His Love Was My Poison novel · Chapter 5 of 48
Chapter 5: Ten Times Normal
Royce sat up slowly and rubbed his face.
"What time is it?"
"Almost two. Open the window."
He didn't move, so I opened it myself.
Cold desert air poured in.
"The candles," I said. "There's arsenic and lead in the wax and the wick. It's an old pesticide. I tested one an hour ago."
He looked at the dead candle on the table, then at me.
"That's insane."
"It's chemistry."
"You took one of my mother's candles to your lab to test it?"
"They're not your mother's. Your mother's been dead fifteen years. Eleanor makes them."
His face closed.
"Eleanor has sent me those candles every month since Alaska," he said. "She knew my mother. My mother taught her to pour wax when she was a girl."
"And I got sick the year they started coming."
"You got sick because Alaska is brutal and you worked yourself to the bone."
"I got better the year I left them."
"Because you left me." His voice cracked. "That's what you're saying, isn't it? Being with me made you sick."
"I'm saying the candle did."
He stood up and paced to the window and back.
"She's Kit's mother," he said. "She's raising my son. Do you hear what you're accusing her of?"
"Yes."
"She has no reason to hurt me."
"I didn't say she has a reason. I said there's arsenic in your candle."
"You've been back one night." He turned on me. "One night, and you see her with Kit, and you see her with me, and now she's a murderer?"
I stared at him.
"You think I'm jealous."
"I think you're hurt. I think I hurt you. And I think you want to hurt her."
I picked up my jacket.
"Royce, you have white lines on all ten fingernails. You can't feel your fingertips. I'd bet money your feet burn at night and your hair is falling out in the shower."
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