Chapter 5 - Three Seconds
Massimo did not confront Camille.
That was the first thing Dean would expect.
The second would be anger.
The third would be revenge.
So Massimo gave them none.
For the next five days, he became quieter.
Weaker.
More dependent.
Dr. Hale increased his evening dosage.
Massimo pretended to swallow every tablet.
Camille began sitting beside him during meals.
Dean started making more operational decisions without asking permission.
To everyone watching, Massimo Rinaldi appeared to be fading.
Only four people knew the truth.
Massimo.
Luca.
Dr. Elena Ward.
And a three-year-old girl who believed she had personally awakened his foot.
Every night after midnight, Elena entered the estate through an old greenhouse passage.
Massimo trained in a sealed room beneath the winter garden.
At first, standing required two rails and Luca’s full support.
His legs shook violently.
Sweat soaked through his shirt.
Pain shot through his lower back.
But pain was something Massimo had forgotten to appreciate.
Pain meant connection.
On the fourth night, Elena locked the wheelchair behind him.
“Again.”
Massimo gripped the parallel bars.
His knees trembled.
“Again.”
He pushed upward.
For two seconds, his body rose.
Then collapsed.
Luca caught him.
Massimo cursed.
Elena did not react.
“Again.”
“I heard you.”
“Apparently not.”
Massimo glared at her.
She stared back.
Very few people stared at Massimo Rinaldi that way.
He liked her immediately.
He hated her by sunrise.
On the fifth night, Massimo stood for three seconds without Luca touching him.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then his knees buckled.
He hit the padded mat.
Elena checked him.
Massimo was breathing hard.
But he was smiling.
Luca laughed quietly.
Massimo looked at him.
“You tell anyone I smiled, I’ll deny it.”
“Of course.”
A small voice came from the doorway.
“You smiled.”
Everyone froze.
Nina stood there in pink pajamas.
Carla appeared behind her, horrified.
“I am so sorry.”
Massimo stared at the child.
Nina pointed at him.
“You’re standing.”
Massimo looked at Luca.
Luca looked at Carla.
Elena closed her eyes.
Nina ran forward.
“I told you!”
Massimo caught her before she collided with his knees.
His legs nearly gave way.
Luca steadied him.
Nina wrapped her arms around Massimo’s waist.
“I told you your feet were sleeping.”
For a moment, no one spoke.
Massimo looked down at the child hugging him.
Something tightened in his throat.
He had been congratulated for money.
Power.
Victories.
Territory.
Survival.
None of it had ever felt like this.
He lowered himself carefully into the wheelchair.
“Nina.”
“Yes?”
“This is still our secret.”
She nodded.
“Because bad people can’t know?”
The adults exchanged glances.
Massimo slowly looked at Carla.
“Who said anything about bad people?”
Carla went pale.
“Nina…”
The child turned.
“Uncle Dean.”
Massimo’s voice changed.
“What about Uncle Dean?”
Nina shrugged.
“I heard him talking.”
“Where?”
“The flower room.”
The conservatory.
Massimo leaned forward.
“What did he say?”
Nina frowned, trying to remember.
“He said dead people…”
Carla immediately stepped closer.
“Nina.”
Massimo raised one hand.
“Let her finish.”
Nina looked at him.
“Dead people sign faster.”
Silence.
Massimo felt Luca stiffen beside him.
“Who was Dean talking to?”
Nina answered without hesitation.
“Aunt Camille.”
Carla closed her eyes.
Massimo’s face became unreadable.
“What else?”
“She said after the wedding.”
“After the wedding what?”
Nina shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
Then she smiled.
“She had shiny shoes.”
It was the most useless and most terrifying testimony Massimo had ever heard.
Later that morning, Luca obtained the estate trust documents.
What he found changed the entire shape of the conspiracy.
Massimo’s grandfather had built the family structure around voting control.
As long as Massimo was legally competent, no one could remove him.
But permanent incapacity changed everything.
If two physicians certified neurological incapacity and Massimo’s legal spouse petitioned the trust, temporary control could be transferred.
Camille would become the family representative.
Dean, already serving as acting operations chief, would control the businesses.
Massimo sat silently as his attorney explained it.
“They need you alive?”
“For now.”
“How long?”
“Long enough for the marriage.”
Massimo’s eyes hardened.
“And after that?”
The attorney did not answer.
He did not have to.
That afternoon, Camille entered Massimo’s bedroom holding wedding invitations.
“I was thinking November twenty-first.”
Massimo looked at her.
That date was three weeks earlier than planned.
“Why?”
She smiled.
“Why wait?”
Massimo looked at the elegant cards.
Then at the woman he had intended to marry.
“November twenty-first.”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
Camille blinked.
“You agree?”
“I’m tired of waiting too.”
She kissed him.
Massimo kissed her back.
It required everything in him not to recoil.
When she left, he opened his bedside drawer.
Inside was the laboratory report.
The video of Hale.
The photograph of the Ashwood SUV.
The recovered ambush audio.
He now understood the outline.
Dean had helped arrange the ambush.
Hale had kept Massimo medicated.
Camille benefited from his incapacity.
But there was still one question.
Had Dean brought Camille into the plan?
Or had Camille brought Dean?
That evening, the answer almost arrived.
Massimo passed the conservatory in his wheelchair.
Voices came through the door.
Dean.
Camille.
Massimo stopped.
“You promised he wouldn’t survive this long,” Camille hissed.
Dean answered quietly.
“He wasn’t supposed to.”
Massimo’s blood went cold.
Camille continued.
“The wedding is in seventeen days.”
“Then we finish it in sixteen.”
Massimo’s hand tightened around the wheel.
Inside the room, a glass clinked against a table.
Then Dean spoke again.
“And the child?”
A long silence followed.
Massimo stopped breathing.
Camille’s answer was almost a whisper.
“She notices too much.”
Massimo’s entire body went rigid.
And at that moment, the conspiracy stopped being about his empire.
It stopped being about betrayal.
May you like
It stopped being about revenge.
Because the two people planning Massimo Rinaldi’s death had just begun talking about Nina.
