Chapter 9 - The Price of a ChildThe note contained six words.
Fourteen directors sat around a black walnut table.
Victor sat near the head.
Sebastian sat beside him.
Luca entered in his wheelchair.
Victor smiled sympathetically.
“Nephew.”
“Uncle.”
Sebastian avoided Luca's eyes.
The meeting began.
Victor spoke about responsibility.
Stability.
Leadership succession.
Then Sebastian presented his report.
“Mr. Costello has experienced increasing neurological dysfunction,” he said. “Muscle spasms, autonomic instability, chronic medication dependence.”
Luca listened.
Sebastian continued.
“In my medical judgment, the stress of executive leadership poses a serious risk.”
Victor folded his hands.
“No one wants this.”
Luca almost smiled.
“Of course not.”
A director named Harriet Wells looked uncomfortable.
“Luca, perhaps temporary medical leave—”
“No.”
Victor sighed.
“This isn't personal.”
“It feels personal.”
“We're family.”
“That's what makes it personal.”
Victor glanced at Sebastian.
The doctor nodded.
Victor called for a vote.
Before anyone raised a hand, Luca spoke.
“I'd like to ask Dr. Vale one question.”
Sebastian smiled.
“Certainly.”
“How long have I been permanently paralyzed?”
The room shifted.
Sebastian answered carefully.
“Twelve years.”
“And the injury is complete?”
“Yes.”
“No possibility of voluntary lower-body motor function?”
Sebastian hesitated.
“Not meaningful function.”
Luca placed both hands on the table.
Then pushed himself upward.
Gasps erupted.
Victor's face emptied.
Sebastian turned white.
Luca's legs shook under him.
Pain cut through his hips.
But he stood.
For the first time in twelve years, Luca Costello faced his board on his own feet.
No one moved.
Luca released the table with one hand.
Then the other.
He remained upright for four seconds.
Five.
Six.
He sat again deliberately.
Harriet whispered, “My God.”
Victor looked at Sebastian.
Sebastian couldn't speak.
Luca smiled.
“Interesting medical report.”
Victor recovered.
“This proves nothing. Reflexive—”
“Reflexes don't usually walk.”
Luca stood again.
Marcus waited behind the door, unseen.
But Luca didn't need him for this.
He took one slow step.
Then another.
The board erupted.
Phones came out.
Victor stood.
“What the hell is happening?”
Luca reached the end of the table.
“Apparently I'm deteriorating.”
Sebastian backed away.
Luca looked directly at him.
“For twelve years, Dr. Vale told me my spinal cord was completely severed.”
Sebastian raised his hands.
“Luca, your condition is complex.”
“So are forged scans.”
Silence.
Nathan entered.
He placed enlarged medical images on the screen.
“These are Mr. Costello's original scans.”
Another image appeared.
“These are the scans stored in his official record.”
Priya joined by video.
“They are from two different patients.”
Sebastian's face tightened.
Victor slammed his palm on the table.
“This is outrageous.”
Luca turned.
“We agree.”
Nathan presented toxicology.
Altered prescriptions.
The testimony of Catherine Holt.
The Dorsey recording.
When Victor heard Leonard Crane's voice mention him by name, he stopped pretending.
“This meeting is adjourned.”
“No,” Luca said.
Victor glared.
“You do not control this board.”
Luca smiled.
“I control fifty-one percent of the voting shares.”
“You can't vote them during medical impairment.”
Luca raised an eyebrow.
“Watch me.”
Harriet whispered something to another director.
Victor's face reddened.
Sebastian moved toward the door.
Nathan blocked him.
“Where are you going, Doctor?”
“I have patients.”
“So does the district attorney.”
Sebastian's composure cracked.
“You think you understand medicine because you moved three feet?”
Luca's expression darkened.
“No. I think I understand fraud because you stole twelve years of my life.”
Sebastian pointed at him.
“You would have destroyed everything.”
Victor shouted, “Shut up.”
Too late.
Everyone turned toward Sebastian.
Luca leaned closer.
“What did you say?”
Sebastian looked at Victor.
Victor shook his head.
Luca smiled.
“Please continue.”
Sebastian's breathing accelerated.
“You were twenty-seven. Reckless. Your father planned to hand you control.”
“My father already had.”
“You would've destroyed Victor.”
Victor snapped, “Enough!”
Luca looked between them.
There it was.
Not merely greed.
Resentment.
Sebastian had participated because Victor promised him power and money.
“Why keep me paralyzed?”
Sebastian laughed bitterly.
“Because you wouldn't stay controlled.”
Victor lunged toward him.
Nathan intervened.
But Sebastian was unraveling.
“You recovered from sedation too quickly. You took the company back. Victor couldn't stop you.”
“Sebastian!”
“And every year you got stronger.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
“You knew?”
“Your reflexes improved. Sensory responses increased. I adjusted your medication.”
The room became silent.
Sebastian realized what he had admitted.
Nathan's phone was recording.
Luca whispered, “You poisoned me.”
“I maintained stability.”
“You poisoned me.”
“You have no idea what Victor would've done if you started asking questions.”
Victor swung at Sebastian.
Nathan restrained him.
At that moment, alarms sounded.
Fire alarm.
Nathan looked at the security panel.
“Evacuate.”
The board moved toward the exits.
Smoke began drifting through the ventilation system.
Nathan received a radio call.
“Fire in mechanical level seventy-one.”
Luca immediately understood.
“Evidence.”
The Costello medical archive servers were stored on seventy-one.
Victor had planned a contingency.
Nathan yelled to security.
But the sprinklers failed.
Smoke thickened.
Luca's wheelchair remained beside the table, thirty feet away.
He had walked farther than he had ever walked.
The elevators shut down automatically.
The stairwell door opened.
Seventy-three floors.
Luca stared.
Victor saw it too.
A cruel smile appeared.
“Looks like miracles have limits.”
Then Victor shoved Nathan into Sebastian and ran for the stairwell.
Luca tried to follow.
His right knee buckled.
He hit the floor.
Elena's voice echoed in his memory.
Grief doesn't mean life stops.
Mia's voice followed.
Come get your cookie.
Luca gripped the table.
Pulled himself upright.
Smoke burned his lungs.
Nathan shouted, “I've got you!”
“No.”
Luca took a step.
Then another.
Toward the stairs.
For twelve years, stairs had symbolized everything stolen from him.
Now flames were spreading below.
And somewhere downstairs, his enemies were escaping.
Luca reached the first step.
He lowered one foot.
Then the other.
His legs trembled violently.
But they held.
One stair.
Then another.
By the tenth, sweat poured down his face.
By the twentieth, pain blurred his vision.
Nathan stayed beside him.
The building's emergency teams arrived on floor seventy.
They carried Luca the remaining distance.
Victor escaped.
Sebastian did not.
Police took him into custody in the lobby.
But the fire destroyed part of the archive.
And when Nathan checked the evidence room later, the original crash documents were gone.
Victor had anticipated everything.
Worse, he had disappeared.
Then Luca's phone rang.
Elena.
He answered.
Her voice was terrified.
“Luca…”
“What happened?”
“Mia is gone.”
His heart stopped.
“What?”
“I turned around for thirty seconds.”
“Elena—”
“There was a note.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“What does it say?”
May you like
Elena began crying.
“Victor has her.”
