Chapter 8 - THE GIRL IN THE WHEELCHAIR
Nell hated the hotel.
“It smells like expensive sadness,” she announced when Adeline arrived with takeout.
“It smells like lemon cleaner.”
“Same thing.”
The room was accessible, warm, and guarded discreetly by a woman named Dana who claimed to work in corporate security and knitted during long shifts.
Nell liked her immediately.
That worried Adeline more than if Nell had complained.
“You’re not staying here forever,” Adeline said.
“I know.”
“Your surgery is still scheduled.”
“I know.”
“Stop sounding calmer than me.”
Nell looked at her.
“You’re the one engaged to a mafia boss.”
“Contractually.”
“That word is doing heroic work.”
They ate noodles from cardboard boxes.
Then Nell grew serious.
“Do you want to marry him?”
Adeline stared at her food.
“I agreed.”
“That is not what I asked.”
Adeline sighed.
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I know I trust him more every day. I know he scares people without trying. I know he listens when I tell him no. I know he makes decisions that affect entire neighborhoods before breakfast. I know there are things in his life I cannot accept.”
“Like crime?”
“That seems like a significant example.”
Nell smiled slightly.
Adeline continued. “And I know when Alfonso’s medication was tampered with, Enzo wanted to tear the house apart and didn’t because I asked him to think first.”
Nell leaned back.
“You like him.”
“I dislike this conversation.”
“Which means yes.”
Before Adeline could respond, Dana knocked once and entered.
“Ms. Whitaker, Mr. Marquetti is downstairs.”
Nell’s eyebrows rose.
“He came here?”
Dana nodded. “He asked permission to come up.”
Adeline closed her eyes.
Nell grinned.
“Contractually romantic.”
Enzo entered ten minutes later carrying no flowers, no jewelry, and a paper bag from a bakery near Nell’s old high school.
Nell stared at it.
“How do you know about Russo’s?”
“You mentioned their almond cookies when we met at dinner.”
“You remembered?”
Enzo looked confused by the question.
“Yes.”
Nell accepted the bag.
Adeline felt the dangerous warmth again.
Enzo sat near the window.
“We found the car that followed you.”
Nell’s humor disappeared.
“Who?”
“Registered to a shell company tied to Carlo Vieri, Bruno’s missing driver.”
Adeline crossed her arms.
“Still not Bruno.”
“No.”
Nell looked between them.
“You two argue like married people already.”
Neither answered.
Enzo continued. “I came because I want Nell to decide something.”
“What?” Adeline asked.
“There is a secure rehabilitation apartment near the hospital owned by a medical nonprofit my family funds. Not the estate. No armed guards inside. Dana can remain outside if Nell wants. The apartment is designed for wheelchair access.”
Nell frowned.
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch.”
“You’re a mafia boss.”
Enzo glanced at Adeline.
“She has taught you diplomacy.”
Nell smiled.
Enzo looked back at her.
“You can refuse. If you stay here, the hotel continues. Your choice.”
Nell studied him for several seconds.
“Can I see the apartment first?”
“Yes.”
“Can Dana come?”
“Yes.”
“Can my sister stop looking like she plans to interrogate the wallpaper?”
“No,” Enzo said. “That may be impossible.”
Nell laughed.
Adeline threw a napkin at both of them.
The apartment turned out to be practical rather than luxurious. Wide doorways. Roll-in shower. Lowered counters. Elevator backup generator. It had been created for patients recovering from spinal procedures.
Nell chose it.
That mattered to Adeline.
Everything with Enzo increasingly came back to choice.
Which was why Bruno’s next move felt so ugly.
Two days later, a reporter approached Nell outside the hospital.
“Is it true your sister agreed to marry Enzo Marquetti in exchange for your surgery?”
Dana blocked the camera.
Nell stared at the reporter.
“No.”
“Did the Marquetti family pay your medical expenses?”
“No.”
“Is your sister financially dependent on—”
Nell cut him off.
“My sister worked sixty-hour weeks before she met him. If you print that she sold herself for my legs, I will personally learn to walk just to come to your office and yell at you.”
The clip went viral.
Adeline found out because three nurses showed it to her at St. Bridget.
She was furious.
Nell was delighted.
Enzo was silent for a long time.
Then he said, “Your sister is terrifying.”
“She likes you too.”
He looked at her.
That slipped out.
Adeline turned away.
Enzo followed at a respectful distance.
“Adeline.”
“What?”
“I need to tell you something before you hear it from someone else.”
She faced him.
“Bruno has been meeting with three council members privately. He plans to challenge the marriage before it happens.”
“On what grounds?”
“That my grandfather is mentally compromised and therefore his choice is invalid.”
Adeline’s expression changed.
“He is not cognitively compromised.”
“I know.”
“I have charts.”
“Bruno knows that too.”
“Then why?”
“Because if he can make the council doubt Alfonso, he can reopen the succession vote.”
Adeline understood.
“This was never about me.”
“No.”
Then Enzo corrected himself.
“It wasn’t at first.”
The words lingered between them.
Adeline looked away.
“What is it now?”
Enzo stepped closer.
Not touching.
Waiting.
She knew what he was asking without language.
Her heart moved too fast.
“We have a contract,” she whispered.
“I know.”
“One year.”
“I know.”
“You’re making this difficult.”
“Also aware.”
She laughed despite herself.
Then Enzo did something more dangerous than kissing her.
He reached into his pocket, removed the brass compass, and placed it in her palm.
Adeline stared.
“What are you doing?”
“My grandfather gave me that when I was twelve.”
“Enzo.”
“If Bruno succeeds, he will say everything I decided after Alfonso became ill was manipulated. He will question every order, every alliance, every protection I put in place.”
“Why give this to me?”
“Because everyone knows I never surrender it.”
Adeline’s fingers closed around the warm brass.
“If anyone claims I was coerced into this marriage, show them that I gave you the one symbol no one in this family believes I would give unwillingly.”
She looked at him.
“This is evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Not romance.”
His eyes held hers.
“I’m trying to respect the contract.”
Her breath caught.
Nell’s surgery was in five days.
Alfonso was dying.
May you like
Bruno was preparing a coup.
And Adeline Whitaker stood in a hospital corridor holding the most feared object in the Marquetti family as if it were a confession.
