Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH

Emergency lights flickered on.

Adeline stood beside Nico.

The sound upstairs continued.

Slow footsteps.

Calm.

Confident.

Whoever it was…

was not afraid of being caught.

Nico grabbed the side of his wheelchair.

“Stay behind me.”

Adeline almost laughed.

“You’re in a wheelchair.”

“And you’re a nurse.”

“So?”

“So you’re not a bodyguard.”

She looked at him.

“And you are?”

A small smile appeared on his face.

“For the first time in months…”

“I’m trying to be.”

The footsteps stopped.

Then Marcus Vale appeared at the top of the stairs.

Tall.

Cold expression.

Perfect suit.

The kind of man who looked dangerous without trying.

“Power outage,” Marcus said.

Nico stared at him.

“Funny.”

“What?”

“It happened right after my nurse received a threat.”

Marcus looked at Adeline.

Then back at Nico.

“Are you accusing me?”

“I’m asking questions.”

Marcus walked downstairs.

“Questions can become problems.”

Adeline immediately noticed something.

Nico noticed too.

The way Marcus spoke.

Not like an employee.

Like someone who believed he had authority.

“I hired you,” Nico said.

Marcus stopped.

“And I protected you.”

“Before or after you started controlling my life?”

The room became silent.

Marcus’s face hardened.

“You have changed.”

“No.”

Nico looked at him.

“I started seeing clearly.”

Marcus walked away without answering.

But before leaving, he said one sentence.

“Be careful who you trust.”

The irony was obvious.

After he left, Adeline whispered:

“He’s hiding something.”

Nico nodded.

“Yes.”

“You know what?”

“No.”

That surprised her.

He continued:

“But I know where to look.”

Later that night, Adeline searched through the files she copied.

She found medical reports.

Financial documents.

Private messages.

Then one file caught her attention.

A folder named:

NICO ALFIERI FUTURE CONTROL PLAN

Her heart raced.

She opened it.

Inside were documents about Nico’s companies.

His money.

His assets.

His legal rights.

And one name appeared again and again.

Camille Ashcroft.

Adeline whispered:

“She planned this.”

But then she found something else.

A recorded audio file.

Created six months earlier.

Before she ever arrived.

She clicked play.

At first, there was only silence.

Then Camille’s voice.

“If he refuses to sign, we make sure he believes he has no choice.”

Adeline stopped breathing.

Then another voice answered.

A man.

And she recognized it immediately.

Marcus.

“You’re sure this will work?”

Camille laughed.

“He trusts the wrong people.”

The recording ended.

Adeline sat frozen.

Because she finally understood.

The accident had changed Nico’s life.

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