Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO SURVIVED THE FIRST MURDER ATTEMPT
Wesley’s surgery was six days away when the surviving witness from Nico’s crash finally appeared.
His name was Luca DeSantis.
He had been driving behind Nico’s SUV on the afternoon of the accident.
The police report listed him as a witness.
His original statement said Nico’s vehicle had accelerated erratically before leaving the road.
Nothing else.
Then Luca disappeared from Chicago.
Reese found him in Tennessee.
Living under his wife’s maiden name.
He agreed to speak only after being shown the medication evidence.
Luca entered the estate at midnight.
Nervous.
Sweating.
Marco searched him twice.
Nico waited in the library.
Adeline remained because Nico asked.
Luca looked at the wheelchair and immediately looked away.
Nico noticed.
“Try again.”
Luca blinked.
“What?”
“Look at me.”
Slowly, he did.
“Good.”
Nico folded his hands.
“Tell me what you didn’t tell police.”
Luca swallowed.
“I saw a second vehicle.”
“What kind?”
“Black sedan.”
“Whose?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why leave that out?”
“Because a man visited me after.”
“Who?”
“I never knew his name.”
Luca looked toward a photograph on Nico’s bookshelf.
Old family picture.
Nico standing beside Carlo.
Luca went pale.
“That one.”
Everyone froze.
Carlo.
Nico’s uncle.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“He offered money?”
“No.”
Luca laughed nervously.
“He showed me photographs of my wife.”
Of course.
“He said if I remembered only one car, everybody stayed safe.”
Nico’s face became stone.
“What did you see before the crash?”
“The black sedan pulled beside your SUV.”
“And?”
Luca shook his head.
“I couldn’t see.”
“Think.”
“It stayed beside you maybe fifteen seconds.”
Then fell back.
Moments later Nico’s SUV lost control.
“Anything thrown?”
“No.”
“Contact?”
“Maybe.”
Luca hesitated.
“It looked like your driver started fighting the wheel.”
Adeline thought of the sabotaged steering component.
“And the sedan?”
“It kept going.”
“Plate?”
“Covered.”
Nico’s jaw tightened.
“Driver?”
“No.”
“Passenger?”
Luca looked sick.
“I saw blonde hair.”
Camille.
Maybe.
Adeline’s stomach dropped.
Nico did not react visibly.
“Could be anyone.”
“Yes.”
“Did Carlo ask specifically about the sedan?”
“Yes.”
There.
He knew.
After Luca left, Nico sat in silence.
Adeline closed the library door.
“Say it.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“You’re doing the quiet thing.”
“Apparently everyone has become an expert.”
“Occupational hazard.”
Nico rolled toward the fireplace.
“Camille was supposed to be in New York that day.”
“Do you know she was?”
“No.”
“What about her phone records?”
“Reese is working on it.”
Adeline crossed her arms.
“You think she was in the car.”
“I think possibilities are dangerous without evidence.”
She almost smiled.
“That sounded like me.”
“I learn.”
Then a loud noise came from the hall.
Marco entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Someone tried to access the stored crash vehicle.”
Nico turned.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes ago.”
“Who?”
“Security caught him.”
Alive.
The man worked for Ashcroft Automotive Services.
Camille’s family again.
His instructions had come from a corporate maintenance manager.
That manager disappeared before police reached him.
The circle tightened.
Then Doctor Vargas called.
Old trauma blood samples had been located.
Two contained the same class of sedating substance later found in the altered pills.
Someone had drugged Nico before the crash.
Not enough to incapacitate completely.
Enough to slow reaction.
Combine that with mechanical sabotage.
The accident was not an accident.
It was an execution that failed.
Nico looked at Adeline after the call.
“My driver died because they wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“I lived.”
“Yes.”
“Why keep me alive afterward?”
“Maybe they expected you to die.”
He waited.
“And when you didn’t?”
Adeline looked toward his wheelchair.
“They adapted.”
That truth hurt.
Nico knew it.
Keep him weak.
Question his judgment.
Push marriage.
Change proxy.
Control company.
Eventually maybe death from complications that would look natural.
A patient with spinal injury.
Medication.
Blood-pressure instability.
Who would question it?
Adeline did.
That was why three nurses before her had been removed.
Nico looked at her.
“You realize what this means.”
“What?”
“You were supposed to be controllable.”
“Because of Wesley.”
“Yes.”
His voice hardened.
“They thought desperation would make you obedient.”
Adeline’s chest tightened.
“Instead?”
“You became expensive.”
She laughed despite herself.
Then Nico said:
“I want you off the estate.”
Her smile vanished.
“What?”
“Until this is over.”
“No.”
“Adeline.”
“You do not get to decide where I go.”
“This is different.”
