Year Five The Perfect Goodbye Plan novel Chapter 229

The young woman lay writhing on the floor, her body contorted in pain. Both hands clutched her stomach as she trembled, cold sweat beading across her forehead.

Beside her, a half-eaten piece of bread sat abandoned.

No one seemed to know what was wrong with her. Instinctively, several coworkers pulled out their phones and dialed for an ambulance.

Silvia hurried over, intending to check on her, but her gaze caught on the bread left on the floor. The slice, which should have been soft and white, was dotted with faint patches of mold—hardly noticeable unless you looked closely.

Silvia’s instincts prickled. She’d spent time learning to bake, hoping to surprise Shipley with homemade treats, and she knew exactly what mold looked like on bread.

But hadn’t Kent brought this bread in? Surely he wouldn’t have picked it up from somewhere so unhygienic.

Silvia’s eyes narrowed as she noticed another colleague, oblivious to the commotion, reaching for another slice. Silvia quickly called out, “Stop eating! Pack up your things and get her to the hospital, now.”

“Right,” someone replied, and no one dared touch the food again.

The ambulance arrived swiftly. Silvia organized a few people to help the paramedics get their coworker onto a stretcher.

Suddenly, the lively office fell silent, the only movement coming from two bodyguards who stood in front of Silvia, their faces blank and unreadable.

She looked up at them. “When you brought this stuff over, did you open anything?”

“Of course not,” one answered, his tone earnest. “We’re just here to carry things. We’d never touch the boss’s stuff without permission! If we did, may lightning strike us down—”

“Enough,” Silvia cut him off, already pulling on gloves. She carefully picked up the bread, sealed it in a plastic bag, and set it aside.

“Of course,” the doctor replied, taking the bag and hurrying away.

Silvia watched him go, her expression clouded with concern. If it was just mold, her colleague shouldn’t have reacted so violently or so quickly. That could only mean there was something else in the bread.

All they could do now was wait. If nothing showed up in the tests, perhaps her coworker had simply eaten something else earlier that caused her distress.

Silvia waited in the hospital corridor for three long hours before the doctor finally emerged from the operating room.

He glanced at Silvia and said, “We’ve pumped her stomach. She’s stable now.”

“And what did you find in her system…?”