Chapter 2 - THE MEDICINE CABINET
Luca ordered the estate sealed without explaining why.
No employee left.
No visitor entered.
Elena wanted to take Maya home, but Luca refused to let them travel until Vincent checked the apartment.
For the first time, Elena understood that the life Luca had built around himself was not merely luxurious.
It was fortified.
Cameras watched every entrance.
Security gates divided the estate into sections.
Men who appeared to be gardeners carried radios beneath their jackets.
Yet someone had still entered his medical archive.
Maya seemed unaware of the tension.
She sat beside Luca in the library doing homework while he reviewed twelve-year-old medical records.
“You’re doing the sad face again.”
“I have several faces.”
“No.”
Maya pointed her pencil at him.
“You have the normal serious face and the extra serious face.”
Luca almost smiled.
Then Maya leaned beneath the desk to retrieve an eraser.
Her shoulder brushed his shin.
Luca felt it.
Not pressure.
Not imagination.
A sharp pulse traveled through his calf.
His hand froze.
“Maya.”
She looked up.
“Do that again.”
She touched his lower leg.
Nothing happened.
Then she tapped lightly beside his ankle.
His foot twitched.
Maya’s eyes widened.
“I told you.”
Luca stared at his shoe.
For twelve years, doctors had demonstrated his lack of movement as evidence of permanent damage.
Yet his foot had moved.
That evening, Dr. Nathan Mercer arrived.
Mercer had served as Luca’s personal physician for eleven years.
He had inherited the position after the doctor who originally treated Luca retired.
Mercer examined the reflex.
His professional smile disappeared.
“This is significant.”
Luca studied him.
“Why?”
“Because it shouldn’t be happening.”
“Unless the original diagnosis was wrong.”
Mercer hesitated.
“Possibly.”
Luca noticed the hesitation.
It lasted less than a second.
Still, he noticed.
After Mercer left, Maya remained near the doorway.
She looked worried.
“What is it?”
“The doctor.”
“What about him?”
“I’ve seen him before.”
Luca frowned.
“He comes here every month.”
“No.”
Maya shook her head.
“Before Mom worked here.”
Elena entered behind her.
“What are you talking about?”
Maya thought carefully.
“Last year.”
“At the pharmacy near our apartment.”
“He was arguing with a lady.”
“Then he dropped a little box.”
“I picked it up for him.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“What kind of box?”
Maya drew a rectangle on her notebook.
“There were tiny glass bottles inside.”
Elena went pale.
May you like
Because Luca’s monthly medication arrived in identical glass vials.
And the pharmacy Maya described was more than twenty miles from the Costello estate.
