Chapter 27

He looked at her, took the pills, and pretended to swallow again. He had become very good at pretending. "Yes," he said. "Three days."She sat down beside him on the bed and adjusted the blanket over his legs. "After the wedding," she said softly, "everything will be different. You won't have to worry about the company anymore. The board already agrees that you should rest for at least a year. I'll handle everything. You just focus on getting better."The board already agrees. So, she had already spoken to them, already prepared the next step, already built the next part of the cage.He looked at her and asked quietly, "And what if I don't get better?"She took his hand and smiled in that same gentle way. "Then I'll still be here," she said. "In sickness and in health."He nodded slowly. "You're very loyal."She squeezed his hand. "I love you."He looked at her for a long moment, then smiled back slightly. "I know," he said.When she left the room, his smile disappeared immediately."In sickness and in health," he repeated quietly to himself. "You just forgot to mention that you were planning the sickness."That afternoon, in the backyard, he walked farther than ever before. He didn't start from the bench: he stood up from the wheelchair and began walking immediately along the stone path, past the tree, past the garden chair, all the way to the fence. Then he kept going, turning slowly and walking back again: twenty steps, thirty steps. By the time he reached the bench again, his legs were shaking badly, but he was still standing."You are walking like a normal person now," she said."Not normal," he replied, breathing hard. "But enough."He sat down and looked at the house again. "Today, she told me the board already agreed that I should step back after the wedding," he said. "She's already telling them the story: that I'm too sick, that I need rest, that she will take care of everything."The girl was quiet for a moment. "Then the wedding is not the end of her plan," she said. "It is the beginning.""Yes," he said. "That's why the wedding is where we stop her." He leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees. "My lawyer said something yesterday," he continued. "He said most people think power is money, but real power is control over decisions: who signs, who approves, who speaks, who is believed." He looked at his legs. "For six months, I had money," he said. "But I had no power, because I was in that chair and she was standing."The girl nodded slowly."But in three days," he said quietly, "that changes."They practiced walking again until the sun began to go down and the backyard grew cold. When he finally sat back in the wheelchair, he was exhausted, but his eyes were clear.

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