Chapter 5 - The Doctor Who Kept Her Sitting.
.Dr. Malcolm Voss arrived twenty minutes later carrying the black medical bag Sofia had learned to fear.
He was a silver-haired neurologist with a soft voice and the polished confidence of someone who expected his authority to end every argument.
Sofia immediately moved behind Anna.
That single movement told Anna more than any diagnosis could.
"Why is she afraid of you?"
Voss smiled carefully.
"Children often fear medical procedures."
Anna looked at Sofia.
"What procedures?"
Sofia whispered, "The shots that make my legs sleepy."
Luca turned toward the doctor.
"What shots?"
Voss's expression barely changed.
"Muscle relaxants during episodes of severe spasticity."
Anna noticed Victor watching the exchange from the doorway.
The old memory returned in fragments.
Victor and Voss speaking in a hospital corridor.
A white envelope changing hands.
Her own voice saying, "What are you giving my daughter?"
Anna stepped toward the doctor.
"You knew me."
Voss looked at her too quickly.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Four years ago. You knew me."
Luca's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Answer her."
Voss exhaled.
"I treated Sofia after the crash. I may have met your wife before then."
"You told me Elena was dead."
"That was the information provided by law enforcement."
Anna looked at Sofia's wheelchair, then at the child standing on her own feet.
"When was the last time you tested whether she could walk without medication?"
Voss stiffened.
"Her condition is complex."
"That is not an answer."
Luca stepped closer.
"When?"
Voss reached for his bag.
Victor spoke from the doorway.
"This is becoming absurd. Sofia needs stability, not interrogation."
Anna suddenly remembered a locked drawer in the upstairs nursery.
She ran.
Luca followed her through the hall and up the stairs.
"Where are you going?"
"I don't know."
She entered Sofia's room and went directly to a white cabinet beneath the window.
Her hand found a hidden latch under the lowest shelf.
A narrow compartment opened.
Inside was a small blue notebook wrapped in plastic.
Anna stared at it.
"I hid this."
Luca opened the first page.
The handwriting was Anna's.
Dates, medication names, doses, and notes filled the pages.
One sentence had been underlined three times.
Voss says she cannot move, but she kicks in her sleep.
Another entry read, Victor insists I stop asking questions.
The final page ended in the middle of a sentence.
Tomorrow I am taking Sofia to another doctor and telling Luca everything about Victor's accounts.
The date was the day of the crash.
Luca closed the notebook slowly.
Downstairs, a door slammed.
Then Rosa screamed.
Luca ran toward the hall.
Anna reached the landing in time to see Victor shove Dr. Voss toward the front doors.
One of Victor's men held a gun against Rosa's neck.
Victor looked up at Luca.
"You should have let the dead stay dead."
Sofia appeared behind Anna.
May you like
Victor raised his weapon toward the staircase.
"Bring me the notebook."
