She stood beside my hospital bed every night while everyone else waited for me to die, never knowing that someone far more dangerous was listening in the dark. Before this nightmare was over, the truth hidden inside Room 412 would destroy loyalties that had survived for decades. But even that wasn't the darkest secret waiting to come into the light.

They were a piercing, vibrant blue—eyes that had seen the rise and fall of regimes, completely alert and devoid of the cloudiness that usually accompanied months of unconsciousness. Nicholas looked at me, his head turning slightly on the pillow, the movement stiff but deliberate.

I rushed to the side of the bed, my medical training taking over as I reached for the penlight to check his pupillary response. "Nicholas, don't move too fast. Your muscles have suffered significant atrophy. Let me—"

He raised a weak hand, brushing my light away. "No time, Clara," he rasped, his throat working hard to produce the sounds. "Leo... he has the council. Tomorrow night... it ends."

"You need a doctor, Nicholas. You need to be moved to a secure facility," I said, my hands trembling as I checked his pulse manually.

"No doctors," he commanded, a ghost of his legendary authority returning to his tone. "The chief of neurology... Dr. Mercer. His wife’s gambling debts were settled by Leo six months ago. If Mercer knows I'm awake, I'll be dead before the sun rises. You are the only one I can trust."

The weight of his words settled on my shoulders like a lead cloak. "Why me? You don't even know me. I'm just the nurse who reads to you."

Nicholas managed a faint, bittersweet smile, his cracked lips parting. "You read The Count of Monte Cristo. You chose a book about a man who was buried alive and came back for what was his. And... you didn't take his money just now. You tore the check. In my world, Clara, loyalty can't be bought, but betrayal is cheap. You are a rare thing. You are good."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "What do we do? Leo said the council meets tomorrow night. He’s going to take control of the shipping lines. Matteo says he’s already bought off the captains at the docks."

"Matteo," Nicholas muttered, his expression softening slightly. "Where is he?"

"Leo's men intercepted him tonight, I think. He wasn't outside when Leo walked in."

Nicholas’s eyes hardened, the brilliant blue turning into cold slate. "They won't kill him yet. Leo needs Matteo to validate the security transfer logs. He’s holding him somewhere in the lower levels of the hospital or at the old warehouse on 4th Street. We need to get to Matteo first."

"We?" I gasped. "Nicholas, you can barely lift your arm. You can't leave this bed."

"I don't need my legs to destroy Leo Rossi, Clara," Nicholas said, his fingers locking around my wrist with surprising strength. "I need your hands. In the bottom drawer of the locker in the staff lounge... there is a blue gym bag left by a night nurse who resigned last month. She didn't resign. She was my courier. Find it. Bring it here."