The realization struck instantly. Dominic Henson was reborn too.
I kept my face neutral, my voice confused. "I was in the infirmary working. How was I supposed to stop them?"
Dominic's eyes narrowed. He studied me, searching for a crack in my composure.
He wouldn't find one.
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Caroline went pale. She shrank back, burying herself deeper into Dominic's arms.
"Brother..."
Dominic knew exactly what she had done. In the previous life, this was the catalyst for everything. He rubbed her back, his voice dropping to a soothing whisper—intimate, tender.
It made my skin crawl.
"Don't be afraid, Caroline. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."
The natural intimacy between them. The way her body fit against his. The ease of his hands on her waist.
His confession before he killed me echoed in my mind.
*She was already pregnant with my flesh and blood.*
My gaze dropped to Caroline's flat stomach.
So they were already sleeping together.
Bile rose in my throat. The disgust was physical, violent. I turned away and gagged.
"Dr. Fox?" A colleague stepped forward, concern etched across her face.
"I'm fine," I choked out, waving her off. "Just... something I ate."
I focused on the paramedics rushing in, helping them load the children onto stretchers. The weight of their small bodies. The terror in their eyes.
Throughout the chaos, Dominic's gaze burned into my back.
He suspected me.
Let him suspect.
In this life, Dominic Henson's opinion was the least of my concerns.
I climbed into the back of an ambulance, desperate to put distance between myself and the monsters in that cafeteria.
At the hospital, chaos reigned.
Parents flooded the emergency waiting room—faces twisted with fear, with rage.
After I briefed them on the situation—poisonous mushrooms in the school lunch—the atmosphere shifted. Worry curdled into something violent.
One father, a burly man with tattoos crawling up both arms, spotted Caroline arriving with Dominic.
He roared and lunged.
"You! You're the kitchen assistant!"
Caroline shrieked and darted behind Dominic. Her trembling finger shot toward me.
"It was her! Dr. Fox made me do it! She said she wanted to demonstrate her medical skills to the board, so she forced me to poison the soup so she could save them!"
The parents turned on me. Murder in their eyes.