For the three days following, Charlotte had busied herself with gardening chores. Other times, she would help Hayley prepare meals in the kitchen.
Her days were leisurely, albeit her treatment was behind schedule.
Dr. Felch would extract some daily blood samples from Charlotte for testing. However, to everyone’s dismay, there was no breakthrough yet.
In contrast to Mrs. Berry’s anxiousness, Charlotte was unusually laid back.
After all, there was nothing she could do.
Hayley was a cheerful girl. She loved to hum a tune or two when doing her house chores. As such, it brought joy to the room whenever she was around.
The scenic and secluded place that Charlotte was in helped her feel more relaxed during her treatment too.
Mrs. Berry was rather impressed by Dr. Felch’s acupuncture treatment on her chronic health issues. She urged the doctor to expedite the antidote research for Charlotte.
However, Dr. Felch would repeat the same answer each time he was asked, “We can’t rush it. These things take time.”
Mrs. Berry would then sigh and leave Dr. Felch in peace.
Charlotte would talk to Zachary and the kids over the phone every night. The kids would share with her all the interesting things that happened at their kindergarten.
Zachary chose to keep quiet about what Charlotte was up to. The latter, too, had not mentioned the incident that she was stalked and ambushed. There wasn’t any mention of the bodyguards as well.
The couple did a good job at keeping a tight lid on each other’s secrets.
The toxins in Charlotte’s body would act up once every other day. When that happened, Dr. Felch would let her take the herbal medication. Charlotte would fall asleep after that and wake up feeling completely fine.
They repeated the drill for another five days.
On the ninth day, Sam came back with a bag full of herbal ingredients and put them inside Charlotte’s room before he hurried out to make preparations.
While Charlotte tried to kill some time by tending to Hayley’s vegetable garden, the latter was bustling about in the kitchen, boiling pots after pots of hot water.
Mrs. Berry, on the other hand, was preparing some herbal soup in the kitchen while stealing glances at Dr. Felch’s laboratory every so often in anticipation of good news.
Charlotte’s symptoms acted up again during dinner. Instead of giving her the usual herbal medicine, Dr. Felch asked Mrs. Berry to take Charlotte back to her room.
When they returned to their bedroom, they found that Dr. Felch had prepared a herbal bath for her.
Hayley started undressing Charlotte while she explained, “I have prepared this on Dr. Felch’s order. Help me get her into the tub.”
“Is this part of the treatment?” Mrs. Berry asked.
Hayley nodded. “Quick, we need to immerse her body in it.”
“Alright, alright.”
After the two of them gently stripped Charlotte down, they settled her into the bathtub. After which, Hayley extracted her acupuncture needles and began sterilizing them.
Outside the bedroom, Dr. Felch started giving verbal instructions to Hayley about which acupoints for the needles.
Following Dr. Felch’s instructions, Hayley inserted a dozen of needles into Charlotte’s body.
Soon after, purplish-black toxic blood started flowing out slowly from the pressure point.
“It’s out! The poisonous blood is flowing out!” Mrs. Berry happily declared.
In her stupor state, Charlotte could vaguely hear Mrs. Berry’s remark. She managed to curl her lips into a weak smile before falling unconscious.
“Miss! Miss!” Mrs. Berry cried out anxiously.
“It’s normal for her to pass out in the beginning. She’ll get better in the next few days,” Dr. Felch reassured Mrs. Berry outside the bedroom. “Is the blood purplish-black in color?”
“Yes, Dr. Felch. The blood is flowing out from all the acupoints,” Hayley answered.
“That’s a good sign. It means the medicine is taking effect. Let’s boil some chicken soup for her tomorrow to speed up the healing process.”
“Alright.”
At last, Charlotte’s treatment had taken a positive turn. They repeated the procedure for the next couple of days. Charlotte would fall asleep after the bath and wake up the next morning feeling refreshed with increased appetite.
Mrs. Berry was thrilled to see the positive effects of the treatment on Charlotte.
They now renewed their hopes that they could head back to the city soon after the treatment.
However, Dr. Felch’s updated assessment had shattered their dreams when he said that they needed at least a month to clear Charlotte of all the poison in her body.
