Chapter 3 - THE BLUE BOTTLE
Nobody moved.
Luca looked from me to Alessandro.
Then down at the bottle in his hand.
“What?”
Emma pointed.
“Blue medicine.”
Luca’s expression softened instantly.
“This?”
She nodded.
He laughed.
“Vitamins.”
Alessandro did not laugh.
“For whom?”
“Myself.”
“You carry vitamins into my office?”
“I carry half my life in my briefcase.”
Luca placed the bottle on Alessandro’s desk.
“Magnesium. My doctor prescribed it.”
Alessandro extended his hand.
Luca hesitated.
Only slightly.
Then gave him the bottle.
Alessandro turned it over.
The label did contain Luca’s name.
I felt foolish.
Maybe that was the point.
Luca smiled at Emma.
“See? Nothing mysterious.”
Emma crossed her arms.
“You’re still mad.”
For the first time, Luca genuinely seemed unsure what to say.
Alessandro placed the bottle aside.
“Why are you here?”
“Board call in fifteen minutes.”
“I canceled it.”
“You postponed it.”
“I’m canceling it now.”
Luca stared at him.
“We can’t keep doing this.”
“Doing what?”
“Pretending your health isn’t affecting the company.”
Alessandro’s voice cooled.
“Careful.”
“I’m your friend, Sandro.”
The nickname changed the room.
Nobody else called him that.
“I was there before Moretti Shipping had three trucks,” Luca continued. “Before the lake house. Before the towers downtown. Before half these men started pretending they loved you.”
Alessandro said nothing.
“You need rest.”
“I need people to stop deciding what I need.”
“You nearly fainted during a conference yesterday.”
“How do you know?”
Luca paused.
Then shrugged.
“Paul told me.”
I saw Alessandro notice that too.
He looked at the nurse call button.
Then back at Luca.
“My medical information is private.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“You gave me medical authority after the ambush.”
“Temporary authority.”
“If you became unable to make decisions.”
“I am making one now. Get out.”
Luca stared at him for three long seconds.
Then he smiled.
Not warmly.
“Fine.”
He picked up the blue bottle.
At the door, he looked at me.
“A word of advice, Ms. Ellis.”
“I didn’t ask for one.”
His eyes sharpened.
“Then take it as a courtesy. People who work in this house do better when they remember they work in this house.”
Alessandro’s voice came from behind him.
“Luca.”
Luca left.
When the door closed, Alessandro looked at me.
“He doesn’t frighten you?”
“Yes.”
“You hide it well.”
“I have rent.”
That almost-smile again.
But this time it disappeared quickly.
He looked at the silver medication case.
Then pushed it away.
“Call Paul.”
The nurse arrived five minutes later.
Alessandro asked a simple question.
“Who prepares these medications?”
“The pharmacy packages them weekly.”
“Who collects them?”
“Usually one of the household drivers.”
“Usually?”
Paul looked uncomfortable.
“Mr. Bellini sometimes brings them from Dr. Mercer’s office.”
Luca Bellini.
The oldest friend.
The man who had been beside Alessandro since they were boys.
I saw the conflict in Alessandro’s face.
It was easier to suspect a stranger.
Strangers had not attended your mother’s funeral.
They had not stood beside your hospital bed.
They had not held your business together while you learned how to live without moving your legs.
“What exactly is wrong?” Paul asked.
Alessandro pointed toward me.
“She believes my medication is making me sick.”
Paul looked surprised.
I felt my cheeks warm.
“I said the timing is strange.”
“That is not the same as an accusation,” Alessandro added.
“Have you changed anything recently?” Paul asked.
“No.”
Paul checked the packets.
“Then I’ll call Dr. Mercer.”
Alessandro shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Mercer is the physician who prescribed all of it.”
Paul slowly lowered the case.
“You think the doctor is involved?”
“I think I don’t know anything.”
That admission cost him.
I could hear it.
He was a man people crossed streets to avoid.
A man who ran businesses worth hundreds of millions.
A man newspapers described as impossible to surprise.
And he had just admitted someone might have been putting something into his body while he sat helplessly in a wheelchair.
Emma climbed onto the sofa.
“I’m hungry.”
The entire conspiracy stopped for crackers.
