Chapter 7 - The Doctor Who RanDr. Vale refused to speak over the telephone.
Luca went to the hospital personally.
Marco brought six guards.
Elena stayed with Maya.
Vale looked twenty years older than he had one week earlier.
His beard had grown unevenly.
Dark circles surrounded his eyes.
He stared at Luca’s wheelchair as though it were an accusation.
“I’m sorry.”
Luca stopped beside the bed.
“That’s not useful.”
Vale flinched.
“I didn’t start it.”
“But you continued it.”
Silence.
Luca moved closer.
“For eleven years.”
Vale began crying.
Luca felt no sympathy.
“Talk.”
Vale admitted he had first been recruited by Vittorio shortly before Luca’s collapse.
At the time, Vale had gambling debts.
Vittorio offered money.
Then leverage.
Then threats.
The original plan was not supposed to cause permanent paralysis.
The compound would weaken Luca.
Confuse his neurological responses.
Make him temporarily dependent.
Carlo Costello wanted time to stop Luca from dismantling the empire.
Luca’s voice became hollow.
“My father approved it?”
Vale closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more than Luca expected.
Marco looked away.
Vale continued.
Carlo intended the treatment to stop after several weeks.
But Luca collapsed harder than expected.
When doctors became suspicious, Vittorio took control.
Carlo panicked.
He wanted the poisoning ended.
Vittorio did not.
“Why?”
Vale swallowed.
“Because once you were in the chair, Vittorio controlled everything you couldn’t.”
Businesses.
Accounts.
Meetings.
Territory.
Even Luca’s medical access.
Carlo threatened to expose the truth.
Six months later, he suffered a stroke.
Luca stared at Vale.
“My father didn’t have a stroke.”
Vale said nothing.
That silence was enough.
“What did Vittorio do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie.”
“I swear.”
Vale’s voice cracked.
“I only handled you.”
Luca hated the phrase.
Handled you.
As though twelve years of his life were a maintenance problem.
“Why did you keep dosing me?”
“Because you started improving.”
Luca froze.
“When?”
“The second year.”
Vale looked toward his legs.
“You were getting sensation back.”
Luca could barely speak.
“And you stopped it.”
“Yes.”
“The fifth year?”
“Again.”
“The eighth?”
Vale nodded.
Luca remembered each period.
Small sensations.
Faint warmth.
Occasional muscle movement.
Every time, Vale had told him it was meaningless reflex activity.
Every time, the symptoms had disappeared.
Because Vale had poisoned him again.
Luca rolled closer.
“You watched me lose hope repeatedly.”
Vale covered his face.
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
The room became silent.
Then Luca asked about Elena.
Vale lowered his hands.
“I didn’t know about her until four months ago.”
“Why did Vittorio hire her?”
Vale stared at him.
“Because he discovered Maya was definitely yours.”
Luca felt his stomach tighten.
“What was he planning?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“What do you know?”
Vale struggled to answer.
Finally, he whispered.
“There’s a trust provision.”
Luca knew the trust.
But apparently not all of it.
“If a verified biological heir establishes a relationship with you while you remain medically incompetent…”
“I’m not incompetent.”
“Legally, no.”
Vale shook his head.
“But Vittorio was trying to change that.”
Luca went cold.
“He planned to have you declared cognitively impaired.”
“And Maya?”
Vale looked terrified.
“She would become your recognized heir.”
Luca finally understood.
Vittorio had brought Elena and Maya onto the estate deliberately.
Not to reunite a family.
To activate the trust.
Then Vittorio would control Luca.
Control Maya’s inheritance.
And if something happened to Elena, he could petition to control Maya too.
Luca gripped the armrests of his wheelchair.
Vale whispered one final sentence.
May you like
“He wasn’t bringing your daughter home.”
“He was bringing your fortune within reach.”
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