Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO KEPT HIM SITTING
Luca returned to the estate with his father's signature in a sealed plastic sleeve on his lap.
He did not speak during the drive.
Elena did not ask him to.
Rafe sat across from them, looking at the floor.
The armored van passed through the gates at 6:42 p.m.
Maya was waiting on the porch despite being told not to wait outside after dark.
Two guards stood behind her, looking as if they had lost an argument and knew it.
When the van door opened, Maya leaned forward.
"You came back."
Luca looked at her.
"I said I would try."
"Trying worked."
She ran down the ramp before Elena could stop her.
For one second, Luca wanted to put the document away, smile, and let the day end there.
Then Maya saw his face.
"You found something bad."
Not a question.
Luca had begun to understand that children did not need access to classified information when every adult around them carried the classified information in their shoulders.
"Yes."
"About the poison?"
"Yes."
"About who did it?"
Luca looked at Elena.
She gave him nothing.
The choice was his.
"About someone who may have helped keep it going."
Maya frowned.
"Who?"
"My father."
Her expression changed.
"My grandfather?"
The word surprised Luca.
He had not yet attached Alessandro to Maya that way in his mind.
"Yes."
"But he's dead."
"Yes."
"So you can't ask him."
"Not directly."
Maya looked at the paper on his lap.
"Are you mad at him?"
Luca thought of the black pouch.
The signature.
The letter.
The photograph of Elena.
The twelve years.
"I don't know what I am yet."
Maya considered that answer.
"You can be more than one thing."
Elena looked at her daughter.
"Where did you get that?"
Maya shrugged.
"You say it when I'm mad and sad at the same time."
She turned back toward Luca.
"Maybe you're mad and sad and confused."
"That seems inefficient."
"Feelings are inefficient."
Luca stared at her.
"Who are you?"
Maya smiled.
"Biologically yours."
Then she went inside.
Elena laughed quietly despite herself.
Luca looked at her.
"You taught her that."
"I taught her sarcasm."
"The rest is genetic."
The moment ended when Dr. Shah arrived with the evening test results.
Luca's blood concentration of the suppressing compound had already fallen by more than sixty percent since stopping the capsules.
His nerve response in the right leg had improved measurably.
His left remained poor.
"No guarantees," Dr. Shah said.
"You say that every time you give me good news."
"Because you turn every good result into a contract with the universe."
"The universe should read its obligations."
"The universe has better lawyers."
She scheduled therapy for seven the next morning.
Luca did not sleep much.
At 2:10 a.m., the forensic audio lab called.
The cassette from Alessandro's vault had been cleaned and duplicated.
The recording was authentic.
No obvious splices.
Three voices were present.
Alessandro Costello.
Vincent Sorrell.
Dr. Samuel Keane.
No Matteo.
Luca listened in the study with Elena and Rafe.
The tape began with Alessandro yelling.
"His foot moved yesterday."
Keane answered.
"A reflex."
"You said that the last time."
"Because it is true."
"Then why did you increase the dose?"
Luca's hands tightened on the wheelchair.
Keane's voice was younger but unmistakable.
"Because reduced suppression risks autonomic instability."
"He could stroke."
"He could seize."
"He could die."
Alessandro swore.
"You told me this was temporary."
"It is temporary."
"It's been six weeks."
Vincent spoke then.
"Alessandro, lower your voice."
"Don't tell me to lower my voice in my own office."
"We are trying to keep Luca alive."
"Are we?"
A pause followed.
Alessandro's next sentence was quieter.
"Or are we keeping him helpless because helpless is convenient?"
Luca stopped breathing.
On the recording, Keane answered quickly.
"That is absurd."
Alessandro said, "Then stop the compound."
Keane refused.
"Not abruptly."
"When?"
"We taper when the neural inflammation stabilizes."
"When?"
"Weeks."
"You said weeks last month."
The tape crackled.
Vincent's voice returned.
"There is another issue."
Alessandro said nothing.
Vincent continued.
"The girl."
Elena gripped the edge of the desk.
Alessandro's voice changed.
"What about her?"
"She's pregnant."
"I know."
"Do you know whether it is Luca's?"
"No."
"Matteo suspects."
The room around Luca went silent except for the old voices.
Alessandro said, "How?"
"He had someone follow her."
"I told you to stop that."
"I tried."
"Try harder."
Vincent exhaled.
"If Matteo believes the child is Luca's, he will not wait for proof."
Alessandro's next words came slowly.
"What are you telling me?"
"I'm telling you Luca cannot wake up to this right now."
"He needs to stay medically isolated."
"He needs to stay out of the trust."
Alessandro shouted.
"He's my son."
Vincent shouted back.
"And he is alive."
The tape clicked.
Then Alessandro said something that made Luca feel colder than the poison ever had.
"How much keeps him stable?"
Keane answered with a dosage.
A microdose.
The same range found in Luca's later medication.
Alessandro said, "Do it."
The tape continued, but Luca raised a hand.
Rafe paused it.
No one spoke.
Luca stared at the dark speaker.
His father had known.
Not merely suspected.
Known.
He had authorized continued chemical suppression.
Maybe under bad medical advice.
Maybe out of fear.
Maybe to protect Elena and an unborn child.
But he had done it.
