Chapter 4: What Camille Built While He Was Broken
Nico didn't sleep.
Adeline knew because she didn't either.
She sat in the chair beside his door until four in the morning, listening to the house settle around her, thinking about Dorian's hands pressing flat against his knees.
At seven, Nico called for her.
She found him at the desk in his room, a folder open in front of him.
He'd been going through papers.
"Close the door," he said.
She did.
"Sit down."
She sat.
He turned the folder toward her.
Inside were financial statements — columns of figures, account transfers, dates going back eleven months.
Back before the crash.
"Dorian has been moving money," Nico said.
"Small amounts.
Consistent intervals.
Always just under the threshold that would trigger an automatic review."
Adeline looked at the figures.
She was a nurse, not an accountant, but even she could see the pattern.
"How much?"
"Over fourteen months — just under two hundred thousand."
"Where did it go?"
"A holding account." He tapped one line near the bottom of the page.
"Registered to a company called Vellore Consulting."
Adeline looked at the name.
"I've never heard of it."
"Neither had I," Nico said.
"Until I checked the registration documents this morning."
He slid a second sheet across the desk.
She read the name of the registered director.
She read it twice.
"Camille," she said.
"Her maiden name.
But yes."
Adeline set the paper down carefully.
"She's been taking money from the estate."
"While managing it on my behalf," Nico said.
"While I was in that chair.
While everyone in this house was telling me to rest and trust the people around me."
His voice was level.
That was the thing about Nico — the angrier he was, the quieter he became.
She had learned that over eight months.
"The medication," Adeline said.
"If you stayed weak—"
"I couldn't review the accounts.
I couldn't question the figures.
I couldn't fire anyone." He closed the folder.
"A man in a wheelchair who can't concentrate, can't remember clearly, can't stay awake through a meeting — that man doesn't notice two hundred thousand disappearing."
"We need to take this to someone."
"I've already called my solicitor.
He'll be here at ten."
"And the tablets?"
"Those go with him too." He looked at her directly.
"Adeline.
What you did last night — stepping in front of Camille — she won't forget that."
"I know."
"She's going to move against you.
Quickly."
"I know that too."
"You could leave.
I would understand it.
I would make sure you were—"
"Nico." She said his name plainly, the way she always did when he was about to say something she wasn't going to agree to.
"I found those tablets because I was paying attention.
I've been paying attention for eight months.
I'm not going to stop now because Camille is uncomfortable."
He looked at her for a moment.
"She's going to say you're in love with me," he said.
"She'll use it to discredit you."
Adeline didn't flinch.
"Then she'll say something true," she said quietly.
"And it still won't change what's in that bag."
The silence that followed was not uncomfortable.
Nico looked back at the folder.
"Ten o'clock," he said.
"Be here."
She was at the door when he spoke again.
"Adeline."
She turned.
"Thank you," he said.
"For treating me like a human being."
She didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
She pulled the door closed behind her and stood in the corridor for just a moment, her hand still on the handle, letting herself feel what she'd just said out loud.
Then she heard footsteps at the far end of the hall.
Camille.
May you like
Already dressed.
Moving toward Nico's room with the particular speed of someone who has just learned something they weren't supposed to know.
