Chapter 8 - The Counter-Strategy
The next morning, the dynamic inside the Alfieri estate shifted completely. Nico no longer looked like a broken man waiting for his executioner; he looked like the mafia boss his enemies feared. He summoned Adeline to his study at dawn, closing the heavy mahogany doors.
“If we go to the police, Marcus and Camille will bury us in legal red tape, or worse, make sure we disappear before noon,” Nico said, leaning forward in his chair. “Cicero is safe for your brother, but they can reach anywhere if they want to.”
“Then we don't go to the police,” Adeline replied evenly. “We use their own greed against them.”
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For the next two hours, they mapped out a meticulous counter-strategy. Adeline would continue administering clean, non-sedative placebo vitamins while saving every altered pill for a certified independent toxicological analysis. Meanwhile, Nico would pretend to succumb more deeply to the medication, giving Marcus and Camille the false sense of security they needed to push forward with the emergency corporate restructuring papers.
As part of the plan, Nico quietly wired an advance payment directly to the specialized pediatric clinic in Chicago, securing Wes’s upcoming heart surgery date in full. When Adeline checked her phone later that morning and saw the confirmation notice, she fought back tears of pure relief. She was no longer just fighting for a patient; she was fighting alongside a partner who understood what it meant to have everything on the line.
