Chapter 12 - The Night Luca Fell
Emergency lights flickered on.
Red illumination filled the old clinic.
Arthur’s voice continued through the speakers.
“Twelve years ago, Luca Costello arrived here unable to move his legs.”
Luca remembered the hallways.
The smell.
The endless examinations.
Arthur continued.
“What he never knew was that he had already begun recovering.”
Luca stared at Dominic.
“What?”
Dominic looked sick.
“Tell him,” Arthur said.
Dominic whispered.
“You moved your foot during the second month.”
Luca felt the room tilt.
“You saw it?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I told Grayson.”
Arthur laughed through the speakers.
“And Grayson called me.”
Luca’s hands tightened on the wheelchair.
“You poisoned me again.”
Arthur answered.
“Repeatedly.”
Elena covered Maya’s ears.
Maya pulled away.
“I want to hear.”
Arthur continued.
“Small maintenance doses.”
“Enough to suppress improvement.”
“Enough to keep the great Luca Costello exactly where everyone needed him.”
Luca looked at Dominic.
“You knew?”
“Not at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Year three.”
Silence.
Even Arthur stopped speaking.
Luca felt something inside him go cold.
“Year three.”
Dominic nodded.
“And you did nothing.”
“I tried to stop the treatments.”
“But?”
“Arthur had evidence implicating me in the original poisoning.”
Dominic’s voice cracked.
“I would have gone to prison.”
“So you left me in the chair.”
“Yes.”
Twelve years.
Luca had imagined grief.
Fate.
A failed body.
He had never imagined that several people had watched his recovery begin and chosen to silence it.
Maya stepped toward Luca.
She put one hand on his shoulder.
He covered it with his own.
Arthur’s voice returned.
“Touching.”
Marcus studied the walls.
“He is not speaking remotely.”
Luca looked at him.
Marcus pointed toward the ceiling.
“Audio delay is too short.”
Arthur was inside the building.
Dominic stood.
“There is a service tunnel beneath the hydrotherapy wing.”
Marcus nodded.
“We move.”
They reached the corridor.
Then Luca’s chair stopped.
The battery display died.
Arthur had remotely disabled it.
“Of course,” Luca muttered.
Marcus reached for the handles.
Luca stopped him.
“No.”
Everyone looked at him.
Luca stared toward the parallel rehabilitation bars mounted along the old corridor wall.
The same kind Rachel used every morning.
He reached for one.
Then the other.
Elena understood first.
“Luca.”
He locked his arms.
Pain tore through his hips.
His left foot found the floor.
Then his right.
His entire body shook.
Maya whispered.
“Your legs are awake.”
May you like
Luca pushed upward.
For the first time in twelve years, he rose from the wheelchair.
