Half an hour had passed. A strange, oppressive silence reigned in the kitchen. Only the ticking of the wall clock dared to disturb the stillness.
Ana remained motionless, her gaze fixed on her mother-in-law, who had just finished her coffee and was muttering something about „this generation that doesn’t even know how to make decent coffee.”
Elena set the cup on the table and stood up abruptly, her chair creaking.
„I’m going to get the pills. I suddenly feel really hot,” she muttered, leaning lightly on the edge of the table. Ana remained paralyzed.
She saw her mother-in-law’s face change: it was almost completely pale, and her eyes looked blurry, as if she could no longer see clearly.
„Mom, are you okay?” Victor asked in an uncertain voice.
Elena opened her mouth to respond, but instead of words, only a strangled gasp came out. She put her hands to her throat, as if trying to suck in air, but her breathing was heavy. She took another step and… collapsed to the ground.
„Mom?!” Victor shouted, running toward her. Ana jumped to her feet, but couldn’t take a step. Her knees were shaking, her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat.
He saw her lying on the floor, her face contorted with pain and fear.
„Call the ambulance!” Victor shouted.
Ana couldn’t move. Part of her wanted to run, hide, free herself from that horror. The other part… felt guilty. She didn’t want her to die.
She just wanted Elena to feel what she herself had felt for months. To taste the fear.
Victor typed frantically on his phone, explaining something to the paramedics as he tried to lift his mother. But Elena no longer responded. Her body was limp, inert.
Two hours later, the ambulance took Elena to the hospital. Ana remained alone in the living room, staring at the abandoned cup on the table. Everything had happened too quickly.
Victor returned with red eyes and a pale face.
„What happened, Victor?” Ana whispered.
„The doctors think she was poisoned… I don’t understand. They mentioned traces of heavy metals, maybe even mercury, but they’ll do more tests. I don’t know where from… or why…”
She collapsed on the sofa, her face in her hands. Ana felt her stomach tighten. She felt cold.
„Tell me… did you notice anything strange in the coffee this morning?” he asked suddenly.
Ana bit her lip.
„Yes… actually, yes. The smell was… very strange. I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid I’d sound crazy. So… I switched the cups. I thought I was protecting myself. Not because…”
Victor stared at her for a long time. Then he stood up and took a few steps into the room. He turned to her with a look that froze her.
—Ana, you’ve been sick for two months. Always after eating here. And Mom… she always brought you something, right? A slice of cake, some soup… or her “special coffee.” Did it ever occur to you that…?
Ana was breathing hard.
—“Yes,” she whispered. “But I was ashamed even to think about it. How could I believe something like that? Who would do something like that? Your own mother-in-law?”
Victor sat back down, his gaze lost in space.
—“I didn’t want to believe it either. But this morning, when I said I’d make the coffee, she replied, ‘Leave it, I know what Ana likes.’ Yet she insisted on making it herself.
And when I came back, the cups had been moved. I don’t know if she put something in them. Or if it was fate.
—“No, it wasn’t fate,” Ana said softly. It was her choice. Maybe today she just got a taste of her own medicine.
Victor said nothing. He stared into space.
A week later, the test results confirmed it: traces of a slow-release poison, likely administered daily in small doses. In her coffee, her tea, her food.
Elena survived. But something inside her was broken forever. She no longer spoke. She never left the room. She simply stared out the window.
The police opened an investigation, but with no concrete evidence and a suspect who was no longer cooperating, everything remained suspended in a heavy silence.
Ana and Victor moved. Not far away, but far enough to no longer hear the heavy footsteps on the floor of the old house.
One morning, Ana made herself a coffee. She sniffed it carefully. The aroma was sweet, warm, without a trace of metal or fear.
She smiled slightly. For the first time in a long time.
„The taste of freedom,” she murmured.
And he drank it down to the last drop.