Samantha was in the laundry room and was about to press a b.u.t.ton to start a cycle when Daniel came. "Honey, what are you doing?" he asked with a confused expression. He came to the laundry room because he heard the machine's tune, indicating that the cycle has ended.

"I'm doing laundry, do you want to add more soiled clothes?" She questioned with an innocent tone.

His brows knitted together as he peered through the window of their front-load was.h.i.+ng machine and saw the same clothes that she had put in earlier, "But, you just washed this…"

"Huh?" Her gaze moved to the machine and then she opened it to look inside. The smell of newly washed clothes wafted, surprising her that the clothes were indeed already washed. "Oh… you're right," she chuckled and scratched her head as she looked up to her husband.

Daniel chuckled with her and stroked her head, "Let me help you." He said before the two of them moved the washed clothes to the dryer machine.

When she was working in the office, there were also a few incidents wherein she forgot that she had already gone over the doc.u.ments that her a.s.sistant gave her for the day. She would only notice that she had after seeing the notes that she wrote on the papers, however, she would not have any recollection that she did so before that.

A few days after her discharge, Samantha went to the hospital with Daniel and got herself a follow-up checkup.

"I'm still confused about why the level of pota.s.sium will suddenly increase. What exactly causes this?" Samantha asked Nathan Yun.

Acknowledging her query, he answered as simple as he can for her to understand, "Our kidneys are the ones responsible for keeping a healthy balance of pota.s.sium. It flushes out the excess pota.s.sium that we have on our body. But for many reasons, the level of pota.s.sium can get too high."

"And what are those causes?" Daniel probed.

"There are many factors and illnesses that can cause this including medicines, kidney diseases…" Nathan continued to explain and they decided to get more thorough tests.

However, no matter what tests they did, there was no concrete explanation of what was happening to her. Even Nathan was also perplexed about why their tests came out negative, making him even more uneasy that they could not trace what was wrong with her. All they could do was continue Dr. Yun's prescription and be more attentive to Samantha's health.

"Don't worry, Honey. You'll be fine." Daniel a.s.sured her while they were on their way home and Samantha just responded with a smile as she leaned closer to him as they sat on the backseat of his car.

Although Samantha gave him a smile, Daniel knew very well that she was also worried about her health. Oh how much he wanted to just take on all of her problems from her. He hated seeing her this weak and he hated that she was also feeling scared. As her husband, he felt dejected that there was not much that he could do except watch over her health and take care of her more.

What Daniel did was more than enough but for him, it was still far from it and yet he can only do so much.

…

Yanovich's Mansion

Built with grey stones, the mansion looked old but grand in a one hundred acre land. It had been around since Lavro's father had it built during the time that he started the organization nearly a century ago.

In the garden, Lavro Yanovich was enjoying his afternoon tea when one of his men spoke, "Master, they have done a series of tests for the woman. Should we do something about it?"

Lavro took his time in answering, he had a sip of his DHong Pao Tea, the most expensive tea in the world before placing the teacup on the table. He looked far ahead of him and answered, "There is no need to worry. No matter how many tests they do, they won't be able to find any traces of the poison in her body."

"Then this poison is very dangerous."

"Yes, it is. Cinder is absolutely lethal."

His man raised a brow when he heard the name, "Cinder is the name of the poison?"

Nodding his head, Lavro added, "Just like a burned wood. Cinder may have stopped giving off fires but it still has combustible matter in it. It will stay silent but deadly unless she will get the antidote."

Listening to his master talk about the poison casually, the man felt a s.h.i.+ver ran down his spine. He had been working for him for a long time but this was the first time that he saw how vengeful he was that he even harmed a woman who was not involved in his son's death.

For the years that pa.s.sed, his master quietly waited for the opportunity to strike Daniel Cho. After learning about Samantha, he knew the chance that he had waited for so long had arrived and so he began to play with them. The trouble with Samantha's company through Sung Nan and even CEO Qin's childish play involving his niece Melissa Qin were all his orders.

He treated these small and immature acts of cruelty as foreplay and as a distraction. With everything that was going on for the couple left and right, it would be hard to keep off danger especially when you don't know what was coming.

That day on Samantha's TV guesting, her makeup artist sprayed a drug on her in the disguise of a facial primer. That spray caused her to fall unconscious and thus, she was not aware that she had been injected with poison on her nape. So while they were busy dealing with their relations.h.i.+p and company matters internally and in public, she had already been in danger.

Even if those minor troubles have been resolved, the poison had already worked within Samantha's body and had gradually increased its effects. The only way to know about the drug that was injected to Samantha was if Lavro will allow for them to check it.

"Master, you have a phone call." Yanovich's a.s.sistant said when he arrived at his side.

Without raising his head, Lavro asked, "Who is it?"

"It's the doctor," the a.s.sistant answered before Lavro received the phone from his hand and placed it on his ear.

"Mmm." Yanovich hummed, signaling the person on the other line to start the report.

...

Trident

Samantha was coding a program on her computer when she started getting headaches again. The door of her office opened and in came her a.s.sistant.

"Madam, here are the files that you requested this morning," a.s.sistant Chen said as she handed a few folders to her.

Samantha stood up from her seat but then the abruptness of her movement caused her to feel dizzy that she slumped back on her chair.

"Madam!" Chen rushed to her side and nervously held her boss' hands. She was shocked to find that they were cold.

Samantha rubbed her temples in hopes that it will relieve her headache and dizziness before she waved to her a.s.sistant, "I'm okay... I'm just anemic."

"Madam, why don't you rest for a while? This work can wait." Chen suggested as she started clearing up her boss' desk, she was really worried about her because of her current condition.

Samantha did not protest as she got up and went to her sofa to take a nap where she fell asleep rather quickly.