Sonia came to them, not as enemy but as savior.
She appeared in Adrian's hospital room, elegant and composed, carrying files and hope. "I've heard about your condition, Adrian. I'm so sorry."
"Cut the act." Nancy stepped between them, protective. "You engineered this. The genetic markers, the deterioration—this is your doing."
"Proof, Ms. Clark?" Sonia's smile was pitying. "I have none. Only concern for an old friend." She set the files on Adrian's bedside table. "The Geneva protocol. Eighty percent success rate for cases like yours. Full recovery, normal lifespan, no cognitive side effects."
"Eighty percent?" Adrian reached for the files. "The previous data showed thirty—"
"That was three years ago. We've improved." Sonia's eyes met his, soft with something that might have been genuine affection, buried under layers of manipulation. "Adrian, I know we've had our differences. But I don't want you to die. I never wanted that."
"What's the price?" Nancy demanded. "There always is, with you."
Sonia's smile turned sharp. "The price is simple. Adrian accepts treatment as my patient, under my care, with no interference from... outside parties." She looked at Nancy. "You return to Singapore. Dissolve Clark Capital. Never contact him again."
"Never," Adrian breathed.
"Those are my terms." Sonia gathered her bag. "You have forty-eight hours before the deterioration becomes irreversible. Choose wisely."
She left, perfume lingering like a threat.
Nancy turned to Adrian, ready to argue, to fight, to do anything but accept. But he was looking at the files with an expression she'd never seen—resignation, mixed with terrible hope.
"Eighty percent," he whispered. "Nancy, that's... I could live. Really live. Not ten years, but decades. Children, maybe. Growing old with you."
"At the cost of everything else." Nancy sat beside him, taking the files from his hands. "She wants to own you, Adrian. Your life, your gratitude, your future. She wants me gone, permanently, so she can step into the space I leave behind."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then we find another way. Together." Nancy held his gaze, willing him to believe. "I didn't build an empire to lose you to her manipulation. I built it to have options. Resources. Power." She smiled, fierce and determined. "Give me forty-eight hours. Let me find another path. And if I can't..."
"If you can't?"
"Then we decide together. Not her terms. Ours."
Adrian searched her face, looking for certainty. Finding it, he nodded. "Forty-eight hours. But Nancy?"
"Yes?"
"If it comes to choosing... I choose you. Every time. Even if it means choosing death."
Nancy kissed him, tasting salt and fear and love. "Then let's make sure it doesn't come to that."