Part 13
All of that was true.
It did not change her hand on the blanket.
One evening, she found a box of hospital receipts in the apartment closet. She had kept them from the months after the accident: parking, pharmacy purchases, meals she bought and forgot to eat. On the back of one café receipt, Adrian had written a list while learning to use adaptive equipment.
Transfer board.
Shower bench.
Lower bed.
Stop apologizing to Celeste when she helps.
She sat on the closet floor with the receipt in her hand.
She had forgotten that version of him.
She had also forgotten the version of herself who once became angry when he apologized.
By morning, she wrote Mara a letter. She included a check for fifty thousand dollars, the same amount the media company had offered.
Not payment, she wrote. Restitution.
When the envelope came back unopened, Celeste tore up the check.
She kept the letter.
Adrian’s rehabilitation stalled.
The strain from the engagement dinner healed, but the nerve response in his right leg became inconsistent. Some days he could turn the shoe easily. Other days the command seemed to disappear between his mind and his ankle.
He hated the bad days more after the public had seen a good one.
Naomi made him practice without mirrors.
“You perform for reflections,” she said.
“I need to observe alignment.”
“You need to stop treating your body like an employee with poor quarterly results.”
“That metaphor is offensive.”
“It was designed for you.”
During one session, Adrian stood between parallel bars wearing braces beneath gray therapy pants. Sweat gathered at his temples. Naomi’s hands hovered near his hips without touching.
“Weight right,” she said.
He shifted.
“Too much.”
“I barely moved.”
“You dumped everything into the brace.”
“I moved.”
“You escaped.”
He gripped the bars.
“Again.”
His right knee trembled.
“Breathe.”
“I am breathing.”
“You’re negotiating with oxygen.”
He exhaled.
For twelve seconds, his weight balanced evenly.
Then the leg buckled.
Naomi caught him beneath the arms while another therapist guided him back into the chair.
Adrian struck the bar with his palm.
The sound echoed through the room.
No one spoke.
He stared at his shoe.
“Again,” he said.
“No.”
“I can do it.”
“You’re fatigued.”
“I was up twelve seconds.”
“You were unsafe at thirteen.”
“Again.”
Naomi crouched before him.
“This is the part where you decide whether your body is allowed to tell the truth.”
He looked away.
She waited.
Adrian loosened his grip on the bar.
“Fine.”
“That sounded mature.”
“Don’t ruin it.”
He wiped his face with a towel.
From the doorway, Luis held out Adrian’s phone.
“Mara Ellis called the office.”
Adrian looked up.
“Why?”
“She asked for Daniel, not you.”
“That’s probably intentional.”
“She said someone is offering money for employee information about your treatment at the cottage.”
Adrian’s fatigue vanished beneath a colder sensation.
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t say over the phone.”
Daniel arranged the call through attorneys.
Mara joined from Ana Patel’s office. Adrian sat in a conference room with Evelyn and the company’s security director. No cameras were used.
Mara described a message received by a resort employee. The sender offered ten thousand dollars for photographs, schedules, and names of medical personnel visiting the rehabilitation cottage. The employee showed it to Mara because the account referenced the engagement video.
“Did they provide payment instructions?” the security director asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you have the original message?”
“The employee does.”
“Will they cooperate?”
“I don’t know. They’re afraid of being fired for considering it.”
“Did they?”
Mara paused. “For about an hour.”
The security director sighed.
Evelyn asked whether the employee had shared anything.
“They sent one photograph of the cottage parking area,” Mara said. “No people. The sender replied with a list of license plates they wanted identified.”
Adrian thought of Naomi’s rental car. Therapists. Nurses. Patients who occasionally used the same facility.
“Tell them not to respond again,” the security director said.
“They know.”
“Can you give us the account information?”
“Through Ana.”
The attorneys exchanged details.
Adrian remained silent until the practical questions ended.
Then he said, “Ms. Ellis.”
“Yes?”
“I’m sorry.”
A pause followed.
“This one isn’t entirely yours,” she said.
“It began with the video.”
“It began with somebody offering money.”
“Did the employee say who they believed was behind it?”
“No.”
“Do you?”
“I think people want proof you lied.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“I don’t know who.”
He heard papers move on her side of the call.
Mara continued. “There’s something else. The employee said the account asked whether you could stand before the dinner.”
The room became quiet.
Evelyn wrote something.
Adrian looked at her. “Celeste.”
“Possibly,” Evelyn said.
Mara spoke quickly. “I didn’t say that.”
“No,” Adrian said. “I did.”
“And I don’t think it was her.”
He leaned forward.
“Why?”
“Because the account asked for proof that you could stand before the dinner. She already knows when you told her you could.”
“She may want evidence that I lied earlier.”
“Then why pay resort staff? She has lawyers.”
Evelyn glanced at Adrian. “Ms. Ellis is correct.”
Adrian disliked how quickly suspicion had chosen the most familiar target.
“Who else benefits?” he asked.
The security director answered. “Anyone challenging your leadership. Media outlets. Private investigators. Plaintiffs’ firms. Competitors. People trying to sell information.”
“Peter?”
Evelyn’s expression hardened. “Do not speculate about an executive on this call.”
Mara was quiet for a moment.
Then she said, “The payment account name was Summit Research Group.”
The security director typed.
“That’s generic.”
“I searched it,” Mara said. “There’s a company in Denver with that name.”
“Many companies share names.”
“The registered agent is a consultant named Eric Dane.”
Adrian knew the name.
Peter Sloan had hired Eric Dane during the hospitality restructuring.
Evelyn knew it too.
“Nobody contacts Mr. Dane,” she said. “Nobody discusses this outside counsel.”
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The investigation took nine days.
Eric Dane had been retained by a shareholder advisory group supporting Peter’s interim leadership proposal. Peter claimed he authorized background research into Adrian’s capacity but did not authorize payments to resort employees or acquisition of medical information. Emails showed he told Dane to “find out what he’s hiding before the dinner becomes mythology.”
