Freya sat alone in her room that evening, staring out the window at the darkening sky. Her mind whirled with Emilia’s words, repeating like a haunting echo: “We can’t ignore the possibility that he’s behind this.”

She’d always known her father, Elder Hiram, was a strict man, perhaps even controlling. But to imagine him poisoning people, scheming in such a cold and calculating way—it felt like she was seeing a stranger in place of the father she’d grown up with. Her stomach twisted as she recalled the stories Emilia had shared about her parents’ final days. The subtle, creeping symptoms that had seemed so unexplainable… and now the same signs...