Chapter 2 - Jonathan Vale had been called many things over the years.Industrialist.
Billionaire.
Genius.
Monster.
He had been too powerful to care about any of them.
At sixty-eight, he owned shipping companies, pharmaceutical laboratories, private aircraft, hotels, and enough real estate to make entire neighborhoods look like his personal chessboard.
But there was one thing he did not own.
His future.
His legs had decided that fourteen years ago.
Now, for the first time since the accident, his right foot moved beneath the restaurant table.
Then his left.
Jonathan stared at the movement as if he were watching somebody else's body.
His assistant, Daniel Cross, arrived twenty minutes later carrying an old leather case.
"Sir, I found the files."
Jonathan didn't look at him.
"Lock the doors."
Daniel hesitated.
"Why?"
"Because someone is looking for those children."
Daniel closed the restaurant himself.
Inside the leather case was the past Jonathan had spent years trying to bury.
Photographs.
Police reports.
Hospital records.
Insurance documents.
And one sealed medical file.
Jonathan opened it.
The first pages described the crash.
Rain.
A mountain road.
Brake failure.
Vehicle overturned.
Spinal damage.
But Jonathan already knew those details.
He turned to the back.
There was a page he had never seen before.
A blood test.
Patient: Jonathan Vale.
The date was the night of the accident.
Under "additional findings" was a handwritten note.
SUBJECT SHOWS UNEXPECTED COMPATIBILITY.
Jonathan's eyes narrowed.
"What's this?"
Daniel leaned over.
"I've never seen that before."
Jonathan turned another page.
There was a photograph.
A newborn baby.
Not the baby from the café.
Another infant.
The image was stamped with the same silver crescent.
On the bottom was a handwritten number.
17
Jonathan stared at it.
"Daniel."
"Yes?"
"Who ran this test?"
Daniel checked the page.
"There's no lab name."
"There's always a lab name."
"Not here."
Jonathan's hand tightened.
Then he noticed the date.
The test had been performed three days before his accident.
Three days.
He stopped breathing.
"My crash wasn't an accident."
Daniel didn't answer.
Jonathan looked at him.
"What?"
Daniel's face had become strangely pale.
"There is something else."
He opened the folder and removed a newspaper clipping.
A story from fourteen years earlier.
THREE CHILDREN REPORTED MISSING FROM SAINT MARA'S RESEARCH FACILITY.
Jonathan stared.
A photograph showed a young woman standing outside the facility.
He knew her.
His wife.
Evelyn.
Dead for thirteen years.
He slowly lowered the paper.
"My wife went there?"
Daniel nodded.
"According to the article."
"She never told me."
"Maybe she couldn't."
Jonathan picked up another photograph.
Evelyn was standing beside a group of doctors.
One of them was holding a baby.
The image was blurred.
But Jonathan could recognize the baby's crescent-shaped mark.
His fingers began shaking.
"The boy said they hurt children."
Daniel nodded.
"What did he call the place?"
"He said he didn't know."
Jonathan stared at the photograph.
"Find Saint Mara's."
"It's abandoned."
"Then find whoever owned it."
Daniel hesitated.
"Sir, there's a problem."
"What?"
"It doesn't exist anymore."
Jonathan frowned.
"The building?"
"The company."
Daniel placed another document on the table.
"Saint Mara's was erased twelve years ago."
Jonathan felt cold.
"Erased?"
"All ownership records. All funding records. All employee records."
"Who could do that?"
Daniel didn't answer immediately.
Then he said:
"Someone powerful enough to erase a hospital from the government's system."
Jonathan leaned back.
His legs suddenly burned.
Not pain.
Something else.
Life.
He pressed his hand against his thigh.
For the first time in fourteen years, he could feel his own skin.
Then the phone rang.
Private line.
Nobody had the number except six people.
Jonathan answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
"Mr. Vale."
"Who is this?"
"You should have let the children disappear."
Jonathan's eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?"
"You don't understand what the baby is."
"Then explain."
The voice laughed softly.
"She's not a healer."
Jonathan looked toward the door.
"Then what is she?"
The voice became colder.
"She's proof."
"Proof of what?"
"That you're still alive."
The line went dead.
Jonathan sat motionless.
Daniel watched him.
"What does that mean?"
Jonathan didn't answer.
His eyes were fixed on the old photograph of Evelyn.
Then he saw something hidden in the background.
A man standing behind the doctors.
Partially obscured.
But unmistakable.
Jonathan knew that face.
He had met him fourteen years earlier.
The night of the accident.
The night a stranger had pulled Jonathan from the wreckage.
Jonathan's whisper barely escaped his mouth.
"That's impossible."
Daniel leaned closer.
"Who?"
Jonathan pointed.
"Dr. Adrian Kane."
Daniel stared.
"But he's dead."
Jonathan shook his head.
"No."
He looked at the photograph again.
"Kane is the man who told everyone I would never walk again."
A gunshot shattered the window.
Glass exploded across the café.
Daniel threw Jonathan to the floor.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Jonathan stared at the shattered window.
Outside, a black SUV sped away.
Daniel pulled out his weapon.
"Sir, we need to move."
Jonathan didn't move.
He was staring at his legs.
May you like
His left foot had moved again.
And this time, he had felt it.
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