Chapter 1 - The Price of Honesty
Elena’s final word stayed in the study long after she stopped speaking.
“Honest.”
Luca looked at the woman who had raised his daughter alone for nearly twelve years and understood that money could not solve the problem sitting between them.
He could buy hospitals.
He could buy investigators.
He could make powerful men disappear from boardrooms with a phone call.
But he could not purchase the years Maya had grown up without him.
“I can do that,” Luca said.
Elena’s expression did not soften.
“You can say that.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Luca nodded.
Then he reached for the toxicology report again.
“There is something else you need to understand.”
Elena watched him carefully.
“Someone did not just poison me twelve years ago.”
Luca slid the report across the desk.
“They kept me convinced the damage was permanent.”
Elena frowned.
“You think somebody continued manipulating your treatment.”
“I know somebody did.”
Every specialist Luca had seen had received the same medical history.
The same scans.
The same conclusions.
The same diagnosis.
For twelve years, nobody had seriously questioned the original vascular-event theory.
That could have been incompetence.
Luca no longer believed in coincidences that lasted twelve years.
Elena lowered her voice.
“Who benefited?”
Luca looked toward the closed study door.
“My uncle Dominic.”
Dominic Costello had been Luca’s father’s younger brother.
He had become chief operating officer after Luca collapsed.
He had handled the docks.
The unions.
The lawyers.
The private security.
Everything Luca could no longer physically inspect himself.
And Dominic had spent twelve years reminding everyone that Luca was still the head of the family.
That had always sounded loyal.
Now it sounded useful.
A crippled king was easier to control than a dead one.
Elena stood.
“Maya cannot be anywhere near this.”
“I agree.”
“She comes through that hedge every afternoon.”
“I’ll increase security without letting her notice.”
Elena’s eyes hardened.
“No armed men following my child around like she is part of your world.”
Luca stopped.
She was right.
His first instinct had been control.
His second needed to be better.
“What do you want?”
“I want her life to stay normal.”
Luca almost laughed at the impossibility of that word.
Then a small voice came through the study door.
“Mom?”
Elena froze.
The door opened.
Maya stood there holding a baseball glove.
She looked from Elena to Luca.
Then she noticed the two envelopes on the desk.
“Why does everybody look weird?”
Nobody answered quickly enough.
Maya’s eyes narrowed.
“You found out something.”
Elena walked toward her.
“Maya, sweetheart.”
Maya looked at Luca instead.
“Is it about your legs?”
Luca swallowed.
“Yes.”
Her face brightened.
“I told you.”
Despite everything, he smiled.
“You did.”
“Are they sleeping?”
“Something like that.”
Maya took another step into the room.
Then she saw the second report.
Her own name was printed across the top.
Her smile disappeared.
“What’s that one?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Luca understood immediately.
May you like
The first test of his promise had arrived much sooner than expected.
And honesty was already going to cost him something.
