Chapter 6 - The Dose They Never Prescribed.
Serena did not look frightened anymore.
She looked cornered.
The second syringe rested against her palm, and Luca could see that its barrel contained the same clear liquid as the first.
Elena pulled Maya behind her.
Luca positioned the wheelchair between Serena and the others.
“Put it down.”
Serena laughed softly.
“You still think you are in control.”
“Not anymore.”
“That is the first honest thing you’ve said all day.”
Luca’s hands tightened on the armrests.
He wanted answers more than he wanted revenge.
For now.
“What is NVX-17?”
Serena’s eyes shifted toward the open refrigerator.
That was confirmation enough.
“Marcus said it was safe.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“It was developed for severe neurological spasticity.”
“Approved by whom?”
She said nothing.
Luca searched her face.
His company had experimental compounds, but human use required trials, oversight, documentation, and consent.
None of that existed here.
“You’ve been using an unapproved drug on me.”
Serena’s voice sharpened.
“You were impossible after the crash.”
Elena stared at her.
Serena continued as if the words had been waiting months to escape.
“You refused help.”
“You wanted to leave rehabilitation early.”
“You were obsessed with getting back to work.”
“You were going to destroy yourself.”
Luca felt disbelief turn into anger.
“So you paralyzed me for my own good?”
“I kept you stable.”
Maya whispered.
“You kept him asleep.”
Serena snapped toward her.
“You know nothing.”
The child did not move.
“My mom knew.”
Serena’s expression changed.
Luca saw fear return.
“What happened to Claire?”
Serena looked at the syringe.
Luca moved the chair forward one foot.
“What happened to Claire?”
“She found the dosing chart.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Serena’s breathing grew uneven.
“She threatened to report Marcus.”
“And you fired her.”
“Yes.”
“Then she disappeared.”
Serena looked away.
Luca felt a cold pressure behind his ribs.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t touch her.”
The answer came too quickly.
“Who did?”
Serena’s eyes filled, but Luca did not mistake tears for innocence.
“Adrian handled it.”
The room went silent.
Luca had expected Adrian’s name.
Hearing it still hurt.
His cousin had grown up beside him.
They had attended the same schools, fought over the same tennis court, buried Luca’s father together, and stood side by side in board meetings.
After the crash, Adrian had promised to protect everything Luca built.
Maybe that had been exactly what he intended to do.
Protect it from Luca.
“Why?”
Serena laughed again, but this time it broke in the middle.
“You think this is about your legs?”
She shook her head.
“It was never about your legs.”
Luca said nothing.
Serena pointed toward the financial screens.
“Your father’s trust transfers voting control of Moretti Biotech if you are declared permanently incapacitated for twelve consecutive months.”
Luca knew the trust existed.
He had never focused on the incapacity clause because it had seemed irrelevant.
He was thirty-one years old and healthy when his father died.
Until the crash.
Luca looked at the dosing chart.
Eleven months.
His next independent incapacity review was scheduled in three weeks.
The timing was suddenly obvious.
“You needed me disabled for one year.”
Serena’s face twisted.
“Adrian needed it.”
“And you?”
She looked at him with something almost like resentment.
“I was supposed to become your wife.”
The words were grotesque in the room.
Serena explained that Adrian promised her a controlling share through Luca’s personal trust once the incapacity declaration became permanent.
She would remain beside Luca, manage his private estate, and help present the arrangement as compassionate continuity.
Luca felt physically ill.
“You were going to marry me while keeping me drugged.”
“I loved you.”
“No.”
His voice was flat.
“You loved access.”
Serena’s eyes hardened.
“That is easy for you to say now.”
She stepped forward.
Luca saw the syringe move.
“Stop.”
Serena’s hand shook.
“If you walk into that review, everything changes.”
“That is the point.”
“You don’t understand what Adrian will do.”
“Then tell me.”
Serena looked toward the hallway.
“He will not let you reach three weeks.”
A sound came from the ceiling speakers.
A single electronic tone.
Then every door in the study locked at once.
Serena’s face went white.
She had not caused it.
Luca looked at the security monitor.
The screen displayed a new message.
REMOTE ADMINISTRATOR OVERRIDE.
Adrian.
The lights dimmed.
A red warning appeared beneath the message.
FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEM ARMED.
Elena looked upward.
“This room doesn’t have sprinklers.”
Luca remembered his father installing a clean-agent fire system to protect paper archives.
The system worked by flooding the sealed room with gas that displaced oxygen.
Safe only when the room was empty.
The countdown began at sixty seconds.
Serena stared at the door.
“He’s cleaning up.”
Luca looked at her.
“Us included.”
Maya began to cry.
Luca scanned the room for another exit.
There was none.
Fifty seconds.
Elena pulled at the door handle.
Locked.
Forty seconds.
Serena slammed the syringe onto the desk and began typing at the security panel.
“Adrian changed the code.”
Thirty seconds.
Luca looked down at his legs.
Then at the heavy brass release lever mounted near the floor beside the old fireplace.
His father had insisted every sealed office have a mechanical emergency release.
The lever was six feet away and too low for Elena to reach without crossing the room.
She started toward it.
A steel fire partition dropped from the ceiling between them.
Elena and Maya were trapped on one side.
Luca and Serena were trapped on the other.
Twenty seconds.
The release lever was now beside Luca’s right foot.
Too far for his hand.
Serena stared at him.
“You can’t reach it.”
Luca looked at his shoe.
Fifteen seconds.
Maya pressed both palms against the glass partition.
“Your legs aren’t dead!”
Luca gripped the armrests.
He commanded his right knee to lift.
Nothing.
Ten seconds.
He tried again with every piece of anger he had left.
His thigh trembled.
Serena’s eyes widened.
Five seconds.
Luca’s heel dragged across the marble.
May you like
His foot struck the brass lever.
The system shut down one second before release.