“Because you’re scared.”
“Yes.”
The honesty stopped her.
Nico continued.
“They killed Matteo.”
“Maybe Monica.”
“Threatened Rebecca.”
“Threatened Jasmine.”
“Used Wesley.”
His hands tightened.
“I will not wait until you’re next.”
Adeline felt fear.
Real fear.
But also anger.
“You think sending me home makes me safe?”
“Safer.”
“My address is in family records.”
Nico went still.
Exactly.
“They know where Wesley lives.”
“Yes.”
He swore.
Adeline stepped closer.
“This is why control doesn’t work.”
“I am trying to keep you alive.”
“Then include me in the plan.”
He stared.
Not obey.
Include.
Slowly, his expression changed.
“What do you suggest?”
“Move Wesley before surgery.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere not owned by Alfieri.”
“Hospital guest housing?”
“Too public.”
“Reese?”
“No family attorney.”
Nico thought.
“Doctor Vargas.”
Adeline nodded.
Vargas owned a small condo near the hospital.
Empty while her daughter studied abroad.
Secure building.
No obvious connection to Nico beyond medicine.
Wesley could stay there with Adeline until surgery.
Nico hated it because he did not control the location.
Which was exactly why it was useful.
“Fine.”
Adeline raised an eyebrow.
“That looked painful.”
“It was.”
Then she asked:
“And me?”
“You work daytime.”
“Night?”
“Home with Wesley.”
“Good.”
Nico looked irritated.
“What?”
“You expected a fight.”
“Yes.”
“Not everything needs one.”
He looked at her.
“With you, statistically most things do.”
That afternoon, Nico’s rehabilitation session changed everything.
Doctor Vargas wanted a new baseline after several days without altered medication.
Nico used standing braces and the parallel bars.
Adeline guarded from one side.
Therapist on the other.
He pushed upward.
Right leg engaged slightly.
Left lagged.
His arms shook.
But he reached full supported standing.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
He looked straight ahead.
Adeline watched his face.
Not the legs.
Him.
Forty-five.
Fifty-eight.
A minute.
Then Nico whispered:
“I can feel pressure.”
Vargas froze.
“Where?”
“Right foot.”
Nobody moved.
“Describe.”
“Like…”
He swallowed.
“Like standing on something.”
Adeline’s eyes filled.
Not full sensation.
Not miracle.
But change.
Vargas tested.
Repeated.
There was a small improvement in proprioceptive response.
Real.
Nico lowered back into the chair.
He looked stunned.
Adeline smiled.
“Sixty-eight seconds.”
He stared.
“That’s all you have to say?”
“No.”
She leaned closer.
“You were right to hope.”
His face changed.
Before he could answer, Marco entered.
“Boss.”
Bad timing.
“What?”
Marco held a tablet.
“We got Camille’s phone-location history.”
Nico went completely still.
The day of the crash, Camille’s primary phone had been in New York.
But a second device registered to Ashcroft Holdings had traveled from Chicago to Wisconsin and back.
Security footage from a gas station showed Camille exiting the black sedan.
Forty-two minutes after Nico’s crash.
Nico stared at the image.
His former fiancée.
Blonde hair.
Gray coat.
Standing beside the car Luca had described.
Adeline felt sick.
Camille had been there.
Not after the crash.
During.
Nico looked toward his legs.
Then back at the photograph.
For eight months, Camille had kissed his cheek.
Adjusted blankets he did not ask her to touch.
Spoken about their wedding.
Told people she loved him.
And somewhere inside those same eight months, she had known exactly why he was in that chair.
Nico’s voice became quiet.
“Bring her to me.”
Adeline stepped forward.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“You said include you in plans.”
“Yes.”
“This is mine.”
“No.”
His eyes hardened.
“She tried to kill me.”
“Then you are the last person who should interrogate her alone.”
“Adeline.”
“You’re angry.”
“Yes.”
“Anger makes people stupid.”
He stared.
She waited.
Then, through clenched teeth:
“I hate when you quote yourself.”
“Good.”
Reese entered.
“Police can bring Camille in for questioning.”
Nico laughed coldly.
“Police.”
“Yes.”
“You want me to let the system handle her?”
Adeline looked at him.
“I want you to prove she was wrong.”
His eyes narrowed.
“How?”
“She thought losing your legs meant losing your power.”
Adeline touched the photograph.
“She thought making you vulnerable would make you controllable.”
Her voice softened.
“Don’t prove her right by becoming the man she expected.”
Nico looked at the image for a long time.
Then handed it to Reese.
“Give it to the police.”
Adeline breathed.
May you like
It was a small choice.
For Nico Alfieri, it may have been the hardest one he had made since waking in a hospital unable to move his legs.
