Ned wakes from the murky edge of unconsciousness feeling as though he has clawed his way back from the bottom of a cold, lightless sea, and as his eyes snap open to the harsh fluorescent glow of his hospital room in Port Charles, a shockwave of clarity jolts through him so violently that even the steady beep of the monitors seems to skip a beat, because in that instant he remembers everything—every breathless second before he collapsed, every face that blurred above him, every whisper of suspicion clouding his mind—and most importantly, he remembers the unmistakable taste of the drink that had burned just a little too much on his tongue and the shadowy figure who had handed it to him with a smile that now seemed sharp enough to draw blood, and as his voice croaks out the identity of the person who poisoned him, Tracy, standing at his bedside, stiffens like she has been struck by lightning, her eyes widening in horrified disbelief as the truth slams into her, sending a ripple of chaos across Port Charles as nurses rush in, doctors scramble for answers, and rumors begin sprinting through the hallways faster than anyone can contain them, because the moment Ned speaks the name, everything changes: loyalties fracture, suspicions ignite, and the delicate social fabric of the Quartermaine empire begins to unravel thread by thread, with Tracy torn between defending her family’s legacy and confronting the horrifying possibility that someone she trusted has betrayed them all, while outside the hospital walls, word spreads like wildfire, drawing the attention of everyone from the docks to the Metro Court, each person reacting with their own blend of shock, fascination, and fear, and soon the entire town is buzzing with speculation, from the Corinthos organization quietly wondering whether this poisoning is a precursor to a larger threat, to the detectives at the PCPD scrambling to reopen interviews and sift through motives, to Brook Lynn pacing the waiting room with her heart pounding as she battles the terror of losing her father and the fury of knowing someone targeted him, and as the hours stretch into a tense, sleepless blur, Ned grows stronger, his memory sharpening with each breath until he can recount every detail with chilling precision, painting a picture that leaves Tracy shaken to her core because the accused is not a stranger or an outsider but someone firmly rooted in the tangled, tumultuous history of the Quartermaines, someone with just enough reason to lash out and just enough cunning to believe they could get away with it, and as Tracy steps out into the hallway, the weight of the revelation pressing heavily against her ribs, she sees the swirl of chaos unfolding around her—security guards stationed outside Ned’s door, reporters gathering like vultures at the hospital entrance, and various members of the Quartermaine clan storming in and out as they argue, accuse, deny, and panic—and she realizes that Port Charles is on the edge of an eruption that will reshape alliances, expose hidden agendas, and dredge up old wounds that were never quite healed, because now that Ned has named his poisoner, there is no going back, only forward into a storm that threatens to take down more than just the person responsible, and as night falls over the city with a heavy, expectant silence, Tracy steels herself for what is to come, knowing that the truth, once spoken, spreads faster than poison and hits far harder, and Port Charles is about to find out just how deep and dangerous the Quartermaine secrets truly run.