That was Emma’s gift.
She could force a room full of fear back into the ordinary world.
I gave her apple slices.
Paul took the medication case.
“We can send the contents to an independent laboratory.”
Alessandro nodded.
“No Moretti name.”
Paul understood.
“I know someone at Northwestern.”
“Not Mercer.”
“Not anyone who reports to him.”
“And Luca doesn’t hear about this.”
Paul glanced toward me.
“What about staff?”
“Nobody.”
Paul looked at me again.
I understood.
“I won’t say anything.”
Alessandro’s gaze stayed on mine.
“You have a daughter.”
“Yes.”
“You can still walk out.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means if something is wrong, this becomes dangerous.”
I looked at Emma chewing an apple slice beside a stuffed rabbit.
Then at Alessandro.
“You want me to quit?”
“I’m telling you that you can.”
“Do you want me to?”
He did not answer.
That was answer enough.
“I need the job.”
“That is not a reason to involve yourself in my problems.”
“No.”
I picked up my cleaning cloth.
“But it is a reason to keep doing the job I was hired for.”
His brow furrowed.
“And what exactly is that?”
“Cleaning messes.”
I walked toward the desk.
“This looks like one.”
That time he actually smiled.
Briefly.
But it was real.
Over the next three days, Paul withheld the questionable medication under supervision and replaced only prescriptions verified directly through a second physician.
Something changed almost immediately.
Alessandro stayed awake through breakfast.
His hands shook less.
His appetite returned.
On the second afternoon, he ate an entire bowl of soup.
Emma applauded.
“Don’t encourage him,” I said.
“I finished lunch,” Alessandro replied. “Apparently this deserves a parade.”
Emma climbed onto the chair beside him.
“You get cookie.”
She broke one in half.
Always half.
One for her.
One for him.
By Thursday, Alessandro looked less gray.
By Friday, he had enough energy to spend two hours reviewing company records.
That was when he called me into his office.
“Close the door.”
I did.
Emma was sleeping in the staff room with Mrs. Calhoun, the elderly cook who had decided within one day that Emma belonged to her.
Alessandro had several documents spread across his desk.
“What happened?”
“I asked Luca yesterday why a shipping acquisition was delayed.”
“And?”
“He said I approved the delay.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
He showed me his signature.
It looked authentic.
“What does this have to do with your medicine?”
“Maybe nothing.”
But he did not believe that.
“After the ambush,” he explained, “I signed a limited management authorization. Luca could operate certain companies if I was medically unable.”
“You trusted him.”
“He dragged me out of a burning car when we were nineteen.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Long story.”
“He saved your life?”
“Once.”
The word carried weight.
“And after the ambush two years ago, he took over everything while I was in surgery.”
“Which means?”
“If my condition deteriorated enough, Luca could argue I was no longer competent to manage the companies.”
I understood.
“He gets control.”
“Temporary control.”
“Temporary can last a long time when the person who has it is also deciding whether you look sick.”
Alessandro stared at me.
“You learn quickly.”
“I’ve rented apartments from terrible landlords.”
He gave a dry laugh.
Then the intercom buzzed.
Paul’s voice.
“Mr. Moretti?”
Alessandro pressed the button.
“Yes?”
“The laboratory called.”
His hand stopped.
“They finished the first analysis.”
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“What did they find?”
Paul did not answer immediately.
Then:
“They found a sedative.”
Alessandro’s face went still.
“What sedative?”
“One you were never prescribed.”
I felt the room turn cold.
Paul continued.
“And it wasn’t only in your blood sample.”
“Where else?”
“In three of the capsules from your medication case.”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
“How much?”
“Enough to explain the weakness, confusion, low blood pressure, and several of the episodes you’ve been having.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Alessandro asked the question that mattered.
“Can they tell who put it there?”
Paul inhaled.
“They’re running forensic testing on the capsules now.”
A knock interrupted us.
Luca entered.
He was smiling.
Then he saw our faces.
“What happened?”
Alessandro looked at his oldest friend.
And lied perfectly.
“Nothing.”
Luca’s smile stayed in place.
But his eyes moved toward the empty medication case.
That tiny movement lasted less than one second.
It was enough.
Because I saw it.
May you like
And so did Alessandro.
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