Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
The silence in the boardroom was absolute. You could hear the distant hum of city traffic thirty floors below.
Dominic swallowed hard, desperately trying to claw back his authority as he forced a tight, nervous smile. “Adrian... you’re confused. The neuro-exhaustion is playing tricks on your mind. Sit down. Let’s get you back to the car. I’ve got doctors waiting—”
“Doctors?” Adrian interrupted smoothly, pulling out the chair directly opposite Dominic and sitting down with unhurried grace. “You mean Dr. Vance’s colleagues? Or the ones you paid off to forge my psychiatric evaluations?”
Dominic’s eyes widened in sheer panic, but he pressed on, turning his gaze toward the capos. “He’s delusional, gentlemen! Look at him—he’s fabricating paranoid conspiracies because his mind can no longer process reality. We need to invoke emergency clause 4 immediately!”
“Quiet, Dominic,” Adrian commanded. The single word carried so much raw authority that Dominic instantly snapped his mouth shut, sinking back into his chair as a cold sweat broke out across his forehead.
Adrian reached into his breast pocket and extracted a sealed plastic evidence bag containing the remnants of the teacup from his desk. He dropped it onto the marble table right in front of Dominic.
“Recognize this, brother?” Adrian asked softly.
Dominic stared at the bag, his breath catching in his throat.
“That’s my evening tea,” Adrian continued, leaning forward. “For three years, you brewed it with meticulous care. Every night at 10:00 p.m., you brought it to my study like a dutiful, loving brother. And for three years, a synthetic scopolamine derivative slowly rotted my nervous system, degraded my memory, and made me doubt my own sanity.”
A collective gasp swept through the capos. Salvatore slammed his palms against the table, glaring at Dominic. “Is this true? You poisoned the Boss?”
“It’s a lie!” Dominic shrieked, his voice cracking with desperation as he pointed a trembling finger at Adrian. “He’s insane! He’s making it all up to hold onto power!”
“Dr. Vance ran a full chemical chromatography on the residue left in that cup yesterday morning,” Adrian said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, icy whisper. “And just to be thorough, Marko had our independent medical team analyze my blood samples taken three hours ago. The toxin levels in my system are dropping rapidly now that I’ve stopped drinking your special brew.”
Adrian paused, letting his piercing gaze sweep across the stunned faces of the regional capos before returning to his brother.
“There is only one question left to answer, Dominic,” Adrian said quietly. “How did I find out?”
Dominic couldn't speak. He was hyperventilating, his eyes darting frantically toward the doors, only to see Marko and four armed enforcers blocking every exit.
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“A three-year-old girl walked into my bedroom at midnight,” Adrian said, a faint, cold smile touching his lips. “She didn't care about corporate contracts, board seats, or syndicate politics. She just noticed what everyone else was too blind or too terrified to see. She watched you put the drops in the cup.”
The room erupted into furious murmurs. The capos—hardened men who respected strength, loyalty, and code above all else—looked at Dominic with utter disgust. Poisoning a boss was bad; doing it cowardly over three years while playing the victim was an unforgivable sin in the underworld.
