Chapter 1 - The Footage Camille Forgot About
Adeline did not move when Camille's accusation settled over the kitchen.
The bottle sat in Edna's palm like a verdict.
Nikico Alfieri looked from the pharmacy label to Adeline.
"You want the corridor footage?" he asked.
"Yes."
Camille folded her arms. "Nico, this is absurd. The medication was in her bag."
Adeline kept her eyes on him.
"If I took it, the camera will show me entering the medication room. If I didn't, then someone put that bottle in my bag."
Bruno Saki stood near the doorway, silent.
Nico's expression remained unreadable.
"Pull it."
One of the security men left.
Camille laughed once.
"Are we seriously entertaining this?"
Nico turned his head toward her.
"We are entertaining evidence."
That shut the room down.
Adeline felt no relief.
Three years earlier, she had trusted a hospital review process because she believed evidence automatically mattered. She had learned that evidence mattered only if somebody powerful was willing to look at it.
Five minutes later, the security man returned.
"There's a problem."
Camille's eyes flicked toward him too quickly.
Nico saw it.
"What problem?"
"The corridor camera went offline at 1:12 a.m. Came back at 1:39."
Adeline's pulse kicked.
"What about the camera at the service stairs?"
The man hesitated.
Camille said, "How would she know there's another camera?"
Adeline answered before he could.
"Because I live here now, and I pay attention."
Nico's mouth almost moved.
"Check it."
The second recording showed the far end of the hallway, not the medication cabinet itself. At 1:18 a.m., someone in a dark robe crossed from the residential wing toward the service corridor.
The face was hidden by the angle.
Camille's voice sharpened.
"That could be anyone."
Adeline watched the gait.
Slow.
Barefoot.
The robe hem had a pale satin border.
Camille was wearing the same robe when she came down for coffee that morning.
Adeline said nothing.
Not yet.
Nico noticed her silence.
"What?"
"Nothing I can prove."
Camille smiled.
"Convenient."
Adeline turned to her.
"No. Careful."
The word changed the air.
Camille stepped closer.
"You seem very confident for someone with stolen medication in her bag."
"I'm confident because I didn't steal it."
"Everyone says that."
"People who plan frames usually say that too."
Edna inhaled.
Bruno looked down, hiding something that might have been approval.
Nico said, "Enough."
He asked everyone to leave except Adeline.
Camille stared.
"You're keeping her in here?"
"Yes."
"Nico."
"Out."
For the first time, Adeline saw Camille truly lose control.
Not dramatically.
Her nostrils flared. Her mouth flattened. She looked at Nico as if he had violated an agreement nobody else knew existed.
Then she left.
The kitchen doors closed.
Nico rolled closer to the island.
"Talk."
Adeline reached into her scrub pocket and removed her phone.
"I photographed your medication bottle four nights ago."
His expression changed.
"Why?"
"Because the medication inside was wrong."
"What do you mean wrong?"
She showed him the images.
"The prescribed tablet is pale yellow and oblong. What I found was white and round. Entire bottle. Same pharmacy label."
Nico stared at the screen.
"You switched it?"
"No. I used your sealed emergency supply that night."
His eyes lifted.
"You went into my medication cabinet and didn't tell me."
"I documented it."
"That isn't what I said."
"I know."
His voice lowered.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I have made the mistake of telling the truth before I had enough evidence."
He studied her.
"The hospital."
She went still.
"Bruno told you?"
"I read your file too."
"Then you know why."
Nico looked back at the photograph.
"Where are the tablets?"
"I mailed two to a toxicology lab."
He stared.
"You mailed my medication out of this house?"
"To a licensed toxicologist I trust."
"That violates about six rules."
"Probably."
"And if you're wrong?"
"Then you fire me."
"And if you're right?"
Adeline looked directly at him.
"Then somebody in this house has been giving you something you were never prescribed."
Silence.
Nico's hand tightened around the edge of his chair.
"What does it do?"
"I don't know yet."
Her phone rang.
Tessa.
Adeline answered on speaker.
Her friend skipped hello.
"Those tablets are not what the bottle says they are."
Nico did not move.
Tessa continued.
"They contain a strong sedative and a second compound that can worsen weakness, confusion, and coordination. I'm sending a formal lab report through encrypted mail. Adeline, whoever is taking these should not take another one."
Adeline looked at Nico.
He looked as though someone had opened a window inside his skull.
Eight months of struggling to recover.
Weeks of memory gaps.
Episodes where he could barely transfer from chair to bed.
Days when he believed his body was getting worse.
"Could that explain the confusion?" he asked.
"Possibly," Tessa said. "A physician needs to evaluate the whole picture."
Nico ended the call.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he asked, "Who has the cabinet code?"
Adeline answered.
"You. Me. Edna."
"And Camille."
"Yes."
His eyes darkened.
"No one says a word."
Adeline frowned.
"Nico—"
"No accusations. Not yet."
He looked toward the kitchen doors.
"I want to know whether someone is trying to hurt me."
Adeline shook her head.
"I think you need to ask a different question."
"What?"
"Not whether they're trying to hurt you."
May you like
She tapped the lab report arriving on her screen.
"Ask what they need you too weak to stop."
