"So tell me… what's your plan? Poison him slowly? Break him down until he dies? All because he doesn't love you back?"
Her words hit like a blade of their own. "Isn't that kind of stupid?" she pressed, her tone sharp but not cruel. "Killing someone you claim to love?"
"The plan was never to poison him," Cynthia snapped, her voice trembling as if she was convincing herself as much as Nnenna. "I could never do that to Carl. But when I saw how badly he was being affected, how much of it was because of you, I realized his feelings for you were only growing firmer each day that passed. I had to do something."
Her eyes flickered with desperation. "At first… I thought maybe I could poison him just enough to make him weak, then swoop in and save the day. Who wouldn't love the person who risked their life to save them? Maybe then he would see me as someone worth spending the rest of his life with. That's all. I never meant to let it go too far. I could never hurt him."
