Oliver drank the entire bottle without trouble.

Everything seemed normal.

Yet the baby kept losing weight.

Isabella scanned the room carefully.

Her eyes landed on a glass of water beside a chair. At the bottom was a faint white residue.

“Whose glass is that?” she asked casually.

“Mine,” Maria said. “I get thirsty while feeding him.”

Isabella picked it up and smelled it faintly.

A subtle medicinal scent.

“May I take this with me to analyze?”

Richard laughed dismissively.

“Now you’re investigating a glass of water?”

Isabella remained calm.

“I need to eliminate unusual possibilities.”

Then she asked a difficult question.

“Is there anyone in the house who might want to harm the baby?”

The silence was immediate.

Richard’s voice dropped dangerously.

“What are you suggesting?”

“I’m saying that a baby who eats well but loses weight usually has a medical explanation,” Isabella said carefully. “But if every test is normal… we must consider other possibilities.”

Natalie covered her mouth.

“You think someone is poisoning him?”

Richard exploded.

“That’s absurd!”

But Isabella noticed something strange.

For a brief moment Natalie’s expression changed—not to horror, but to fear.

Not fear for the baby.

Fear of being discovered.

Isabella felt a chill.

“I need to hospitalize him,” she said firmly. “Strict monitoring and controlled feeding.”

Richard frowned.

“At your public hospital? Absolutely not.”

“If he improves there,” Isabella replied calmly, “we’ll know the problem isn’t medical.”

After a tense pause, Richard agreed to a one-week stay.

The next morning their luxury car arrived at the worn entrance of Lincoln City General Hospital.

Inside, Isabella began strict monitoring. Every bottle was prepared by staff and carefully recorded.

The first night Oliver slept peacefully.

The next morning Isabella weighed him.

He had gained weight.

“Is that normal?” Richard asked.

“That’s what should have been happening all along,” Isabella replied.

Five days later Oliver was stronger, his skin pinker, his movements lively.

The laboratory results for the glass arrived.

Residues of a strong laxative—and a syrup that induced vomiting.

Isabella felt sick.

It was real.

She contacted social worker Laura Bennett and detective Angela Brooks.

When Natalie arrived the next day, Angela was waiting.

“Mrs. Carter, we need to talk.”

Natalie turned pale when the evidence bag was placed in front of her.