Chapter 12

"Okay, so, tell me, what did you eat or drink today and what time did you do so?"

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Zayon thought for a bit. "Um, well..." He started. "What I first drank was a little bit of mouthwash,"

Raymond gave Zayon a expression that read, 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘢𝘺??

Zayon chuckled. "Accidentally, of course."

Raymond rolled his eyes and went back to listening to Zayon. Malika was busily writing in her journal.

"What mouthwash did you use?" She asked Zayon.

"WebNovel Whitening Mouthwash."

Zayon cleared his throat, which didn't hurt as much anymore. "What I drank next was some water from my shower head."

Raymond and Malika exchanged expressions. Darla stifled her laugh while Raegan sighed deeply. Raymond thought Zayon was joking. "From your 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥?"

"Yeah. I was showering and I got thirsty."

Raymond gave Zayon a funny face. "Oh, ok... great."

Zayon continued his list of foods. "I then ate some eggs and bacon."

Raymond sighed. "Finally, something normal." He muttered under his breath.

"What? Repeat that." Zayon said passive-aggressively.

"You know what, nevermind, man."

Zayon glared and Raymond. 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 "𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥".

Malika took a break from scribbling furiously at her journal. "How were the eggs and bacon prepared?"

Zayon thought a little bit. "Well, the eggs were sunny side up,"

"So, it couldn't have been the eggs that had the Laudanum." Malika stated.

"And the bacon was baked."

Malika nodded.

"Ok, so," Zayon said. "I also drank some orange juice."

Malika nodded. "Maybe the orange juice was poisoned?"

Zayon shook his head. "Couldn't have been. I bought the bottle from the store and when I came home, I drank it straight outta the bottle."

Raymond scratched his beard. "At this point, why am I even surprised."

Zayon decided to ignore Raymond's comment and continue on with his story. "After drinking orange juice, I ate a few tangerines, also just bought from the store."

Raymond nodded. Jayden sighed and hid his face in his hands out of boredom.

Zayon then paused. He knew exactly what he wanted to say, but not if he could say it.

"Go on," Raymond said, glancing at the time on the clock. It was 7:41 PM. Phew, all this happened in less than a day?

Zayon looked around nervously. His eyes darted across the room. He didn't want to say this AT ALL. It would make Nya very angry at him, and possibly make Darla jealous. But Zayon still had to say it.

Zayon swallowed hard. What could he possibly say that could cause any damage? You're just talking about what you ate in a day.

"Um, does cum count?" Yikes.

Raymond turned to Malika and sighed, annoyed. While Darla was just a little frustrated, Nya was absolutely livid. She stood up from her chair to face Zayon.

"Cum?!" Nya went to charge at Zayon, but Raymond had to hold her back, again.

"Sit back down, please. You can deal with that when Zayon recovers." He stated.

Zayon chuckled nervously. "Yours, of course!"

"Not mine," Nya hissed. "We didn't do anything today."

Malika hid her face in her hands from second-hand embarrassment. "Oh God..."

"Can we please go back to questioning?" Raymond asked, more like ordered, because everyone agreed with him immediately, as he expected.

Zayon continued to speak. "And... that's all I ate or drank today."

Malika looked at her husband confused. "Oh." She mumbled. There was absolutely no evidence that Zayon got food poisoning. That was weird.

Malika put her journal and pen down on the table, baffled. "That's weird, nothing you ate or drank was poisoned, even though it was a mouth intake."

Raymond thought of what more he could ask. "Well, what did you do an hour before you fell unconscious? If you remember."

"Well, I went to my son's friend's house, and we went on a walk." Zayon paused to think. "A child got lost and we were going to get ice cream all together, but I decided that I would find the child."

Darla sighed of relief. 𝘗𝘩𝘦𝘸! 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘯!

"And then, I got to the park feeling tired and drowsy," Zayon narrated. "and before I could even find the child, I just fell unconscious."

Malika had just finished writing down Zayon's story. "Okay, Darla, please tell your story."

Darla paused. Then, she made up her mind about what to say. "Well, we went on a walk, like Zayon said," She started. "And Zayon went to go find the child. But before he went, I kissed Zayon." Darla gave a menacing look to Malika, but it was actually Nya who was hurt. Zayon was biting on his fingernails. That's was he did when he got REALLY nervous.

𝘖𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘰! 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵.

Nya looked at Zayon angrily with glossy eyes. She blinked back her tears and tried to control her anger.

Raymond looked at Zayon like he was the worst person on Earth.

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘺... 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘴! 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭𝘴? 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘕𝘺𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥/𝘰𝘳 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘢.

"So... you kissed Zayon." Malika repeated.

"Yep, I did."

"On the lips or cheek?"

"Lips!" Darla gave an evil smile to Malika, who was confused on why she was giving her these weird faces.

Nya started to cry tears of anger and sadness. How could Zayon do this to her? After all these years of them being married, he wants to sneak around like a ninja and kiss other girls? Nya always knew Zayon looked at other women, but she never expected him to kiss them, and tasting their cum? That was a whole nother level. After everything they'd been through - the day they moved in together, their first night sleeping beside each other, that cute photo of the both of them drunk, their wedding, their first child, their second child, and so much more; all thrown away by the lack of Zayon's self control!

