The Man at the Table

On Thursday morning, Clara left the clinic and found the driver Marcus had told her to expect. She checked his name, got into the car, and only then listened to Adrian's message.

“We found out who's involved. I'd like to tell you in person. Can I meet you at home?”

She called before the car left the parking lot.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“And Marcus?”

“He's fine too. There hasn't been another attack. This is information about what we're already investigating.”

She heard the effort to answer the question she hadn't asked yet.

“You can come to the apartment. I'll be there in twenty minutes.”

Adrian was at the door when she arrived. He didn't touch her immediately. He waited for her to put down her bag and asked whether she needed something to eat first.

“If you try to discuss lunch right now, I'll imagine something worse.”

He nodded and sat at the table. She pulled out the chair opposite him.

“It was Victor.”

She stared at him.

The man who'd joked in his bedroom. Who'd offered to help with payments. Who'd asked about her working hours with the easy interest of a polite relative.

“Your cousin?”

Adrian nodded.

“Marcus found a service authorization connected to his office. That was the beginning. Now we have payment records linking him to an intermediary and a statement from the person who helped arrange access.”

“The woman who came in as a nurse?”

“She's part of the same chain. The police are working with the material they collected. Victor's assistant identified the requests and turned over his messages.”

Clara rested her elbows on the table. She couldn't find a comfortable position.

“Did she know what she was helping him do?”

“She said she believed she was clearing contractors and concealing some private expenses. The investigators will determine the rest. But her account isn't the only thing we have.”

He explained in straightforward terms. On the night of the attack, Victor had used his access to alter a gate authorization and hire a maintenance team that performed no maintenance. The intermediary had received money before and after. The same people appeared in the arrangements for the false medical visit.

The man who'd photographed Clara worked for that intermediary.

She felt the cold leather of the chair beneath her fingers.

“He asked about my shifts. I thought he was just being friendly.”

“I know. Marcus told me afterward.”

She looked up.

“You were in the room. He sat beside your bed.”

Adrian's mouth tightened.

“He grew up in that house. I didn't need a recording to know he had permission to enter. That was the problem.”

For the first time, Clara understood what the investigation had taken from him. An unknown enemy was frightening. A man who knew your dinner table, your habits, and the voices of your relatives left a different kind of wound.

She offered her hand.

Adrian took it and lowered his head for a moment.

“Why?” she asked.

“Money. Position. He wanted control of things I wouldn't give him. For years, he said he did the work while I got the name.”

“Did you suspect him before?”

“I knew he was unhappy. I didn't think he'd go this far.”

He didn't try to sound invulnerable. She squeezed his fingers.

They talked until the driver called to say he needed to move the car. Adrian asked whether she'd consider staying at a smaller family residence while they completed the measures against Victor. It was somewhere his cousin didn't regularly use, with a limited staff and established security.

Clara wanted to speak to Marcus before deciding. Once he explained what would change and how she'd keep seeing her patients, she agreed to a few days.

She packed clothes, toiletries, the book she was reading, and a coat into a small suitcase. Adrian watched her pick up her charger.

“The other one's still in my drawer,” he said.

She looked over her shoulder.

“I know. I didn't want to take it that day.”

His expression softened. He didn't comment, but he touched her back as they went through the door.

The temporary house had pale brick walls, an open kitchen, and a fenced backyard. Titan arrived an hour later with the blue toy that had survived the longest.

Clara greeted him in the living room. He walked past her, inspected the space, and deposited the toy beside her suitcase.

“At least one of us packed the essentials,” she murmured.

The next afternoon, while Adrian worked in the adjoining room, her phone rang with an unfamiliar number.

She let it go to voicemail. The message appeared shortly afterward.

Victor's voice was calm and familiar.

“Clara, it's Victor. I imagine Adrian's told you a very convenient story. I don't want you involved in a family dispute. Take a few days away, stop answering Marcus's questions, and this can end without any more problems. You care about your work. It would be a shame to drag your patients into this mess.”

She listened to the entire thing without moving.

The dog lifted his head at the sound of Marcus's name on the phone, then settled again. The world gave no visible sign that anything had changed.

Even so, she wanted to check every door.

Clara stood with the phone in her hand and found Adrian ending a call.

“I need you to listen to this with me.”

He cleared space at the desk. She played the message, staying beside him.

When it ended, his hand had closed into a fist. She understood how easily his silence could be mistaken for an absence of feeling.

“Marcus needs the original file,” he said at last. “Can you send it to him?”

She nodded and did it there, seated beside Adrian.

“Can he reach my patients?”

“We'll check every contact and notify your agency. I won't tell you it's impossible without confirming.”

The honesty made her fear grow. At the same time, there was something solid beneath it. She knew what they were facing.

“I'm scared,” she said.

Adrian turned fully toward her.

“I know.”

“I don't want this to become something else I pretend I can manage alone.”

He drew her close. Clara perched on the edge of his chair, put her arms around him as well as she could, and rested her face against his shoulder.

She didn't have to explain why she was crying.

Later, Marcus arrived with news that Victor had requested a meeting the following morning. He wanted to discuss the situation with his cousin, away from the estate staff.

Adrian listened, asked a few questions, and looked at Clara before answering.

“Let's go through the plan. Don't leave out anything important.”

She stayed at the table when Marcus opened the folder.