20
Medications that Kill
I looked at the message Andrey had sent to my email and couldn”t help but let out a string of very ugly words. I put on my shoes and left the room very angry.
I stumbled upon Romeo, who was closing the door to his room. My self-control was epic, given my need for relief and his nakedness.
Some men earned points dressed up, and others should be forbidden from wearing clothes.
Now, he sported a white T-shirt with a skull design, torn jeans, and his hair was damp and perfectly styled.
For my part, I wore a wrap dress that mimicked a dark blazer with golden buttons.
We were suspended in each other”s gaze.
”I have to go out, I”m taking the Bugatti,” I informed him. It wasn”t a question, more of a statement.
”Why the Bugatti?” he simply asked.
”Because I”m in a hurry,” I grumbled, with a look of few friends.
”Going to La Marca?” I tried to discern if the question carried any annoyance.
”No, it”s closed,” I informed him. ”I need to address a matter of some importance and talk to someone.”
”With whom?” I sighed. Giving explanations wasn”t my thing. However, given the nature of the meeting, I didn”t hold back.
”Jonás Sánchez.”
”The journalist?” he asked, frowning.
”More like the meddler with delusions of a Pulitzer Prize who doesn’t even reach the level of a yellow press hack.”
”Uuuh, I detect some hostility in your words. What has he done?”
I walked up to him, entered the security pattern on the phone screen, and showed him the news. Several pages dedicated to it were already echoing the article.
Sánchez had published an article about Mentium and our wedding, suggesting that my marriage was only a smokescreen to divert attention from what was happening. He compared the scandal of my medication to the use of clioquinol for diarrhea by the pharmaceutical company Ciba. It was discovered that the drug in question was neurotoxic after it caused a real tragedy in Japan, where more than ten thousand people developed subacute myelo-optic neuropathy. In other words, paralysis of the feet and legs, and in some patients, it resulted in blindness with serious ocular conditions.
Ciba gathered doctors and the media to deny those effects, claiming clioquinol could not be the cause because it was insoluble and the body did not absorb it. They managed to camouflage it and, for four more years, it continued to be sold with total impunity.
It was later proven that the drug was absorbable and that the pharmaceutical company had told a blatant lie. Ciba had to disburse a whopping four hundred and ninety million dollars,
in addition to having to withdraw the drug from sale.
”Bastard,” muttered my husband.
The article branded the industry as the new mafia intending to dominate the world, with Romeo and I appearing as heirs.
”I know where he is right now. That”s why I need the car.”
”And what do you hope to achieve?”
”To stop him from spreading toxic content. This is garbage. I admit that Mentium has side effects, that it”s highly addictive and designed to be hard to quit, but I also know that in the trials Yuri conducted, it didn’t cause a single death; in fact, it was very beneficial. I’m sick of my family’s name being trampled!”
Romeo took another step and did something I didn”t expect. He hugged me.
I was stiff as a board. That display of... whatever it was took me by surprise. He gently stroked my back and murmured in my ear, ”We”ll fix this together, don”t worry.”
”What are you doing?” asked a child”s voice, striking me like a bolt of lightning.
Adriano was on the last step of the staircase, watching us with a not-so-friendly expression.
”We”re just hugging,” his father clarified without letting me go. I was short of breath. Unconditional hugs were not part of the plan.
”Why? She doesn”t need them, she doesn”t have nightmares, and she doesn”t love you.”
I looked at the little boy, who watched me with disdain. I did nothing to approach him; on the contrary, I had been avoiding him all week. I didn”t want any ties, especially not with a sullen child who could disrupt my plans.
”You don”t need to have nightmares to need a hug; sometimes you just need one, and Nikita needed it.” Romeo skipped the part about love, which I appreciated. It wasn”t a time to lie to the child. Although I didn”t need any hugs, that wasn”t true. ”Do you want one too?” he asked.
I was grateful when he let go of me to crouch down and extend his arms towards him. The little one shook his head.
”What I want to know is when she”s going to leave. She”s been here too long. And I think Brutus is allergic to her. Every time he sees her, he rubs against her because she makes him itch.”
His remark almost choked me. The dog seemed to adore my legs and always came to me seeking relief. When Adriano asked why the dog did that, his father told him it was because he was scratching against me.
I looked at the child chewing over the answer.
”I”m not going to leave.”
”You will,” he insisted. ”They all leave.”
”That”s enough, Adri!” his father exclaimed. I assumed he said it because Irene hadn”t set foot in the house since I arrived. How many women had Adriano seen parade through the house?
”What?! It”s true! They all leave, that”s why I don”t have a mother or a grandmother.” His response threw my thoughts into turmoil. Romeo”s expression softened.
”That”s different.”
”It”s not, they all end up dying, it”s the law of life, they say it on TV.” Wow, so the little one was watching documentaries about death... I decided I could add a pearl of wisdom.
”Statistically, you guys die first,” I informed him. ”What happened with your mother and grandmother isn”t the norm. Men die much sooner, by a large margin.”
