Chapter 7 - Six Missing Minutes.
For several seconds after the countdown stopped, nobody moved.
Luca stared at his right foot where it rested against the emergency lever.
He had not imagined it.
He had moved the leg voluntarily.
Not far.
Not gracefully.
But enough to save four lives.
Maya began laughing through tears on the other side of the partition.
“I told you.”
Luca could not answer.
His throat closed around eleven months of grief.
Serena sank against the desk.
Her face had become gray.
“He tried to kill me too.”
Luca looked at her.
“Welcome to the part where betrayal becomes inconvenient.”
The partition retracted after Elena manually reset the system.
Maya ran straight to Luca.
He took her hand.
This time his grip shook.
Elena collected the dosing chart and photographed every vial label before placing several samples in a padded pouch.
Serena watched her.
“You’re stealing evidence.”
Elena looked back.
“I’m preserving it.”
Luca almost smiled.
They left the study through the mechanical release and moved to the old billiards room, one of the few areas on a separate security circuit.
Luca disabled the smart locks from the wall panel.
Then he called Daniel.
His attorney answered breathlessly.
“We found room 314.”
Luca’s pulse jumped.
“Tell me.”
“The archive wasn’t emptied.”
Daniel explained that the foundation’s third floor had been sealed under a records-retention order nobody at corporate headquarters seemed to know about.
Claire Bennett had filed an internal safety complaint nine months before Luca’s crash.
The complaint concerned NVX-17.
Luca felt the pattern tightening.
“What did she say?”
Daniel read from the first page.
NVX-17 caused profound reversible motor suppression at doses far above trial limits.
In lab subjects, consciousness remained intact while voluntary movement decreased dramatically.
Recovery occurred when dosing stopped.
Luca closed his eyes.
The drug had not merely made his legs weaker.
It had manufactured the appearance of paralysis.
Daniel continued.
Claire alleged that someone inside Moretti Biotech was manipulating trial data to hide the effect.
The complaint named Marcus Vale as a consulting physician.
It also named Adrian Moretti as the executive who ordered the trial suspended and the files removed.
“Why would Adrian hide a drug he later used on me?”
Daniel had no answer yet.
But he had found one more item.
A security drive from the foundation archive contained footage from the night of Luca’s crash.
Luca opened his eyes.
“My crash was forty miles from the foundation.”
“The footage isn’t from the road.”
Daniel hesitated.
“It’s from your office garage.”
Luca remembered leaving Moretti headquarters late that night.
He had driven alone.
Rain had started near the bridge.
His brakes failed on the downhill curve.
Investigators blamed a ruptured hydraulic line and impact damage.
“Send me the video.”
A file arrived seconds later.
Luca played it on the billiards room television.
The timestamp showed 8:41 p.m.
His black sports sedan sat in the executive garage.
A figure in a hooded maintenance jacket approached from the service stairwell.
The person crouched beside the front wheel for several minutes.
The camera angle never showed a face.
At 8:47 p.m., the figure left.
Six minutes.
Luca stared at the screen.
He had left the office at 9:02.
Maya watched silently.
Elena whispered.
“They cut your brakes.”
Serena suddenly stood.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She looked sick.
“That was not the plan.”
Luca’s voice became cold.
“What plan?”
Serena pressed both hands to her temples.
“Adrian said the accident was real.”
“He told me he only took advantage of what happened afterward.”
Luca rolled closer.
“You believed him?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Serena’s eyes filled.
“Two months later I found a payment to a private contractor.”
“What contractor?”
“Galen Security.”
Luca knew the name.
Galen handled sensitive corporate investigations for Adrian’s office.
Serena explained that when she confronted Adrian, he threatened to expose her role in the drugging and make her solely responsible.
“So you stayed.”
“I was already trapped.”
Luca’s anger sharpened.
“Maya’s mother was trapped.”
Serena flinched.
“Where is Claire?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I know Adrian had her taken from the house.”
“Taken where?”
“I heard Marcus mention a clinic.”
Maya stepped forward.
“What clinic?”
Serena looked at the child for the first time without contempt.
“I don’t know.”
Maya’s face crumpled.
Luca felt rage move through him with frightening clarity.
Daniel’s voice came through the phone speaker.
“Luca, there’s something else in the archive.”
The room quieted.
“Claire recorded a deposition for the internal safety committee.”
“Play it.”
Daniel sent the audio.
Claire Bennett’s voice filled the billiards room.
She sounded calm, professional, and frightened only at the edges.
She described NVX-17 and the falsified trial reports.
Then she said a sentence that made Serena sit down.
“If anything happens to me, look at the six missing minutes in the executive garage.”
Maya covered her mouth.
Claire continued.
“And do not trust the accident report.”
The recording ended with a soft click.
Luca looked at Maya.
She was crying silently.
Then the mansion intercom activated.
May you like
Adrian’s voice came through every speaker.
“Cousin, we need to talk.”