"He kept me in the chair," Luca said.
Elena's eyes filled.
"He thought he was keeping you alive."
Luca turned on her.
"Does that matter?"
She flinched.
Luca immediately regretted the force in his voice.
He looked away.
"I'm sorry."
Elena was quiet.
"It matters," she said eventually.
"It doesn't excuse it."
"Both can be true."
Luca laughed without humor.
"Maya would approve."
"She learned it somewhere."
Rafe restarted the tape.
The conversation changed to legal control.
Vincent warned that if Luca recovered enough to challenge the diagnosis, the family would face questions about the hospital records.
Keane insisted the treatment could be reclassified as experimental therapy.
Alessandro threatened to go to the police.
Vincent told him police would ask why he had signed the authorizations.
Alessandro went quiet.
Then came a sentence Luca had not expected.
"You trapped me."
Vincent answered.
"I gave you a way to keep your son alive."
"You gave me a choice after you made every good choice impossible."
"Those are still choices."
The tape ended there.
Luca stared at Vincent's voice as if he could see the man inside the machine.
"He set my father up."
Rafe nodded slowly.
"Looks that way."
"But Matteo isn't on the tape."
"No."
Elena looked at Luca.
"Vincent said Matteo suspected Maya."
"Yes."
"That means Vincent may have been protecting us from him."
Luca looked at her.
"Or using Matteo to frighten my father into keeping me disabled."
"Or both."
The possibilities were multiplying faster than the evidence.
That morning, Luca had therapy at seven.
He almost canceled.
Then Maya appeared in the doorway wearing pajamas and carrying a paper cup of hot chocolate.
"Mom says I can watch if I don't distract anybody."
Dr. Shah said, "Your existence is distracting."
Maya looked offended.
"That's rude."
"Sit."
Maya sat.
Luca was strapped into the support harness again.
This time every bolt had been checked by two people.
Rafe personally sealed the room overnight.
The lift raised Luca until his feet bore part of his weight.
Pain arrived.
He welcomed it.
Dr. Shah gave instructions.
"Right knee."
"Try to lock it."
Luca concentrated.
The muscle trembled.
Nothing more.
"Again."
He tried.
The knee steadied for less than a second.
"Again."
Maya watched without speaking.
Luca thought of Alessandro signing the dosage form.
He thought of his father choosing chemical silence because Vincent told him standing might kill his son and waking might kill a girl.
He thought of twelve years during which everyone praised Luca for adapting to a condition his own family was maintaining.
Rage moved through him.
"Don't use anger," Dr. Shah said.
Luca looked at her.
"It works."
"Until it doesn't."
"Use control."
He breathed.
He tried again.
His right knee held.
One second.
Two.
Then buckled.
The harness caught him.
Maya made a small sound.
Dr. Shah checked the monitor.
"Two point three seconds voluntary stabilization."
Luca's heart hammered.
"Again."
"Rest."
"Again."
"Rest."
For once, he listened.
After therapy, Matteo arrived unannounced.
Rafe tried to stop him at the study.
Luca allowed him in.
Matteo threw a folder onto the desk.
"You're looking at the wrong dead man."
Luca opened it.
Inside were bank transfers from Alessandro's private account to Dr. Keane.
Monthly.
For fourteen months after the collapse.
"Where did you get this?"
"My father's old accountant."
"Why now?"
"Because you accused me of poisoning you."
"Nora Bell saw you switch the bag."
Matteo's face tightened.
"I switched it back."
Luca stared at him.
"What?"
"The bag in your room looked wrong."
"The seal was different."
"I thought someone had made a pharmacy mistake."
"I removed it and put the original saline back."
"Nora saw half of that."
"Then why didn't you say this before?"
Matteo laughed angrily.
"Because I didn't know she was accusing me until yesterday."
"You knew she was missing before she called me."
"Vincent told me."
"Convenient."
"Everything is convenient when you have already chosen the villain."
Matteo pushed the bank statements toward him.
"Your father paid Keane."
"Your father signed the treatment."
"Your father kept you medicated."
"I fought with him about it."
Luca looked up.
"Why?"
Matteo's expression changed.
"Because six months after your collapse, I saw your hand move."
The room went silent.
"What?"
"Your left hand was already fine."
"I mean your foot."
"You were asleep."
"Your foot moved when I touched it."
"I told Keane."
"He said it was reflex."
"I told Alessandro."
"He told me never to interfere with your treatment again."
Matteo leaned closer.
"So I didn't."
His eyes were angry now, but something under the anger looked wounded.
"That may be the worst thing I ever did to you."
"But I did not poison you."
Luca looked at the monthly transfers.
"Why should I believe you?"
"You shouldn't."
Matteo stood.
"But ask yourself one question."
"If I wanted you permanently helpless so I could control the company, why did your father have to order me to stop interfering with the treatment?"
He left before Luca answered.
Rafe came in five minutes later with another result from the forensic accountant.
Luca expected relief.
He did not get it.
"The signatures on the Keane payments are real," Rafe said.
"No forgery indicators."
"Your father personally approved every transfer."
Luca looked at the closed door Matteo had just used.
May you like
For the first time since the investigation began, Matteo's innocence was not impossible.
That possibility frightened Luca almost as much as his guilt.
