Valentine Teller walked into the kitchen, and the smile on Mark Reed's face immediately disappeared behind his furrowed brows.
He stared at the biscuits in his hand, lost in thought.
His gaze shifted, and the identical box in the trash caught his attention.
Mark Reed picked up the biscuit box from the trash, put it in a plastic bag, and then left with the two boxes.
Mark Reed's suspicion was soon confirmed when a friend of his, a professor of food safety at a university, told him, "The residue in the empty box was tested to contain belladonna. A small amount of belladonna can relieve pain, but it can also cause hallucinations. Long-term consumption can lead to dependency, with symptoms similar to methamphetamine, whereas the other box contains very ordinary ingredients, without belladonna."
Anger instantly ignited in Mark Reed's chest.
