Chapter 9 - The Fire Upstairs
By the time Victor reached Beacon Hill, smoke was pouring from a second-floor window.
He nearly threw himself out of the van before Dana lowered the ramp.
“Nora!”
Firefighters moved through the entrance.
A woman carried Sam out wrapped in a blanket.
Then Nora appeared holding Rosie beneath her coat.
Victor’s lungs unlocked.
He grabbed both girls and pulled them against him.
“Where’s Leah?”
Nora looked back at the house.
“She went upstairs.”
Victor’s relief disappeared.
A firefighter brought Leah out two minutes later, coughing, one sleeve burned.
In her hand was a metal lockbox.
“What is that?” Victor demanded.
“Something Simon came for.”
She had found him inside Victor’s bedroom, trying to empty the safe. He fled through the servants’ stairs after setting a curtain on fire.
Inside the lockbox were Victor’s original medical records from the first week after his spinal infection.
Records Simon claimed had been destroyed in a server failure.
Leah flipped through them in the ambulance.
“Victor.”
“What?”
“Your first nerve conduction study showed recovery potential.”
He stared at her.
“And the second?”
“Worse.”
“The one Simon used to tell me I’d never walk?”
She nodded.
“The decline started after he changed your medication.”
Eli, sitting beside Nora, whispered, “Mom found that.”
Victor looked at him.
“She died for it.”
No one answered.
The next morning, federal agents arrested Grant for kidnapping, conspiracy, and financial crimes.
But Simon was still missing.
Victor began detoxification under Leah’s supervision.
The first forty-eight hours were brutal.
Tremors. Vomiting. Spasms. Pain so sharp he sometimes begged for the numbness back.
On the third night, Rosie crawled across the hospital blanket on his guest bed and slapped both hands onto his shin.
Victor laughed through sweat.
“You again?”
His toes curled.
Eli grinned.
Victor’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
May you like
Simon’s voice whispered, “Ask the boy who his father is.”
Then the line disconnected.
