Chapter 18 - The Man Who Stood for Three Seconds
Hannah's first reaction was professional.
"Sit down before you fall."
Nicholas laughed and dropped back into the chair.
"You could try being impressed."
"I'm extremely impressed. Sit safely."
"There it is."
"What?"
"The nurse voice."
For the first time in months, the future did not feel like a room with all the doors locked.
Nicholas began intensive rehabilitation with Dr. Shah's team. Progress came in inches, not miracles.
A muscle contracting on command.
A longer transfer.
Ten seconds with braces.
Then twelve.
Some days nothing improved.
Some days pain sent him backward.
He remained a wheelchair user, and Dr. Shah never promised otherwise.
But the difference was choice.
Nobody was secretly weakening him anymore.
Nobody was canceling appointments in his name.
Nobody was telling him what his body could never do while making sure he never had the chance to test it.
The criminal case grew.
Claire's lawyers argued that Dominic manipulated her. Dominic's lawyers argued that Claire planned the medical fraud. Merritt blamed both of them. Martin Hale blamed money.
Ruiz did not care who blamed whom.
"Juries love when co-conspirators explain each other," she said.
Walter resigned from every Valenti company.
Nicholas accepted the resignation but refused to speak to him for six weeks.
Then Rebecca's sealed envelope sat on Nicholas's desk long enough to become its own accusation.
Hannah found him holding it one evening.
"Open it," she said.
"What if I don't like what's inside?"
"Then you'll be exactly where you are now, except informed."
He gave her a look.
"You make comfort sound terrible."
"I'm a nurse, not a pillow."
Nicholas opened the envelope.
Rebecca's letter was short.
Nick,
If you're reading this because I was right, don't waste the rest of your life proving how angry you are. Anger is easy for men in our family. Do the harder thing. Believe the person who tells you the truth when lying would be safer.
And for once, don't punish everybody because one person betrayed you.
I love you.
Rebecca
Nicholas read it twice.
Then he handed it to Hannah.
"She would have liked you."
"Maybe."
"No. She would have found you unbearable. That's how I know."
Hannah smiled.
His expression grew serious.
"When Ethan is recovered and you are no longer working for me, I want to ask you something."
"That sounds ominous."
"It probably is."
"Ask now."
Nicholas shook his head.
"Not while I'm still your patient."
Hannah's heart did something unprofessional.
Before she could answer, Walter appeared in the doorway.
He looked older than he had two months earlier.
In his hand was a final file from Rebecca's safe.
"Nicholas," he said, "there's one more account you need to see. It isn't Claire's. It isn't Dominic's."
Nicholas's face tightened.
"Whose is it?"
May you like
Walter placed the file on the desk.
"Yours."
