The beginning and the end

So Melissa was the one who had contacted Vital after all. Vice watched her stand over the bed,  and took note of all the changes in her behaviour. Gone was the meek stoop, the almost apologetic way she held on to her own upper arms. Now she held her neck high, and even the wrinkles on her skin seemed to have smoothed out.

He understood now that the role she had been playing was entirely for their benefit -- the benefit of her nurses. Melissa knew exactly how to seem pitiful and harmless enough to get anyone's guard down.

Of course, Rodrigo, and the older staff knew what to expect, but she didn't need to fool them. Only the new arrivals.

Even if their goals hadn't aligned, sooner or later, Melissa would have taken advantage of the rapport she had built -- with him in particular (Vice, had to admit it) -- to make her demands, disguised as desperate pleas at first, and then openly hostile.