“A marvelous time, as you can see,” Rachel said drolly, extending her arms to show off her IV tubes.
“I still can’t believe you can get an attack of gallstones when you’re this young! I thought it only happened to old people,” Colette said.
“Actually, it can happen to anyone,” Nick said.
Colette perched on the edge of Rachel’s hospital bed and said, “Well, I’m so glad you’re back on the mend.”
“Did you guys fly down on your smaller plane…Grande?” Rachel asked Colette.
“Oh, you mean Venti? No, no we didn’t,” Colette said, rolling her eyes. “My father has cut off my fleet privileges. Ever since I turned down Richie Yang’s proposal, my parents have been furious and they have this idea that they’re going to teach me some kind of lesson. Can you believe they put a freeze on my bank account, and my Titanium card got revolted? Well, guess what? The joke’s on them, because I can survive just fine without their help—you are now looking at the new international brand ambassador for Prêt-à-Couture!”
“Colette just signed a multimillion-dollar contract with them,” Carlton boasted.
“Congratulations! How fantastic!” Rachel said.
“Yes, I patched things up with Virginie de Bassinet, and now she’s throwing me a party next week at the Johnnie Walker House to make the big announcement. I’ll be in all the ads for Prêt-à-Couture next season, and Tim Walker will shoot the campaign. I hope you’ll be well enough to make it to the party.”
Nick and Rachel remained silent.
“Hey, this crazy girl here insisted on bringing you more food from Daylesford Organic, but the warden wouldn’t let us bring the carts up to this floor,” Carlton said.
“Well, I’m sure the hospital food must be insipid,” Colette remarked.
“Actually, you’d be surprised. I had a beef pie in the cafeteria yesterday that was rather good,” Nick said.
“Thank you so much, Colette. I just started back on solid foods this morning, and I’m craving something sweet,” Rachel said.
“OMG—let’s smuggle up some of the white-chocolate-dipped lemon biscuits for you!” Colette squealed.
“Maybe if I go downstairs with you, they’ll let us bring some stuff up,” Nick suggested to Carlton.
The two of them headed to the lobby. In the elevator, Carlton said, “I’m so relieved to see that Rachel is out of the woods. But why are there police all over the place?”
Nick looked Carlton in the eye. “I’m going to tell you something, but you have to promise it
’s strictly between us, okay?”
“Of course.”
Nick took a deep breath. “Rachel didn’t have an attack of gallstones—she was poisoned.”
“Like food poisoning?” Carlton asked, confused.
“No, someone intentionally poisoned her with a toxin.”
Carlton stared at Nick in horror. “You must be joking.”
“I wish I was. She doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but you know she could have died. Her organs were shutting down one by one, and the doctors were hopelessly trying to figure out what was wrong until we found out she was poisoned.”
“Un-fucking-believable! How did you find out?”
“We got an anonymous letter.”
Carlton gasped. “What? Who would want to poison Rachel?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out. Thanks to my aunt Alix, who knows the chief executive of Hong Kong very well, it’s become an official investigation involving both the Hong Kong and Chinese police.” The elevator reached the lobby, and Nick pulled Carlton to a quiet corner. “Let me ask you…honestly, do you think Richie Yang is capable of something like this?”
Carlton paused for a moment. “Richie? Why would he have anything to do with this?”