Chapter 16 - The Child Who Kept Watching
The bottle was tested immediately.
It contained the same compound.
Stronger than the capsules taken from Luca’s bathroom.
Dr. Warren calculated the concentration.
“If you had continued taking this, your recovery might have reversed completely.”
Elena turned pale.
The nurse was questioned.
She broke within an hour.
Dr. Pike had instructed her to replace Luca’s supplements every three weeks.
She claimed she believed they were experimental neurological drugs.
Rebecca did not believe her.
Neither did Luca.
But the nurse provided something far more valuable.
A secure message thread.
Pike had sent instructions.
Dominic had sent Pike money.
And one message from Dominic read:
Keep him seated until the vote.
That sentence destroyed Dominic’s final defense.
Police obtained warrants.
Financial investigators froze multiple accounts.
Board members who had supported Dominic began calling Luca.
He ignored them.
Marcus returned that evening.
Not as security chief.
As a witness.
He had voluntarily given investigators every message Dominic had sent him.
He also brought Luca a flash drive.
“What is this?”
“Security backups.”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“I kept copies because I knew eventually I would have to choose.”
Luca stared at him.
“You should have chosen earlier.”
“I know.”
The drive contained footage of Dr. Pike entering Luca’s medication room repeatedly.
It also captured Dominic visiting him secretly two nights before the board vote.
Rebecca smiled for the first time in days.
“We have him.”
Luca looked toward Maya.
She was outside on the baseball field with Tommy.
She had been the first person to see his leg move.
The first to ask whether the poisoner knew about her.
The first to notice the hidden camera.
And now the first to notice the switched medicine bottle.
For twelve years, powerful adults had stared at Luca’s condition and accepted what they had been told.
A child had simply looked.
And kept looking.
Luca wheeled onto the porch.
Maya ran toward him.
“Did it help?”
“Yes.”
“So Dominic loses?”
Luca looked at her.
“Maybe.”
She frowned.
“Maybe?”
“Evidence gets us to the truth.”
He paused.
“It doesn’t guarantee what people do with it.”
Maya nodded.
Then headlights appeared beyond the gate.
Dominic’s car.
He had come personally.
May you like
And this time he was not smiling.
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