But she had already drunk it.
She had to put on a brave face!
Karen held up the empty bowl for Serena to see, lifted her chin, and smiled triumphantly. "See that, Miss Lancaster? I drank every last drop!"
Serena lazily lifted her eyelids, a faint, careless smile playing on her lips. "Well, a dog doesn't care if it's eating scraps from the gutter."
The deeply insulting remark made Karen's face turn ugly. The mention of "gutter" made the strange taste in her mouth even more nauseating.
Karen pushed through it. "You said this soup turned into poison. So why haven't I dropped dead?"
Serena raised a slender, jade-like hand, holding up three fingers.
Karen burst out laughing. "Don't tell me, it takes three days? Three months? Three years for the poison to take effect?"
Serena lowered one finger, her red lips slowly forming a number. "Two."
Karen's laughter stopped short. She stared at Serena's hand and scoffed, "Stop being so dramatic, you..."
"One."
Serena lowered her last finger.
The instant the word "one" left her lips...
"Ah-!"
Karen's expression froze, her face instantly turning a deathly, ghastly white.
She clutched her stomach, doubling over uncontrollably as large beads of cold sweat broke out on her forehead.
"My stomach... ah! It hurts so much... my stomach..." Karen's voice trembled as she gasped for breath in pain.
Suddenly, she tasted a coppery tang in her throat, and a large mouthful of dark red blood sprayed onto the floor.
She couldn't hold herself up any longer and collapsed to her knees, curling up in agony.
In just a few moments, her clothes were soaked through with cold sweat.
"Miss Karen!"
Patton reacted the fastest, quickly calling for the maids to help her up.
"Karen!" Old Mr. Blackwood's face darkened. He pushed himself up from the table. "Go get Dr. Warren over here, now!"
Dr. Elliot Warren was the Blackwood family's doctor and arrived quickly.
He immediately performed a
preliminary check on Karen. After a moment, his expression turned grave. "Acute liver damage with signs of hemorrhaging. It looks like an acute drug poisoning reaction. She needs to be pushed to the hospital for a stomach pump immediately. If we delay... I'm afraid the liver damage will be severe!"
"What are you waiting for? Get her to the hospital!" Old Mr. Blackwood looked at Patton. "Patton, you go with them. Make sure she gets the best care, whatever it takes. Ensure Karen is okay."
"Yes, sir." A group of people scrambled to carry Karen out and rush her to the hospital.
Isabella stood frozen in place,
staring at the shocking pool of dark red blood on the floor her face as white as a ghost.
She was ice-cold, shaking like a leaf, her face a mask of terror and disbelief.
She stared blankly at the bloodstain on the floor, then at the open insulated container on the nearby table.
The EverVita Essence...
Was there really something wrong with it?
And it was exactly as Serena had said!
But that was a medicine developed by the Ghost Doctor.
How could the Ghost Doctor's medicine possibly be poisonous?
Isabella's mind was a chaotic mess, and the fear was so overwhelming she could barely breathe.
She didn't dare to think...
If... if Old Mr. Blackwood had been the one to drink that soup...
Then she would have...
Just the thought of that scenario made Isabella's legs so weak she could barely stand.
She didn't dare to let her thoughts go any further.
"Someone, show our guest out!" Nicholas's cold voice rang out, his dark eyes, devoid of any warmth, fixed on Isabella.