Chapter 12 - The Day Luca Stood
All medication was stopped under Dr. Warren’s supervision.
For seventy-two hours, Luca felt terrible.
His muscles cramped.
His hands trembled.
His legs burned with sensations he had forgotten existed.
Then came pain.
Real pain.
Luca welcomed it.
Pain meant the nerves were speaking.
On the fourth morning, Dr. Warren placed a walker in front of him.
“No promises.”
Luca looked at Maya.
She stood beside Elena and Tommy.
Marcus waited near the door.
Rebecca pretended she had only come to discuss legal documents.
Everyone was lying.
They had all come to see if Luca Costello could stand.
He gripped the walker.
Dr. Warren counted.
“One.”
His arms locked.
“Two.”
His right leg shook.
“Three.”
Luca pushed.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then his body rose.
Not gracefully.
Not strongly.
But it rose.
Elena gasped.
Maya covered her mouth.
Luca stood for less than four seconds.
His knees buckled.
Dr. Warren and the therapist lowered him safely back into the chair.
Maya burst into tears.
Luca stared at her.
“Why are you crying?”
“You stood.”
“For four seconds.”
“You stood.”
She threw her arms around him.
Luca hesitated.
Then held her.
He had spent twelve years imagining the first day he might stand again.
He had pictured anger.
Victory.
Revenge.
He had never pictured an eight-year-old crying into his shoulder.
His phone rang.
Dominic.
Luca answered.
“I heard congratulations are appropriate.”
Luca’s face hardened.
“How?”
Dominic laughed softly.
“You still haven’t found every person in your house who belongs to me.”
Luca looked around the room.
Staff.
Security.
Doctors.
People he had trusted for years.
Dominic continued.
“Enjoy standing, cousin.”
“Because at the board meeting tomorrow, I’m going to make sure you have nothing left to stand over.”
The call ended.
Marcus looked furious.
Luca looked toward Maya.
Then toward Elena.
For the first time in twelve years, he understood exactly what mattered.
Dominic could take the company.
He could take the docks.
He could take every building carrying the Costello name.
May you like
But Luca would not let him take another year from his family.
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