“What?” Mr. Jefferson stared, his eyes wide with surprise.
He never expected Lucinda to be the one behind Mr. Norwood's close call. Connor glanced over at Lucinda, his thoughts drifting. She’d been blowing up his phone all day, saying she’d made a special tonic for him. He hadn’t bothered to reply. Last time she’d even shown up at the hospital with the same story about her homemade brew. He hadn’t touched a drop, and now he felt strangely lucky about that.
Clearly, Chief Lydia was the only one he could trust.
“Lucinda, do you actually know anything about medicine?” Mr. Jefferson asked, raising an eyebrow. From what he remembered, Lucinda didn’t know the first thing about treating people.
Lucinda’s hands balled up tighter. She bit her lip and shook her head, looking small and miserable. “No, I don’t. I just heard that ginseng and maca are really good for you, so I thought it would help Grandpa feel better. I didn’t think…” Her voice trailed off as fresh tears spilled down her cheeks.
She couldn’t let anyone find out that the tonic was never meant for her family. It was Connor she’d wanted to give it to, but since he’d ignored her, she’d handed it off to her parents and grandpa instead. She hated the thought of wasting such expensive herbs.
Cameron hurried to smooth things over. “Lucinda was just trying to help out of kindness. She didn’t mean any harm.”
Mr. Norwood watched Lucinda, her face streaked with tears, and he felt his heart twist. His voice was weak but gentle. “Don’t… don’t blame Lucinda. It’s my own body… that let me down. Cameron and Kylie… drank it too… and they’re both fine.”
All three of them had the tonic, but only he had ended up in such bad shape. It had to be his fault, not Lucinda’s. What he didn’t know was that Lydia had quietly given Cameron and Kylie medicine to counteract the tonic. Without her, they probably would have been in just as much trouble.
Watching Mr. Norwood struggle to defend Lucinda, Mr. Jefferson didn’t know what else to say. He just couldn’t understand how someone with zero medical knowledge would risk giving an old man with health problems all those weird supplements. Didn’t she know too much of a good thing could backfire?

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