Chapter 12 - THE ROOM WITHOUT WINDOWS
The hidden passage led to the original medical wing.
Salvatore forced Bianca ahead of him.
Luca followed despite Marisol’s order to remain protected.
Gabriel pushed his wheelchair through the narrow corridor.
At the end stood a steel room without windows.
The walls were lined with medical cabinets.
Salvatore locked himself inside with Bianca.
Through the reinforced glass, Luca saw a control panel connected to four suspended chemical tanks.
Salvatore held a syringe.
“The original formula,” he said through the intercom.
“One injection, and your recovery ends permanently.”
Bianca stood between them.
“Let her go,” Luca said.
“She betrayed both of us.”
“She believed she could control the damage.”
“She always believed she was smarter than the men doing the damage.”
Bianca’s face tightened.
Salvatore ordered Luca to enter.
Gabriel tried to stop him.
Luca opened the door himself.
The room smelled exactly like the broken vial on the porch.
Salvatore placed the syringe against Bianca’s neck.
“Close the door.”
Luca obeyed.
Outside, Gabriel and Marisol searched for another entrance.
Inside, Salvatore told Luca to inject himself.
“If you want Bianca alive, you return to the chair forever.”
Luca held the syringe.
His hand remained steady.
“You still need me alive.”
“Not anymore.”
“Maya makes succession complicated.”
“But a dead father and a missing child solve that.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“What did you say?”
Salvatore smiled.
“The convoy attack was not meant to kill you.”
“It was meant to separate Maya from Elena.”
“She was supposed to be taken through the drainage canal.”
“The men failed.”
Bianca suddenly drove her cane into Salvatore’s knee.
His weapon fired into the ceiling.
Luca threw the syringe.
Salvatore struck Bianca and turned the gun toward Luca.
Luca pushed backward.
The wheelchair hit a cabinet.
Salvatore laughed.
“You still cannot run.”
Luca looked down at his left foot.
Pain burned through it.
Maya’s voice returned to him.
Dead things do not try.
He planted both hands on the chair.
His legs shook violently.
For one impossible second, nothing happened.
Then Luca rose.
Not fully.
Not steadily.
But enough.
Salvatore’s face changed.
Luca lunged forward and drove his shoulder into his uncle’s chest.
The gun slid across the floor.
Both men fell.
Pain exploded through Luca’s hips and spine.
Salvatore reached for the weapon.
Bianca kicked it toward the door.
Marisol entered and arrested him.
Luca lay on the cold floor, unable to move.
Elena’s voice came from the doorway.
“Luca.”
She ran to him.
Maya stood behind her despite orders to remain outside.
She stared at him with wide eyes.
“You stood.”
Luca looked at his daughter.
“For one second.”
May you like
Maya smiled through her tears.
“One second is how standing starts.”