Nya tried so hard to stop crying, but she couldn't stop. Zayon cheating on her was just so painful! So he told Nya "not to bother herself" just so he could go play around with her feelings and kiss another woman? Ugh!

𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳! 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴?

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘡𝘢𝘺𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯? 𝘐'𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵!

𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘡𝘢𝘺𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭! 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘮!

𝘔𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘰𝘧𝘧.

Darla smiled at Zayon and looked back at the police officers. Raymond and Malika were whispering about something important. What could they possibly be planning?

Malika turned to face Darla while Raymond reviewed the notes.

"Darla, did you use tongue in that kiss?"

Raegan, Jalil, and Jayden cringed at all of this. Why were grownups so icky and nasty? Why would they connect the part of the body they use for eating, and that has a lot of germs and bacteria together? It just made no sense. It was disgusting, and you could get sick from that.

Nya was hoping that Darla at least didn't use tongue in her kiss. She was going to cry even more if she did.

Darla nodded. "Yes, of course."

Nya cried even more.

Zayon looked at Nya sobbing and felt bad for her in an instant. Why couldn't he just control himself? Does every woman he see really have to be his next sneaky link? Zayon didn't like this feeling. Guilty, sick, nervous, and ashamed. He felt like King Solomon, a rich king with 700 wives, which was not a good feeling either. He was such a man whore.

Jayden was sitting on his mother lap, comforting her. "It's okay, Mommy, he didn't deserve you anyway."

Jalil wanted to say "You mean 'Mom'?", but he managed to keep himself quiet.

Zayon's heart stung once his ears picked up that comment. His own son didn't even like him. Zayon been knew that, but now it just hurt to know that Jayden was close to hating his own father.

Raegan already hated her father, and only Jayden knew. Zayon didn't really have a relationship with his daughter. They just... rarely talked.

Zayon still had love for both his children, so knowing that none had even a little love for him was heartbreaking and sad.

𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵! 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥!

No, Zayon, that's where you're wrong. Children are supposed to love their father, only if the father treats them like a child.

Jalil watched as the Edmenson family was falling apart. He felt bad for his best friend, even though he calls his parents Mommy and Daddy. Even though he's kind of terrible at their favorite racing game. Even though they had gotten into a misunderstanding on the walk. Jalil still loved his best friend and wanted to see him shine in life. He wanted to see his life full of color. He wanted to see Jayden be happy in life. But right now, Jayden's life was a dull, sad shade of grey. Jalil watched was the Edmenson family started to slowly rip away from the father, the one who gave them all the right to be called Edmenson. Raegan had already ripped away, Jayden was close to tearing off, and Nya was almost completely ripped off; but when she ripped off fully, she was going to rip Zayon into tiny pieces.

Malika cleared her throat. She never liked seeing families being cut into pieces, but you have to see it sometimes when you're a police officer. She actually had to see it, literally. How traumatizing.

"Well, um," She started. "Zayon, did you feel a rush of liquid come into your mouth while you both were kissing?"

Zayon nodded slowly, with tears in his eyes. "Well, yes I did. On all three of them."

Malika started to scribble in her journal madly when Nya jumped up. "THREE?!" Whoops.

Nya started to charge at Zayon once again, but Raymond stopped her with just one hand. "I will have you thrown out of the hospital if you cannot control yourself."

"HE'S THE ONE WHO CANNOT CONTROL HIMSELF!" Nya screamed, pointing at Zayon. "LET ME GO!"

"Ma'am did I not just say I will have you thrown out? Sit back down!"

Nya sat back down while fuming. Ooh, she was going to KILL Zayon when he was out of this damn hospital!

Malika sighed. This Edmenson family was too much to handle!

"Well, did you swallow the liquid that rushed in your mouth?" She asked.

Zayon said nothing.

"Do not be scared of your wife." Raymond said. "I'll handle her."

Nya was so enraged, she wanted to scream like a boiling kettle pot. Her hands were balling into fists, ready to be in use whenever she needed them. She would punch 𝘙𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥 if she had to. No one was getting in the way of her beating up her husband!

Nya ran to uppercut Zayon, but Raymond held her back once again. She punched Raymond in the eye and kept running to beat Zayon up. If Zayon wasn't scared then, he was scared now. he was shivering, and not because of any cold temperature, but because of fear of his own wife! As we already know, Nya's slaps hurt enough already, punches would be even worse! Zayon just had to pray nothing bad would happen. His prayers were answered.

"Zayon, you bastard!" Nya yelled while running towards Zayon. Raegan cringed at the sight of her mother's breasts and fat rolls jumping up and down, matching the tone of her running. Jayden opened his eyes wide to see his father finally get beat up. Jalil hid his face in his lap. He couldn't bare to watch.

Just in time, Raymond took Nya by her waist and pulled her back to her seat. He had to hold her back so that she wouldn't attack anyone. Nya grabbed her neon green slide from her foot and threw it at her husband's face. Unfortunately for Nya, the aim wasn't good enough and barely missed Zayon's face. The slide fell on the bed, right next to Zayon.

