Chapter 3 - The Fools' Banquet
By nine o'clock the following morning, the atmosphere inside the grand dining hall of the Alfieri estate was suffused with heavy, suffocating tension.
A silver coffee service sat untouched at the center of the thirty-foot mahogany table. Seated around it were six senior capos of the Alfieri syndicate—men with weathered faces, tailored suits, and eyes that had seen decades of street wars and corporate takeovers.
At the head of the table sat Reuben Alfieri. He was forty, sleek, wearing an Italian wool suit, his hair neatly combed back. Beside him stood Camille, wearing a modest black silk dress, her eyes artistically rimmed with faint red, looking like a woman carrying the weight of the world on her delicate shoulders.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice," Reuben began, his voice dripping with practiced solemnity. "We all love my cousin. Nico is the heart of this family. But since the accident... we have all seen the changes. The confusion. The outbursts. The inability to manage our primary accounts."
An old capo named Valenti grunted, leaning forward. "Nico managed the Detroit union deal last week without a hitch, Reuben. What are you talking about?"
"Did he?" Camille chimed in softly, stepping forward with a delicate sigh. "Frank, you weren't here Tuesday night. Nico didn't recognize his own security team. He threw a crystal decanter through the library window because he thought men were breaking in. His mind is fracturing."
She turned toward the double oak doors as they swung open.
Adeline pushed Nico into the room.
Nico looked terrible—or rather, he looked exactly as Adeline had spent thirty minutes prepping him to look. His hair was slightly untidy, his collar loosened. As Adeline guided the wheelchair to the side of the table, Nico let his right hand tremble visibly against the armrest. He kept his head slightly lowered, his gaze unfocused.
Camille put a hand over her heart, walking over to him. "Nico, darling... you should be resting. I told the nurse to keep you upstairs."
Nico looked up slowly, staring at Camille with blank, glassy eyes. "Where... where is the ledger, Camille? The Detroit shipment... we need to sign the manifest before five."
Reuben glanced at the seated capos with a telling look. "The Detroit shipment was closed three months ago, Nico."
Nico blinked, appearing startled and defensive. "No... no, I spoke to Marco yesterday. We... we agreed on the twelve percent margin."
"Marco died two years ago, Nico," Reuben said softly, standing up from his chair and walking toward his cousin with a thick leather folder in his hand. "Look at me, cousin. You're tired. You've given everything to this family. It's time to let us carry the load."
Reuben opened the folder and laid it across Nico's lap. Inside was a legal petition for full power of attorney and temporary transfer of executive authority over the Alfieri holdings.
"Sign this," Reuben urged gently, placing a silver pen into Nico's trembling hand. "Just a formality for the board. It gives me the authority to handle the bank transfers while you recover."
Adeline stood behind the chair, her hands resting lightly on the handles. Through the leather, she could feel the absolute, rigid tension in Nico's frame. His hand shook so violently that the pen rattled against the paper.
"I... I don't know, Reuben," Nico muttered, his voice raspy. "The family... my father said..."
"Your father would want you safe," Camille urged, laying her hand over Nico's hand on the pen. "Sign it, my love. For us. For our future."
Adeline caught Camille's eye. For a split second, beneath the sorrowful mask, Camille flashed Adeline a cold, triumphant smirk that said: You lost.
Adeline kept her face completely expressionless.
Nico leaned forward, squinting at the document. "Where... where do I sign?"
"Right here on the blue line," Reuben directed, pointing a manicured finger.
Nico pressed the pen to the paper. He dragged the tip across the signature line in a jagged, sloppy scribble that barely resembled his name.
Reuben snatched the document back instantly, checking the signature with a hungry glare before closing the folder.
"It's done," Reuben announced to the room, turning to face the capos. "As of this moment, I am taking control of the Alfieri accounts and security details. Effective immediately."
Old Valenti looked down at his hands, disappointed, but stayed silent. The signed document was legally binding under syndicate law.
"Thank you, gentlemen," Reuben said smoothly. "You may return to your posts. Camille and I will handle Nico's care."
The capos stood slowly, shuffling out of the room one by one.
As soon as the heavy doors clicked shut behind the last capo, Camille let out a sharp, relieved breath. She walked over to the side sideboard, poured two fingers of scotch, and downed it in one gulp.
"God, that was tedious," she muttered, dropping her innocent tone completely. She turned to look at Adeline. "Nurse, take him back to his room. And give him his eleven o'clock medication. He's getting agitated again."
"Yes, Miss Ashcroft," Adeline said quietly.
She turned the wheelchair and pushed Nico out into the corridor.
As they reached the private elevator at the end of the hall, away from eyes and ears, Nico sat up straight. His posture shifted instantly, his shoulders squaring, his head lifting.
He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a second silver pen, and looked at Adeline in the mirror of the elevator wall.
"Did you get it?" Nico asked quietly.
Adeline reached into her scrub pocket and pulled out a small thumb drive. "The camera hidden in my jacket recorded every frame. Reuben pointing to the paper, Camille guiding your hand, and the exact wording of the document."
Nico's lips curled into a cold, lethal smile.
The document he had just signed was not the power of attorney form Reuben thought it was. While Reuben had been distracted by Nico's trembling hand, Nico had slid a identical-looking decoy sheet—prepared by Adeline late last night—over the original.
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Reuben had just walked out with a signed document that legally transferred fifteen million dollars of Reuben's own offshore shell accounts directly into a dummy holding company controlled by Adeline's brother's trust fund.
"Reuben thinks he just bought my empire," Nico whispered as the elevator doors opened onto his private floor. "He doesn't realize he just paid for your brother's entire future."
