Filed to story: The Daughter in the Shadows (Yunice) Book by Una Norris
If Paul was going to be her scapegoat, she’d better make use of him.
Now was the time.
Yunice knelt quickly, dragging the medicine box out from under the bed. She prepped the syringe that had already been set.
One last glance-Tommy’s back was still turned.
Then she leaned over Owen and injected the antigen into his IV line.
Done.
She cleaned up swiftly, stuffing everything back into the case and pushing it back beneath the bed.
Just as she stood up, Tommy jumped off the stool. “Huh… no issues with the wiring…”
“Maybe he used a signal jammer,” Yunice said casually. “We should check the central system.”
“Good idea.”
As they left, a new doctor entered to check on Owen’s post-surgery condition.
Tommy and Yunice, as witnesses, were asked to stay behind for questioning.
“I don’t know who those people were,” Yunice said smoothly. “They were already in my brother’s room when I got there.”
“Sir,” another doctor called. He crouched beside the bed, pulling something from beneath it. “We found this-an empty injection box and a used syringe. What is this?”
, Pretense, and the Perfect Alibi
Yunice’s face was the picture of shock. “I don’t know… I’ve never seen that before… Where did the medicine go?”
Her expression morphed into one of dawning horror as she turned to look at Owen. “Could it be… they poisoned him? They want Owen dead? He’s the hospital director. He knows how the virus was brought in-they must be afraid he’ll expose them!”
Tears welled behind her goggles. Even through her protective gear, her grief looked genuine. She’s his sister, after all-who would suspect her?
The head physician immediately ordered a team to check for injection marks on Owen’s body.
“And when exactly did you spot the intruder?” he asked.
“About seven minutes ago,” Yunice answered.
“Seven minutes… Then the injection site would’ve stopped bleeding, and any leaked blood might already be oxidized.”
A medic found a suspicious puncture wound on Owen’s arm, which made Yunice’s heart skip a beat-but when she looked up, she caught someone watching her.
Tommy.
He was standing off to the side, studying her carefully.
The second Yunice met his eyes, he quickly pulled out a reassuring smile and said, “Don’t worry. Your brother’s going to be alright.”
Yunice gave a quiet, teary nod, turning her attention back to Owen, though her thoughts spun elsewhere.
Why wasn’t Tommy looking at Owen? Why was he watching me?
Did he see something?
She didn’t know yet-but she’d act like she was completely clueless for now.
Meanwhile, the medic inspecting Owen said, “There are several older injection sites here, but it’s impossible to tell which-if any-was used for poison.”
Yunice exhaled subtly, relieved.
Owen had just come out of surgery, his body riddled with tubes, drips, and IVs. A few puncture wounds were normal-no one would dig too deep too soon.
But the real issue wasn’t identifying the method-it was determining whether or not Owen had actually been poisoned.
So the head physician immediately ordered blood to be drawn and sent to the lab.
Before leaving, the doctor closed the door and addressed everyone in the room. “This is a serious incident. I’ll be reporting it to the higher-ups. In the meantime, no one talks about this outside.”
Everyone nodded in solemn agreement.
Yunice knew then: It was done. The incident was now “handled.”
She wasn’t the only one who had something to lose in this hospital. Paul had just gifted them the perfect scapegoat.
Idiot, she thought.
What kind of moron confesses to murder in the middle of a bio-crisis? Wyatt wouldn’t even take that risk-and Paul just walked in and handed it to me.
Not that it mattered now-Paul had escaped.
And sure enough, despite the chase, he was nowhere to be found.
Three days passed.
To everyone’s surprise, Owen’s condition didn’t worsen.
On the third day, as he regained awareness, a team from the special task force came to question him about the “infiltrator” that day.
Owen, remembering the man in his hospital room, paled. “I was poisoned?” he asked, horrified.
He and Paul hadn’t been on good terms recently, not since the conflict over Elsie. In fact, they hadn’t even worked together for some time.
Three days ago, when he saw Paul appear at his bedside, he thought he was hallucinating-he assumed Elsie had begged Paul to save him.
He had never imagined Paul came to kill him.
“But that doesn’t make sense…” Owen murmured. “It’s not like our issues ran that deep…”
The investigators saw he was panicking and tried to calm him. “We’re not sure it was poison. So far, we haven’t found any clear pharmacological markers.”
Given the number of medications Owen had been on, plus surgeries and treatment cocktails, even if something had been injected, it would be difficult to isolate.
Then came the questions.
“Did you see the person’s face? Do you know who they were? Any known enemies?”
Owen’s gaze flicked toward Yunice-and immediately shifted away.
“…No,” he muttered. “I didn’t see anything. I wasn’t fully conscious.”
Yunice felt a sense of calm settle over her. The waters were murky now-no longer clear, and that’s exactly what she wanted.
Pinning the blame on Paul wasn’t the point. Clearing herself was.
If Paul were actually caught, things might be dragged out, and she could get pulled in. That wasn’t acceptable.
She glanced at Tommy again. He knows something. She could feel it.
Once the special investigation team left, Owen called her over privately.