Chapter 8 - THE HOUSE TURNS AGAINST THEM
Danielle had the laboratory order changed before midnight.
It required three emergency filings, one irritated judge, and a sworn affidavit from the independent toxicologist explaining why Bellweather could not be considered neutral.
The replacement lab was affiliated with Northwestern Memorial.
Rafe assigned two security officers to the sample.
Danielle assigned a court officer.
Elena insisted on watching the tubes sealed herself.
Luca stayed at the estate because appearing at a pediatric blood draw with six armed men would have turned an already ugly story into national news.
Maya called him from the car afterward.
"I survived."
"I had confidence."
"They took four tubes."
"You have more blood."
"That's not the point."
"What is the point?"
"Four is excessive."
"I'll file a complaint."
"Mom says you're not allowed to threaten laboratories."
Elena's voice came faintly from the background.
"I said influence, not threaten."
Maya corrected herself.
"You're not allowed to influence laboratories."
Luca smiled.
"Tell your mother I am behaving."
"She says that's suspicious."
The line disconnected.
Rafe, standing beside the therapy room, raised an eyebrow.
"You look happy."
"Don't start."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
Dr. Shah entered with a walker modified for full body support.
The happiness ended.
"Today we work on weight loading," she said.
Luca looked at the harness.
"That device looks medieval."
"Medieval devices rarely came with hydraulic lifts."
"A design failure."
"Transfer."
Two therapists helped him into the harness.
Luca hated every hand that touched him.
He had hated assistance for twelve years.
Not because the people helping him were humiliating him.
Because his body turned ordinary actions into group projects.
The harness lifted him.
His feet touched the platform.
For the first time in more than a decade, part of his body weight passed through his legs.
Pain arrived immediately.
Not injury.
Demand.
His ankles shook.
His knees tried to fold.
The harness caught him.
Dr. Shah watched the monitors.
"Ten seconds."
"Twenty."
"Ten."
"Fifteen."
"You negotiate like a toddler."
"I've met toddlers with better counsel."
At nine seconds, Luca's right knee buckled.
The harness tightened.
A metal support rail shifted under his hand.
Not much.
Enough.
The entire right side of the frame lurched.
One therapist grabbed Luca's shoulder.
The other hit the emergency stop.
The hydraulic system froze.
Luca swung sideways in the harness.
His left hip struck the padded rail.
Rafe crossed the room before the machine stopped moving.
"Everybody back."
Dr. Shah looked at the base.
"The rail mount failed."
Rafe crouched.
One of the bolts lay on the floor.
It had not snapped.
It had been unscrewed.
Three full turns.
Luca looked down at it.
"Accident?"
Rafe did not answer.
He picked up the bolt with a cloth.
The second bolt on the same bracket was also loose.
Dr. Shah's face changed.
"This machine was checked last night."
"By who?" Rafe asked.
"My technician."
"Anyone after?"
"Not with permission."
Rafe looked at Luca.
"Therapy is over."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"No."
"Yes."
"Fix the frame."
"Not until we know who touched it."
"Then use another frame."
"No."
Luca looked at him.
"You don't give that answer often."
"Enjoy the novelty."
Security logs showed someone entered the therapy room at 3:16 a.m.
The badge belonged to Rafe Bellini.
Elena arrived from the blood draw fifteen minutes after the log was discovered.
She saw Rafe's name on the screen.
Then she looked at him.
Rafe did not defend himself.
"Where were you at 3:16?" she asked.
"Security office."
"Alone?"
"No."
"Who saw you?"
"Six people and three cameras."
"Then your badge was cloned too."
"Looks that way."
Luca watched him.
"Or you had a duplicate."
Rafe's eyes shifted to him.
The room went cold.
"You want my gun?" Rafe asked.
Elena looked between them.
Luca said nothing.
Rafe removed the handgun from his holster.
He placed it on the table.
Then he removed his access badge.
Then his phone.
"Search my office."
"Search my apartment."
"Search my car."
"Search every account I have."
Luca's voice remained quiet.
"You understand why."
"Yes."
"Do you?"
Rafe looked at the wheelchair.
"Somebody got close enough to poison you for twelve years."
"If you trust me because trust feels good, then you're a fool."
"Search me."
He walked out without his weapon.
