Chapter 3 - The Second DoseLuca canceled every medication in the house that afternoon.
Nothing entered his body unless the new medical team examined it first.
Dr. Vale remained missing.
His phone had been found inside a trash container near Union Station.
His car remained parked beneath his apartment building.
No credit cards had been used.
No flights had been booked.
The man had vanished too cleanly.
That worried Marco.
It worried Luca more.
People who panicked made mistakes.
People who disappeared without mistakes usually had help.
Three days later, Luca began physical rehabilitation.
Dr. Rachel Monroe supervised the first session.
She had warned him not to expect miracles.
Twelve years of inactivity had weakened nearly every muscle below his waist.
The neurological pathways existed.
That did not mean his body remembered how to use them.
Rachel placed electrodes along his leg.
“Tell me if you feel anything.”
Luca almost laughed.
“I’ve been waiting twelve years to feel anything.”
The stimulation began.
Nothing happened.
Then his left foot twitched.
Barely.
A movement so small that anyone else might have missed it.
Luca did not.
Neither did Rachel.
“Again.”
She increased the stimulation.
His toes moved.
Luca stared at them.
He had controlled companies.
Men.
Money.
Entire neighborhoods.
Yet the movement of one toe nearly destroyed his composure.
Rachel crouched beside him.
“That matters.”
Luca nodded.
“Do it again.”
Two hours later, he returned to his bedroom exhausted.
A tray waited beside his bed.
Water.
Food.
And the nightly vitamin supplement he had taken for years.
Luca reached toward it.
Then stopped.
The capsule looked normal.
Almost.
The seam around the shell appeared slightly uneven.
He called Marco.
Ten minutes later, the capsule was sealed inside an evidence bag.
Rachel sent it to the toxicology laboratory.
The result arrived before midnight.
The same compound responsible for Luca’s original paralysis was inside.
A smaller dose.
Enough to interfere with recovery.
Not enough to trigger suspicion.
Marco stood beside the desk with fury in his eyes.
“Someone is still dosing you.”
Luca looked toward the hallway.
Only staff members with medical clearance could enter the bedroom.
There were six.
Marco had already detained all of them for questioning.
One house nurse finally admitted the capsule had not come from the pharmacy.
It had been delivered that morning by courier.
The package carried Dr. Vale’s authorization.
Marco checked the security footage.
The courier never showed his face.
But his vehicle had been recorded.
A black sedan registered to Costello Holdings.
Vittorio controlled the company’s transportation division.
Luca felt something colder than anger.
Marco leaned toward him.
“Say the word.”
“No.”
Marco looked surprised.
“No?”
“If Vittorio thinks I suspect him, he disappears.”
“So what do we do?”
Luca looked at the poisoned capsule.
“We let him believe it worked.”
The next morning, Luca canceled rehabilitation.
He told the household his condition had suddenly worsened.
Rachel publicly left the estate carrying medical equipment.
Privately, she entered again through the underground garage.
By evening, word had spread that Luca’s new treatment had failed.
At seven, Vittorio arrived.
He brought expensive whiskey.
He sat beside Luca.
And he looked relieved.
Not happy.
Not openly.
But relieved.
Luca had spent his entire life reading dangerous men.
The smallest movements mattered.
Vittorio poured himself a drink.
“You pushed too hard.”
“Maybe.”
“I warned you about hope.”
Luca stared at the fire.
“You were right.”
Vittorio smiled.
Then Luca asked casually.
“Have you heard from Dr. Vale?”
The whiskey stopped halfway to Vittorio’s mouth.
Only for a fraction of a second.
“No.”
Luca nodded.
Vittorio finished the drink.
That tiny pause told Luca everything he needed to know.
May you like
But knowing was not proof.
And Luca had learned long ago that accusing a powerful man without proof was simply warning him to hide it better.
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