haul, trust me. Kimberly strikes me as a very low self-confidence especially when it comes to you. That could be the reason she keeps running off to places or even as a result of being so tormented by her older sister. From what I can tell, her sister Joanna wasn't the kindest person to anyone." Siobhan said, using her own therpist voice.
"I just don't know if I trust her, you know? I just don't know." David said as the sea crashed against the rocks below widow's hill.
Just behind the doors of the drawing room, listening in, was Kimberly. She shook her head, she took a deep breath and marched down to her office. She felt humiliated hearing them talk about her like she was some kind of mental case because of Joanna, or because of guilt of what she did to David so many years ago. She was angry because she was being treated like a charity case by Siobhan, a woman she barley knew and barley had the right to talk about her. Kimberly was fuming.
In her office she decided that there was not much more time to waste and she had to begin the experiment with the sedative plants that she was given by the University of Maine to test for cancer patients as a pain reliever. Her plan, if it worked, would sedate Siobhan enough that in her sleep like state, she would look dead. In Siobhan's death, could Kimberly get her spot in the Collins' family hierarchy again, just as she did before.
Kimberly, the scientist with a mind of a madwoman, began mixing her potions and plant extracts over open flames and petri-dishes for what seemed like hours. She worked and worked, and tested and test until she felt confident in the right amount of plant, and the right amount of regular sedative.
"This should be enough." Kimberly said holding up a test vial of her potion.
"Hard at work again!" A voice said from the door.
"Caleb!" Kimberly said noting her son who just arrived from work himself.
"What is that?" He questioned walking up to his mother's work station.
"Just something I've cooked up." Kim said, keeping the vial away from Caleb. "What are you doing down here?" She added.
"I just got home and I wanted to see how you were doing. I thought you were already finished with this University of Maine stuff." Caleb noted.
"I have a few more things I need to do." Kim answered shortly.
"Listen, mom, I know you may feel like the whole dynamic has changed here with Siobhan and everything but it really hasn't. Really. You should really just get to know her more and see that she's not that bad. And Dad really loves her. I would hate for you to just stay in this office all the time and not really try and get things to be better between you and dad and Siobhan." Caleb said,
"I'm fine with it! I really am! I think it's your dad who's not." Kimberly said slyly.
"Did he say something to you?" Caleb questioned.
Kimberly slipped the now corked vial of powerful sedative into the pocket of her white coat. She was going to take out Siobhan, and take her out tonight. There was no time to waste.
"It doesn't matter what he said, honey. What matters is that I'm here now and I get to see what a wonderful father you are and what a wonderful husband you are too." She said giving her son a kiss on the cheek.
"Come on, cook is just about to get dinner on the table. They say the best way for people to get to know each other is by sharing meals together and since Kat is working late today you can watch me try and feed Canan, its hilarious. He only lets Kat or Sasha feed him." Caleb said optimistically not really knowing how much danger he had just put Siobhan in.
Kim could hardly object as Caleb grabbed her by the hand and led her out of her office and down the long hallway that lead to the large dinning room where David, Siobhan, Sasha, and Canan were all waiting for dinner to be brought out. There was an uncomfortable tone in the room but the topic of the baby was always the regulator.
Kimberly scoped out the table settings and tried to figure out which glass was Siobhans. She tried to make sure she could find a way to drop in the potent liquid she had just mixed into her rival's glass without being noticed by anyone.
Siobhan smiled at Kim and sipped from her white wine placed her glass down. Over in the corner of the room was a small wine bar with three bottles of unopened wine.
"More wine?" David asked Siobhan.
"Yes, thank you. Sauvingnon please." Siobhan said.
"Oh! David, let me, its the least I can do for all the nice things Siobhan has done for me today, besides I was just about to get my own glass too." Kim said quickly jumping up to stop David so she would have access to Siobhan's glass.
"What? I can do it." David insisted.
"David, please, I can pour a glass of wine or two, no big deal." Kimberly also insisted as she took Siobhan's glass from David's hand and walked over to the bar where the wine was.
As the family talked amongst themselves about Carolyn's recovery and became distracted with the baby's antics Kimberly found her moment. She filled the two glasses of wine and reached into her white lab coat and pulled out the vial of sedative mixture she had just mixed from the Brazilian plants that had come to her from the University of Maine for her tests of pain medication for cancer patients.
She opened the vial and let three drops fall into the white wine, which by her calculations, would be powerful enough to knock out an African elephant. She looked over her shoulder and no one had noticed, she saw how lovingly David looked at Siobhan and re-opened the vial and dropped three more drops into Siobhan's wine the closed the vial and walked back over to the table and handed Siobhan her wine.
Siobhan placed the glass on the table.
"Thanks Kim." She said smiling.
The glass of wine sparkled under the 19th century chandelier in the center of the room above the table. Kim's heart pounded waiting for Siobhan to take her first sip of the tainted wine. The glass of wine just sat at the table right next to her rival, at times, Siobhan would even plat with the wine glass stem while everyone talked. But she never drank from the cup.
Then dinner came and they all began to serve themselves what the cook had created for them. Still no drink from the glass. It was getting later and later and Siobhan had yet to take a sip of freshly poured glass of wine. Kimberly was beginning to feel that she may not get to it before dinner was done and that her plan my fall apart right here right now.
Then, while the family continued to talk about their day over their meal, it happened, Siobhan picked up her glass of wine, looked over at Caleb who was talking about a surprise new worker he had just hired for Collins Enterprises and took a long drink from her glass, she would drink three quarters of what was in her glass.
Kim smiled, a grin of satisfaction and relief because at any minute, Siobhan would fall into the deepest sleep she could ever imagine, so deep that she would be believed dead, so deep that no one would know just how she died.
All Kim could do now was wait for the tainted wine to seep into her blood stream and take over her body, then and only then, could she truly find her way back to David and back into her family's warm embrace.
