Chapter 4 - A Body That Remembered.
Marcus entered the library like a physician making rounds, but his eyes kept moving toward Serena for permission.
Luca noticed because he had spent years studying people who pretended to hold authority while borrowing it from someone else.
Marcus placed the leather case on the desk.
“You are becoming agitated, Luca.”
“That is not a diagnosis.”
“It affects recovery.”
“So does being lied to.”
Serena folded her arms.
“This is getting absurd.”
Maya stood behind Elena now, only half visible.
Luca wanted to send her away from the confrontation, but he suspected the adults in the room had depended on everyone treating her observations as childish noise.
He would not repeat that mistake.
“Show me the prescription.”
Marcus opened the case and produced a printed sheet.
Luca read it carefully.
The familiar medications were listed.
The third drug, nivalexor, appeared beside a dosage notation.
“What does nivalexor do?”
Marcus leaned back.
“As I told you, it controls severe muscle spasticity.”
“By suppressing neuromuscular response?”
Marcus’s eyes narrowed.
“Among other effects.”
“Does it cause weakness?”
“At therapeutic levels, it can.”
“Numbness?”
“Sometimes.”
“Loss of voluntary movement?”
Serena interrupted.
“You already lost voluntary movement in the crash.”
Luca looked at her.
“Did I?”
The question silenced the room.
Marcus’s expression changed first.
It was not outrage.
It was calculation.
Luca pushed the prescription across the desk.
“Where are the pharmacy records?”
“I don’t carry billing records to house calls.”
“You were told to bring every invoice.”
Marcus’s mouth tightened.
Luca pressed the wheelchair control and rolled around the desk.
“Examine me.”
Serena’s voice came too quickly.
“Not today.”
Marcus looked at her again.
Luca saw it.
Elena saw it.
Maya saw it too.
“Why not?”
Serena lowered her voice.
“Because you skipped your medication and you’re emotional.”
Luca laughed once.
It sounded unfamiliar in the room.
“Then the examination should show exactly what you’ve been telling me for eleven months.”
Marcus hesitated.
Luca removed his right shoe.
The movement was clumsy because he had to lift his leg with both hands.
He placed his foot flat on the marble.
“Test it.”
Marcus crouched reluctantly.
He tapped below Luca’s kneecap with a reflex hammer.
The lower leg kicked forward.
Maya gasped.
Elena covered her mouth.
Serena did not move.
Luca stared at his own leg.
He had been told his reflexes were minimal.
Marcus tapped again.
The response was smaller but unmistakable.
“That proves nothing.”
Luca’s voice was quiet.
“You told me my reflex arc was severely compromised.”
“Recovery is not linear.”
“Neither is fraud, apparently.”
Marcus stood.
Serena stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Luca looked past her.
“Again.”
Marcus did not move.
Luca’s hands tightened on the armrests.
“Again.”
The doctor crouched and tested the left knee.
It responded too.
Luca closed his eyes.
The sensation was not normal, but it existed.
For months, Serena had warned him against aggressive rehabilitation because his spine was too fragile.
For months, Marcus had praised stability while Luca’s muscles wasted.
He suddenly understood why every independent specialist had been canceled, delayed, or replaced.
“You stopped my physical therapy.”
Serena shook her head.
“Your therapist said it was dangerous.”
“Which therapist?”
She hesitated.
“Dr. Kessler.”
Luca remembered Kessler visiting only once.
He had recommended an intensive neurological program in Boston.
Serena later said Kessler withdrew the recommendation after reviewing new scans.
Luca looked at Marcus.
“Did Kessler withdraw it?”
Marcus said nothing.
Serena’s composure cracked.
“You are letting a child turn you against the people who kept you alive.”
Maya flinched.
Luca’s anger became cold.
“Leave her out of this.”
“She is the reason this nonsense started.”
“No.”
Luca pointed toward his moving knee.
“That is the reason.”
Serena grabbed the prescription from the desk.
“We are done.”
Elena stepped forward unexpectedly.
“No, ma’am.”
Everyone turned.
The maid’s hands were shaking, but her voice was not.
“I changed Mr. Moretti’s sheets every day after the accident.”
Serena stared at her.
Elena continued.
“Before the morning injection, his legs were sometimes stiff.”
Marcus interrupted.
“Spasticity.”
Elena nodded.
“Yes.”
She looked at Luca.
“After the injection, they became completely loose.”
Luca felt something painful settle in his throat.
Elena had noticed what he had not.
Serena took one step toward her.
“You are a maid.”
Elena’s eyes lifted.
“And Claire was a nurse.”
Serena stopped.
That name changed everything.
Marcus went pale.
Luca watched both reactions.
“So you remember Claire.”
Serena recovered first.
“She was fired for misconduct.”
“What misconduct?”
“She tampered with medication.”
Maya shook her head.
“My mom said you did.”
Serena’s face twisted.
“That is enough from you.”
She moved toward Maya.
Luca’s wheelchair shot forward and blocked her path.
The motor whined against the marble.
Serena stopped inches from him.
Luca looked up at the woman he had once intended to marry.
“If you take one more step toward that child, every camera in this house will record it.”
Serena looked at the ceiling.
Luca followed her glance.
It lasted only a second.
Then the library lights went out.
The security screens died with them.
Emergency lights flickered red along the baseboards.
In the darkness, Marcus swore.
Maya cried out.
Something struck the desk.
Elena screamed.
Luca heard a drawer open.
Then he heard the unmistakable sound of glass breaking.
When backup power restored thirty seconds later, Marcus and Serena were gone.
The leather medical case remained open on the floor.
May you like
The prescription had vanished.
So had the hidden syringe.