The fact that Nya wanted to hurt her husband so badly that she threw what she was wearing on her feet at Zayon, was painful for him. That did it for him. Zayon's tears started to come out as fast as cars on a highway.

Malika almost cried herself, but she managed to save her tears for later. "Um, Mr. Edmenson, did you swallow the liquid?"

Zayon nodded unhurriedly with a sad face and tears streaming down it. "I thought it was saliva." He mumbled with thick spit blocking his esophagus, making it harder for people to understand him when he spoke. He swallowed his saliva.

Darla smiled when she realized that Zayon swallowed the liquid because he thought that it was her saliva. Nya frowned even bigger.

Raymond and Malika turned over to look at the notes that she had wrote and whispered for a bit. Then, Raymond turned to look at Nya. "Don't think I'm not watching you, miss."

Nya cried even more while her children and Jalil started to give her some support.

𝘞𝘰𝘸, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘮𝘦. 𝘐'𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬. 𝘈 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘩𝘪𝘮? 𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘑𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘭.

Malika and Raymond turned to look at Darla. She smiled sweetly at Darla and Darla smiled back, but sarcastically.

Malika stopped smiling. "Ms. Fergistein, do you mind if we check your purse really quickly?"

Darla gave Malika an annoyed look. "I do mind, actually. Why would you look in my purse?"

"Just to check a few things. We're kind of suspicious."

"Suspicious? There's nothing to be suspicious about. According to the law, you cannot search my bag without proper suspicion. You cannot just be suspicious and check my bag-"

"Ahem!" Malika almost yelled. "I actually do have proper suspicion, they're right here in these notes." She smiled at Darla sweetly-but-sarcastically and walked over to her bag to grab it. Darla also smiled at Malika sweetly-but-sarcastically and dodged her bag away whenever Malika's hand got close to it.

"Excuse me, but I do not want to force you. Give me the bag." Malika snapped.

Darla reluctantly gave Malika the bag and looked around nervously. Oh God, she was going to be in so much trouble once Malika found-

"Laudanum?!" Malika looked at Darla with big eyes and Darla just looked back nervously. Zayon jumped up from his bed and almost got up to punch Darla, and he tried to, but was too weak and had to recover first. Nya didn't do anything. Maybe an hour ago, she would've beat the shit out of Darla, with Raymond holding her back or without. But now she didn't care too much. Raegan had the same expression as her mother but Jayden was absolutely livid. He decided that he forgave his father, and now that their relationship had been restored, he wasn't letting anyone hurt his father.

"How could you do that to my Daddy?" He yelled angrily. He ran to Darla to punch her, but Raymond held him back.

Jalil just shook his head. Hopefully he meant "Dad" instead of "Daddy".

"Sit back down!" Raymond yelled. He then lowered his voice. "My God, what is wrong with this family? Like mother like son."

Darla darted her eyes across the room. She then proceeded to burst into tears.

"It's just because I love you, Zayon, that's why I poisoned you!"

Zayon looked at her angrily. "What? If you actually loved me, you wouldn't want me to DIE!" He yelled.

Jayden's and Raegan's heads turned from left to right depending on who was speaking. Jalil hid is face in his lap once again. Nya kept crying with all the noise. Malika and Raymond just watched for a little bit, while Malika was recording audio on her watch.

"I didn't! I really didn't!" Darla cried. "I thought if I poisoned you secretly and didn't tell Nya about you being here, you would think that she was the one who poisoned you and that she didn't love you because she didn't even come to visit! Then you'd stop loving her and cut her off for good!" Darla took a moment to sob even more. "And when I visited you frequently, I thought that you'd love me more because of it!"

Zayon shook his head in disbelief. "Well," He started. "I actually did want to date you, but now that you've shown me your true colors, I don't think I wanna do that now."

"Zayon, you fucking stupid spawn of Satan!" Nya screamed loudly. "Hell, you are Satan himself!"

Zayon sat up more so he looked more bigger and scarier. "Be quiet, you loud bitch!"

"Okay, okay, argument's over." Raymond hissed. Everyone stayed quiet, except for Nya, who kept weeping loudly.

"I'm confused." Malika said. "How did you fight the effects of Laudanum?"

"With coffee." Darla muttered through tears.

"Okay," Malika said. "Well, Darla, you are under arrest. Anything you say or do can be used against you in the court of law."

"NO! Don't do this to me!" Darla screamed like she was getting murdered. She ran around in the hospital room, trying to avoid the handcuffs that Malika had already gotten out. Raymond ran after her and caught her. He held her still while Malika handcuffed Darla.

"LET ME FREE!" Darla screeched like an overly-jumpy and playful monkey. "YOU'LL REGRET THIS!"

Malika took her away into the police car while Raymond stayed in the room.

Jalil started crying when he realized that his mother was being taken to jail. Darla didn't love him, and he knew that, but Jalil still loved her.

Meanwhile, Zayon was on his bed, hoping this all was a dream.

𝘖𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥. Zayon thought. 𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯?