Chapter 3: What the Man Who Feared Nothing Was Afraid Of
Adrian sat up.
Dr.
Greene put a hand on his shoulder.
"Mr.
Moretti, your system has been through significant trauma.
You need at least twenty-four hours—"
"I need ten minutes." Adrian swung his legs off the bed.
"Leave us."
The doctor looked at Marco.
Marco gave a small nod.
Greene gathered his bag and closed the door behind him.
The two men were alone.
Adrian stood slowly, steadied himself against the bedframe, and crossed to the window.
The Sound was dark now, the last gray light dissolving at the horizon.
He stood there for a moment without speaking.
"How long has Vincent been working against me?"
"We don't know yet," Marco said.
"His phone records are being pulled.
But the vial — we had it analyzed.
Fast-acting concentrated peanut extract.
Whoever sourced it knew your allergy.
That's not public information."
"It's in my medical file."
"Which three people have access to."
Adrian turned from the window.
"Who are the three?"
"Dr.
Greene.
Vincent.
And your attorney, Caruso."
The name landed in the room like something dropped from a height.
"Caruso." Adrian said it quietly.
"We don't know that he's involved.
But we're looking."
Adrian moved to the chair beside the bed and sat.
His hands rested on his knees.
He did not look like a man who had nearly d*ed four hours ago.
He looked like a man calculating the distance between himself and a decision he had already made.
"Bring Hannah Carter to me."
Marco hesitated.
"Sir, the camera footage—"
"Shows her carrying a tray she was assigned to carry, through a hallway she was assigned to walk, into a room she was told to enter." Adrian's voice was flat.
"She didn't poison me, Marco.
She was the delivery mechanism.
There's a difference."
Marco nodded once and left.
Adrian sat alone in the medical suite.
On the small table beside the bed, someone had placed Ellie's pink rabbit backpack.
It must have been left behind in the chaos.
The front pocket was still unzipped — the pocket where the EpiPen had been.
He reached over and picked it up.
It weighed almost nothing.
He set it back down carefully, the way you set down something that belongs to someone else.
---
Hannah appeared in the doorway two minutes later.
She had clearly been crying.
Her uniform was wrinkled, her eyes red, and she was holding herself the way people hold themselves when they are trying very hard not to fall apart in front of someone who frightens them.
Ellie stood beside her, one hand gripping her mother's, the other holding Rosie by the ear.
Adrian looked at the child first.
Ellie looked back at him with her serious gray-blue eyes.
She did not seem frightened.
She seemed to be conducting some private assessment of whether he was better.
Apparently he passed, because she gave a small nod.
"Your face has color again," she said.
Hannah made a sound that was almost a sob.
"Ellie—"
"It's all right," Adrian said.
He looked at Hannah.
She flinched slightly, as if bracing for something.
"Sit down," he said.
"Both of you."
Hannah perched on the edge of the chair across from him.
Ellie climbed up beside her mother and settled Rosie on her lap.
"I owe your daughter my life," Adrian said to Hannah.
"I don't say things I don't mean.
That is a fact."
Hannah's chin trembled.
"She shouldn't have been up there.
I told her to stay downstairs.
I'm so sorry, Mr.
Moretti, I never meant for any of this—"
"She saved my life because she was upstairs." He let that sit for a moment.
"If she had stayed in the basement, I would be d*ed."
Hannah pressed her hand over her mouth.
"The EpiPen," Adrian said.
"It was her last one."
"Yes."
"And the refill isn't available until next week."
Hannah looked down.
"The insurance has a thirty-day restriction.
I've called twice.
They won't move it."
Adrian turned to Marco, who stood near the door.
"Call Dr.
Greene back in."
Marco stepped out.
Adrian looked at Ellie.
"Ellie."
She looked up at him.
"Thank you," he said.
She considered this seriously, the way four-year-olds consider things that adults have already decided are simple.
"You're welcome," she said.
"Rosie says you're welcome too."
Something moved across Adrian's face.
It was there and gone so quickly that Hannah almost missed it.
But she didn't miss it.
Dr.
Greene returned.
Adrian spoke to him for less than thirty seconds.
Greene nodded and left again.
"He'll have two EpiPens sent up within the hour," Adrian told Hannah.
"Properly prescribed, properly documented.
The pharmacy restriction will be handled."
Hannah stared at him.
"Mr.
Moretti, I can't accept—"
"You can." His voice was not unkind.
"And you will."
She looked at her daughter.
Ellie was straightening Rosie's ears with great concentration.
Hannah looked back at Adrian.
"Why?" she asked.
It came out barely above a whisper.
He didn't answer immediately.
His gaze moved to the pink backpack on the table.
The unzipped pocket.
The empty space where the EpiPen had been.
"Because she didn't think about the cost," he said finally.
"She just helped."
The room was quiet for a moment.
Then Marco appeared in the doorway again, and his expression was wrong.
"Sir." His voice was careful in the way it got when the information was bad.
"Vincent's phone records just came back."
Adrian looked at him.
"The last call he made before he left — it wasn't to family." Marco paused.
"It was to Dominic Caruso."
The attorney.
The third name on the list.
Adrian's jaw tightened by a fraction.
"Get Caruso on the phone," he said.
"Tell him I'm feeling much better.
Tell him I'd like to meet tomorrow morning."
Marco understood immediately.
"Yes, sir."
May you like
"And Marco." Adrian's voice dropped just slightly.
"Don't tell him about the camera footage."
