Chapter 1 - The Man Closest to the ChairLuca stared at the closed study door long after Elena had left.
For twelve years, people had treated his wheelchair like a grave.
Now he understood it had been a cage.
And cages required someone to keep the door locked.
He pressed the intercom button on his desk.
“Send Marco Bellini in.”
Marco entered less than two minutes later.
He had served as Luca’s head of security for nine years.
He was one of the few men on the estate who never looked uncomfortable around the chair.
Luca slid the toxicology report across the desk.
Marco read it once.
Then twice.
His expression hardened.
“Someone did this to you.”
“Yes.”
“Do we know who?”
“No.”
Luca paused.
“But we are going to make them believe we know less than we do.”
Marco understood immediately.
Luca ordered him to retrieve every medical record from the year before his collapse.
Every prescription.
Every visitor log.
Every payment made to his physicians.
Every security roster.
Nothing would be requested through the usual channels.
No attorneys.
No assistants.
No family members.
Only Marco.
By midnight, the first problem appeared.
Three months of medical records were missing.
Not misplaced.
Deleted.
Someone had entered the estate archive nine years earlier and removed them permanently.
Marco placed the access report in front of Luca.
Only four people had possessed authorization at the time.
Luca.
His late father.
His longtime attorney, Jonathan Pierce.
And Luca’s uncle, Vittorio Costello.
Luca stared at the last name.
Vittorio had been the man who kept the organization together after Luca collapsed.
He had handled doctors.
Finances.
Security.
He had even sat beside Luca through months of rehabilitation.
“Uncle Vittorio practically lived at the hospital,” Luca said quietly.
Marco did not answer.
Neither man needed to explain what that might mean.
Suddenly, there was a knock.
Before Luca could respond, the door opened.
Vittorio entered.
Silver-haired.
Perfectly dressed.
Smiling.
He looked exactly as he had for most of Luca’s life.
Protective.
Patient.
Almost fatherly.
“I heard you called in new doctors.”
Luca’s eyes shifted toward Marco.
Only three people knew about the examination.
Marco.
Elena.
And the specialist himself.
Yet Vittorio already knew.
“Routine testing,” Luca said.
Vittorio walked closer.
“You gave up on routine testing four years ago.”
“People change.”
Vittorio smiled.
“Sometimes.”
His gaze dropped briefly toward Luca’s legs.
The movement lasted less than a second.
Luca noticed it anyway.
Then Vittorio placed one hand on Luca’s shoulder.
“You should be careful about hope.”
Luca looked up at him.
“Why?”
“Because disappointment can destroy a man faster than any illness.”
The room became very quiet.
Luca smiled faintly.
“You sound worried.”
“For you?”
Vittorio squeezed his shoulder.
“Always.”
He left moments later.
Marco waited until the hallway was silent.
Then he approached the desk.
“That was fast.”
“Too fast.”
Marco nodded.
Luca looked toward the dark window.
He could see his reflection in the glass.
Behind him was the wheelchair.
For the first time in twelve years, he did not see weakness when he looked at it.
He saw evidence.
Then Marco’s phone vibrated.
He checked the message.
His face changed.
“What?”
Marco slowly looked at Luca.
“Someone just tried to access your toxicology report.”
“Who?”
“The login belonged to Dr. Adrian Vale.”
Luca froze.
Vale had been his personal physician for eleven years.
He had supervised nearly every medication Luca had taken since the collapse.
Marco continued.
“There’s another problem.”
Luca waited.
“Dr. Vale disappeared from his apartment forty minutes ago.”
May you like
And suddenly the investigation was no longer about what had happened twelve years earlier.
Someone was still protecting the secret tonight.
Related Stories
