Chapter 3 - The Secret Behind the Accident
The next morning, Nikico did something he had not done in months.
He canceled every appointment on his calendar.
Then he asked Adeline to sit with him.
Not as his nurse.
As a witness.
He needed someone who had not been there that night.
Someone who could hear the story without already believing it.
The accident report had been kept in a locked cabinet.
Bruno brought it.
Nikico opened the folder.
The report stated that he had been driving north along Lakeshore Drive at 12:18 a.m.
The road had been wet.
His vehicle had crossed the center line.
The crash had left him with severe spinal injuries.
No other vehicles were officially involved.
No mechanical defect was found.
Alcohol was negative.
Drugs were negative.
Case closed.
Adeline read it twice.
“Where were you going?”
Nikico frowned.
“I don't know.”
“What do you remember before leaving?”
“Dinner.”
“With whom?”
“Camille.”
“What happened after dinner?”
He closed his eyes.
“An argument.”
“What about?”
He hesitated.
“Money.”
Bruno looked up.
Nikico continued.
“She accused me of hiding something.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
Adeline leaned forward.
“Was someone else there?”
“No.”
Then Nikico's eyes widened.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“There was a call.”
“From whom?”
“I don't remember.”
He pressed his fingers against his temple.
A flash crossed his face.
A woman's perfume.
A glass breaking.
His own hand on a desk.
A voice.
“Just sign it.”
He opened his eyes.
Adeline and Bruno were staring at him.
“I didn't leave willingly.”
Bruno's face went pale.
“What do you mean?”
“I think someone made me leave.”
That changed the investigation.
Bruno brought an old security drive.
The estate had exterior cameras.
One camera showed Nikico's vehicle leaving at 11:53 p.m.
Another camera showed Camille standing at the doorway.
She did not wave.
She did not call after him.
She watched him leave.
At 11:56, someone else entered the garage.
The image was poor.
But the figure was tall.
Male.
Bruno enlarged it.
“There.”
A silver watch.
Nikico's face changed.
“My father.”
Bruno looked at him.
“Your father has been dead for six years.”
“I know.”
The watch belonged to an old family employee.
Adeline recognized the name from the estate files.
Victor Bale.
Nikico's former security chief.
Victor had supposedly died two years before.
Yet the family records showed something stranger.
Victor had disappeared.
His employment was terminated.
No obituary.
No death certificate in the private records.
Nothing.
“Find him,” Nikico said.
Bruno looked uncomfortable.
“We thought he was dead.”
“Find him.”
Three days later, Bruno came back with an address.
A small apartment on the outskirts of Joliet.
Adeline went with them.
Victor opened the door.
He was older, thinner, and carrying the exhaustion of a man who had spent years hiding.
He looked at Nikico.
Then he started crying.
“You're alive.”
Nikico's expression remained hard.
“You knew I would survive?”
Victor wiped his face.
“I knew you had to.”
“Tell me why.”
Victor looked at Adeline.
“Who is she?”
“My nurse.”
Victor stared at her for a long time.
Then he whispered, “Then she's the reason he's still alive.”
Adeline felt cold.
Victor finally told them the truth.
Before the accident, Nikico had discovered irregular transfers from an investment account controlled by Camille's family.
He had confronted Camille.
She had denied everything.
But Nikico discovered documents showing the money had been used to purchase shares in companies positioned to benefit from a financial collapse.
He planned to expose it.
Camille knew.
Her father knew.
Victor knew.
But Victor was the only one who tried to stop what came next.
“Camille wasn't supposed to kill him,” Victor said.
Adeline's heart stopped.
Nikico stared.
“What was she supposed to do?”
“Make sure you couldn't expose them.”
Victor said they had arranged a staged crash.
The intention was to leave Nikico badly injured but alive.
Then the medication would keep him confused.
His signature would be obtained.
His voting rights would shift.
His company would slowly move under the control of people loyal to Camille's family.
But something had gone wrong.
“Who changed the plan?”
Victor looked down.
“Your uncle.”
Nikico's jaw tightened.
“Marco?”
Victor nodded.
Marco Alfieri was Nikico's father's younger brother.
He had spent years portraying himself as the harmless uncle who loved family dinners.
Victor explained that Marco had believed Nikico would eventually recover enough to remember.
He became nervous.
So he started using stronger drugs.
The problem was that Camille discovered the substitutions.
Instead of stopping them, she used them.
Adeline's thoughts raced.
“So Camille wasn't the person who planned the accident?”
“No.”
“But she knew.”
“Yes.”
“And she let it happen.”
Victor didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Nikico looked toward the window.
For years, he had blamed himself for the accident.
He had believed his own mistakes had destroyed his future.
Now he understood that someone had engineered the destruction and then stood beside him pretending to grieve.
Victor pulled a small flash drive from a drawer.
“This is everything.”
Nikico took it.
“Why did you wait two years?”
Victor looked at Adeline.
“Because every time I tried to tell the truth, someone died.”
Adeline felt the weight of that sentence.
“Who?”
Victor named three people.
A driver.
A junior accountant.
A legal assistant.
All had once been connected to the same investigation.
Nikico went silent.
Then his phone rang.
The screen showed Camille.
He didn't answer.
She called again.
Then again.
Finally, a message appeared.
We need to talk before you hear a lie from someone else.
Adeline read it.
“What are you going to do?”
May you like
Nikico looked at her.
“For the first time in my life, I'm going to let her talk.”