Elena waited until the door closed.
"Do you think it was him?"
"I don't know."
"You trust him."
"I did."
"That's not what I asked."
Luca looked at the access log.
"I want to."
The words surprised him.
Elena understood what they cost.
"That is not evidence," she said.
"No."
"But it matters."
"Yes."
At noon, the Costello board held an unscheduled conference call.
Matteo requested it.
He said the press leak, the capacity petition, and the security lockdown were affecting contracts.
Three board members agreed.
Luca joined from the study.
Matteo's face appeared on the screen.
"We need stability," he said.
"Then stop creating instability."
"You think everything is me now."
"Not everything."
"Just the poison, the leak, the missing nurse, the sabotage, and the legal attack?"
Luca watched him.
"Interesting list."
Matteo closed his eyes.
"Jesus Christ."
Gideon Price interrupted.
"Can we discuss the actual company?"
"The eastern dock contract expires Friday."
"If we don't sign the renewal, Serrano Freight takes the volume."
Luca looked at the contract summary.
It was the same route he had planned to close twelve years earlier.
"Don't renew it."
Gideon stared.
"Excuse me?"
"Do not renew."
"That's forty million in annual revenue."
"It's also the dirtiest route we still operate."
Matteo's eyes sharpened.
"This is not the time to reopen that fight."
"It is exactly the time."
"Why?"
"Because I was poisoned six weeks before I planned to close it the first time."
No one spoke.
Matteo leaned closer to his camera.
"You're making a causal connection with no proof."
"Then you should have no objection to closing it."
"I object to setting forty million dollars on fire because you're angry."
"Good."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I know what you care about."
The meeting ended with Luca ordering the contract allowed to expire.
Within an hour, two board members resigned from committee positions.
By evening, another newspaper published a story claiming Luca's judgment had deteriorated.
The article cited anonymous "senior insiders."
Elena read it once and threw it away.
Maya found the discarded paper.
She read the headline.
"They say you're crazy."
Luca looked at her.
"They used more expensive words."
"Do you care?"
He thought about it.
"Less than I used to."
"Why?"
"Because I used to think controlling what people believed was the same thing as controlling what was true."
Maya frowned.
"That's dumb."
"Yes."
"Did you really lose forty million dollars today?"
"Not yet."
"Can I have fifty dollars?"
Elena almost choked on her coffee.
Luca looked at Maya.
"For what?"
"A new dance bag."
"How much does it cost?"
"Thirty-two."
"Then why fifty?"
Maya shrugged.
"Negotiation."
Luca looked at Elena.
"Definitely mine."
Elena tried not to smile.
That night, Rafe's internal investigation produced something unexpected.
His badge had not been cloned electronically.
The therapy room reader showed the physical cryptographic signature of his real badge.
The access event was genuine.
Rafe's badge had entered the room at 3:16 a.m.
Yet camera footage showed the same badge clipped to Rafe's belt in the security office at 3:16 a.m.
Two identical physical badges existed.
Only one had been issued.
Rafe's deputy searched old access-card manufacturing logs.
A duplicate had been created nine years earlier under an emergency override.
The authorization was signed by Vincent Sorrell.
The requested recipient was listed as OFFICE OF FAMILY COUNSEL.
Luca stared at the record.
"Vincent has had a master copy of Rafe's badge for nine years."
"Had," Rafe said.
"Maybe still has."
"Why would legal counsel need my physical identity credential?"
Luca looked at him.
"To make you look guilty whenever necessary."
Rafe's face hardened.
"Then whoever loosened the rail wanted us to find my name."
"Yes."
"Which means the sabotage wasn't mainly about hurting you."
"It was about isolating me."
Rafe nodded.
"From me."
A guard entered carrying a small sealed envelope.
"This was found in Mr. Bellini's office safe."
Rafe turned.
"What?"
"Behind the inner cash box."
Rafe's expression changed.
"I didn't put anything there."
Luca opened the envelope with gloves.
Inside was an old photograph.
Elena recognized it immediately.
It showed her twelve years earlier, leaving the South Side apartment where she had known Luca.
She was visibly pregnant.
On the back was a date.
And one handwritten instruction.
May you like
WATCH THE GIRL.
The photograph had been hidden in Rafe's safe.
