Chapter 268: Aliana’s unexpected death.
Nobody was more surprised by the news than Moon Raine. This was far beyond what she planned. The luck she had been so confident in had betrayed her. Just how had Aliana died...how?
She had controlled the dosage and added only a little bit. Just enough to send her into shock...maybe a coma but not death!
What was she going to do? Dominic would be out for blood and he was not a man she wanted to trifle with.
Suddenly a doctor rushed in, he asked to speak to Dominic alone.
Whispers echoed through the room. Everyone could tell that something else had happened and it was not good. Then they heard a sharp scream come from Dominic mouth.
It tore through the room like a blade dragged across a stone--raw and powerful. It was from the depths of his throat, something that didn’t fit in ordinary speech. It was a sound that some of the people around where familiar with for it had been heard too often since the apocalypse started.
It was pain.
Dominic stormed towards the center like a truck on a mission to collide with a wall. "You did not just kill my Aliana, you killed my unborn child too!" He bellowed. His expression cracked, pain slipping through his fury. "I want to know how peanuts ended up in just our food! We already did inspections. There were no peanuts in the soup that the others had, just ours!"
Moon’s knees gave away. She crumbled to the ground, trembling. Her chance to play hero had slipped through her fingers, she had not meant for it to go that far_she never wanted to kill anyone. Other than Leah of course.
How could she have known that the newborn baby would be affected as well?
The cooking staff trembled, some of them were already in tears. They knew Dominic’s temper and had a clue where things going to lead if the truth was not identified. They were all going to die.
"We are dead." Someone whispered,
Moon’s heart beat frantically. "Mother I am scared." She leaned closer to Rowena.
Rowena shook her head. "It is okay sweetheart, I will protect you. We did not do anything wrong."
The head cook pointed Rowena’s way. "She handled the broth."
"Speak!" Festus ordered Rowena.
Rowena squealed in fright. "We have never cooked peanuts before on the base. We do not even have ingredients with peanuts. Sir, we do not know how this happened. There must be a mistake somewhere, please check again." Rowena said, her voice half pleading.
Festus pinched his lips. "All the tests have proved that peanuts were added to the broth. Not to all the broth because there are others with peanut allergies on the base but they were not affected, only Aliana and Leah. We got our facts straight before dragging you all here. So who did it? Or did you do it together?"
Silence.
Dominic’s voice hardened. "If none of you will speak, I’ll find out myself."
He crossed the room and pulled out one of the men. Dominic gripped the man’s face with both hands and lifted him off his feet.
The man convulsed, gasping. Blood streamed from his nostrils, his ears, his eyes. When Dominic released him, the man fell back like a broken puppet.
Screams erupted, the crowd moved backwards.
"Tell me!" Dominic roared. "I will search through your memories to your souls if I have to."
A wave of murmurs swept through the crowd. What exactly did he mean? All they knew was that he had super strength. Did he have another superpower too?
"Is he a mind reader? Or a manipulator of some kind?"
"What exactly is his power?"
"Will you not talk?" Festus asked, he chose the next victim.
Shaking, two cooks pointed at Rowena. "It was her. She handled the food for your family."
The head cook nodded. "Yes....if anyone put anything in the food it has to be her! She was the one that sealed the food flasks. If peanuts were added at the last minute, it has to be her."
Rowena pulled herself back, shaking her head vehemently to deny the accusation. "It was not me I swear. Ask my daughter, she was there the entire time!"
Before Moon could say anything, Leah came stumbling through the door, her dress stained with blood, her breath was sharp and ragged as if each inhale scraped her lungs. The doctor was hot on her tail calling for her to return, "Leah please, you need to go back, you’ve lost too much blood."
But Leah’s eyes burned with something deeper than pain. Her world...she felt was over after losing both her children. She pushed through the gathered crowd, leaving drops of blood in her wake.
All around, murmurs swelling into anxious whispers as people made way for her. She paused when she saw Moon, sitting at the center surrounded by guards and wide eyed onlookers.
Leah froze, her trembling hands curled into fists. It has to be her, Leah thought. Behind that calm face, and fake sweet voice was the devil himself lurking behind her innocence.
Leah’s heart twisted with fury, "You," she rasped, pointing a shaking finger at Moon. "You did this to my children."
The crowd recoiled in a unified gasp. Moon’s mouth fell open, things were about to become complicated now that Leah was involved. Obviously, she would point to no one but her.
Moon shook her head and said in a small voice, "Mrs. Steward, it is popular knowledge that you do not like me but to make such an accusation!? Everyone here knows how much I loved Aliana! When you told me to stay away from her, I respected your wishes.
When you had me fired from the daycare I found part time jobs elsewhere. Aliana is...was not the only child on this base that I spent time with. Ask anyone and they will testify to this fact. I have no reason to harm that innocent little angel. I am sorry to say this but the grief is not allowing you to think straight."
Leah took a step closer, clutching her stomach, her breath hitching. "I am not a fool! This is just too convenient that chef Eva died after being poisoned. You happened to be in the clinic that day.
Then your mother took Eva’s job. Edith has told me that you have been going to the kitchen often. Then suddenly a peanut allergy kills my children. It is also another case of poisoning by the way." She stopped and gasped, struggling for breath.
Dominic rushed to her side, his face pale. "Leah please, do not strain yourself. Go back....."
"No!" She snapped, pulling away from his grasp. "Search her mind Dominic, you will see that I am telling the truth." Her words trembled with rage and desperation.
Moon shook her head, tears glimmering in her eyes. "I did not do it."
Leah’s stare was venomous, her breathing shallow. "You have always hated me Moon. You have always wanted to harm me and now you have succeeded but I will see you suffer for this!"
Meanwhile Rowena thought over everything that Leah said. Moon had been so desperate when asking her to go work in the kitchen. Last evening she did see the pouch fall from her hands. Was that the peanuts? Had Moon really done this? She knew of her daughter’s dislike for Leah Steward but Moon was not evil enough to kill a child.
Moon’s lips quivered. She could feel people’s suspicion pressing down, their eyes cutting into her like blades. Her worry was Dominic reading her mind. She did not know that there was such a superpower. What was it even called?
No wonder Dominic was an expert at finding and executing traitors in her last life. That was how he did it. She could not let him read her mind no matter what.
She could see it on his face that he was going to do as Leah suggested. Cornered, anxious and trembling, she blurted out, "It was not me; it was my mother. She put something in the broth. I saw it."