"So," Kai drawled, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the ICU room. He leaned back in the plastic visitor's chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "If the French woman isn't a Viper, and she stole the ledger to stop you from digging... what is the play, Sister-in-law? Do we go hunting in Paris?"
Aria leaned back against her hospital pillows, her emerald eyes calculating.
"We play dead," Aria said simply.
"Excuse me?" Damien asked, his voice low and laced with pure displeasure.
"Strategic gaslighting," Aria explained, holding her hands up. "The French woman told me to stop looking into my mother's death. She warned me that if I kept pushing the Vipers, she couldn't protect me anymore. So, we make her believe she won. We make it look like her little bridge-toss scared me off the scent entirely."