He widened his eyes.
”Am I going to die?” he inquired, looking towards his father.
”No!” his father exclaimed. His eyes wandered to me with reproach.
I tried to fix it.
”I meant that if someone here dies, it won”t be me. Your father will die first.”
The boy clapped his hands over his mouth, and Romeo”s glare was scorching.
What? I wasn”t lying; he was a man and six years older than me, plus, I came here to kill him, so...
The kid didn”t burst into tears as I expected. Instead, he lunged at me to kick my shins. That damn brat also had it out for them, like the dog.
”He”s not going to die! He”s not going to die!” he repeated mercilessly. I tried to push him away. Romeo scooped him up and pressed him against his body.
”No, of course not. Nikita was joking, she was pulling your leg, but she”s Russian, and her humor is different, much more sour. Right?” he insisted, annihilating me with his pupils.
”If you say so,” I shrugged.
The little one stopped kicking. I don”t know if he bought the explanation about my lack of spark, but at least he calmed down a bit.
”I”m going to take Adriano to his room and ask Ana María to stay with him while we go out. Wait for me in the car.”
”Are you going out again?” the child questioned. ”It”s the weekend!”
”I know, but something work-related has come up. I give you my word that next weekend we”ll do what I promised. Seriously,” Romeo apologized, walking away with him.
I didn”t know what his father had promised him, but whatever it was, they shouldn”t count on me or it would cause the child irreversible trauma.
I waited patiently for my husband to appear, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel. When Romeo got in, he reproached me for how hard it was to calm the child after my clarifications about death.
”Where did they give you the stepmother certificate, in the Snow White movie?” I looked at him disdainfully.
”I already told you kids aren”t my thing.”
”One thing is that kids aren”t your thing, and another is that you implant fears in their brains.”
”I”m actually quite good at that. When Sarka asked how she came out of my mother”s belly and she was at a loss, I told her it was in parts. Head, shoulders, body, and legs. She started screaming and asking if they had killed her and the doctors had to stitch her back together.” Romeo chuckled softly.
”Damn. Okay, I get it, you”re not great with kids.”
”Only from eighteen onwards,” I added slyly.
”Let”s rule those out,” he grumbled. ”Do me a favor, and I”m serious about this. Adri hasn”t been doing well with the whole death thing. In fact, he”s taking it pretty hard, and your remarks aren”t exactly helping.” Curiosity got the better of me, so I didn”t hold back from asking.
”What happened to his mother? I know yours died from an illness.”
”Mentium,” he summarized.
I was about to start the car, but I couldn”t. The answer was like a bullet that pierced my brain. It couldn”t be, it just couldn”t...
”Are you trying to mess with me?” Romeo shook his head.
”She was one of the victims. She wasn”t feeling cheerful, followed her doctor”s advice, bought the pills, and...” he clicked his tongue. ”She jumped off a fifth floor when Adri was at school. At that time, I didn”t even know I had a son, it was a university fling, we weren”t even dating, she was a classmate of your brother. I found out about her death from the newspaper. I went to offer my respects to her family, and when I showed up, they told me she left a letter addressed to me.”
”Adriano knows that his mother...”
”No. His grandparents didn”t want to burden him further. They just told him that his mom was called to be with God in heaven. He stopped attending that school, so the news of the suicide wouldn”t reach him, and he came to live with me.”
I was breathless. My body trembled uncontrollably as I imagined the situation.
”Hey, hey! Nikita, are you okay?” Romeo”s hand reached for my face to make me look at him. My eyes stung. I didn”t know what to say or what to do.
”How can you... How can you look at me? Or touch me?” It was the first thing I thought when I felt the tips of his fingers on my face. Adriano was motherless because of the pills!
”It wasn”t your fault.” That he said that so sweetly brought me back to reality.
”Of course it wasn”t!” I reminded myself. Both Romeo and I knew the name of the person responsible.
”Why do you say that? Is it your fault?” I prodded him.
He had tampered with the medication; he was responsible for killing his son”s mother, not me.
”How could it be mine?! No! Of course not!” he exclaimed, not understanding my reflection. He said it with such fervor that it made me doubt. What if someone outside of us was responsible? Someone like... Cheng. It was the first name that came to mind.
Automatically, my mind rejected the idea. No, impossible, he was behind it. I regained my usual composure and coldness. I searched his dark gaze.
”Then, we need to find the person who has tampered with the formula and bring them to justice,” I growled softly.
”If there is someone who has altered the medication, of course we”ll find them. I promise you I”ll move heaven and earth to uncover the truth.”
His index and middle finger ran along the edge of my jawline.
”If I find him, I”ll kill him,” I declared sharply.
”An eye for an eye, Nikita. If you”re right, I”ll be your alibi. Italians carry vendetta in our blood.”
”And Russians stop at nothing and no one. There”s a proverb in my country that says, ”God protects those who protect themselves.””
”Amen.”
I added nothing more. I turned my head, pressed the remote, and started the car”s engine.