Chapter 5 - The Doctor Who Lied Twice
Elena stared at Sanz.
“You were dying.”
Sanz smiled.
“I needed you to believe that.”
Marco looked toward Adrian.
“Ambulance?”
“Compromised,” Adrian muttered.
Sanz stepped inside.
Two armed men appeared behind him.
“Put the weapon down, Adrian.”
Adrian didn’t move.
Sanz aimed at Anna.
“Now.”
Elena whispered, “Please.”
Adrian placed the gun on the floor.
Sanz looked at Marco.
“You always were difficult.”
Marco’s face remained cold.
“So Gabriel forced you?”
“He forced me at first.”
“And later?”
Sanz smiled faintly.
“Later Ferraro paid better.”
Elena felt disgust.
“You continued the injections.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Ferraro needed Marco weak.”
“He wanted the ledger.”
“He wanted much more.”
Sanz held out his hand.
“The pendant.”
Elena closed her fist.
“No.”
Sanz aimed at her mother.
Marco said quietly, “Give it to him.”
Elena looked at him.
“Marco—”
“He’ll shoot her.”
She slowly handed Sanz the capsule.
He inspected it.
“Thirty years.”
Anna looked at him.
“You destroyed Michael.”
“No,” Sanz replied. “Ferraro did.”
“You helped.”
“I was twenty-six.”
“You knew what they were doing.”
Sanz’s expression hardened.
“And I learned that conscience is expensive.”
Marco studied him.
“Where is Ferraro?”
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
“For the other half.”
Marco frowned.
“I don’t have it.”
“You do.”
“No.”
Sanz laughed.
“Your father gave it to you.”
“I was fourteen when he died.”
“Yes.”
“He never told me about a ledger.”
“Because he didn’t give you paper.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
“What did he give me?”
Sanz looked at the wheelchair.
“A scar.”
Elena froze.
Sanz pointed to Marco’s shoulder.
“The scar you noticed.”
“That came from the explosion,” Marco said.
“No.”
Elena moved closer.
“The scar predates the accident?”
“By decades.”
Marco touched it.
He remembered a childhood surgery.
A bicycle accident.
His father had told him glass had been removed from his shoulder.
Sanz smiled.
“Carlo Bellucci trusted no safe. No bank. No attorney.”
Elena understood.
“He implanted something.”
Sanz nodded.
“Under the scar.”
Marco stared at him.
“The second half of the ledger has been inside you since you were fourteen.”
Suddenly eighteen months of injections made even more sense.
Ferraro had needed Marco alive.
Not simply for control.
Because Marco’s body was the vault.
Sanz stepped closer.
“We’ll remove it now.”
Elena blocked him.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“You have no idea what’s implanted there.”
“I know exactly where it is.”
“No sterile environment. No imaging.”
Sanz raised the gun.
“You’re negotiating badly.”
Marco spoke.
“If you damage the capsule, Ferraro gets nothing.”
Sanz looked at him.
Marco smiled.
“You need Elena.”
Sanz hated that he was right.
“Fine.”
They were moved to a treatment room.
Elena prepared surgical instruments.
She could feel Marco watching her.
As she cleaned the scar, he whispered:
“Left pocket.”
“What?”
“My chair.”
She glanced down.
A small transmitter was hidden beneath the armrest.
Adrian had activated it.
Backup was coming.
If they survived long enough.
Elena injected local anesthetic.
Sanz watched.
“Hurry.”
She made a small incision.
Marco didn’t flinch.
Carefully, she explored beneath the scar tissue.
Her instrument touched something hard.
“I found it.”
Sanz stepped forward.
“Remove it.”
Elena lifted a tiny sealed titanium cylinder.
For the first time, Sanz’s composure disappeared.
“Give it to me.”
Marco looked at Elena.
She handed it over.
Sanz smiled.
Then Marco said:
“You’re dead now.”
Sanz frowned.
“Excuse me?”
“Ferraro needed you until you had both halves.”
Sanz’s smile faded.
A gunshot rang from the hallway.
One of Sanz’s men dropped.
Adrian lunged.
Chaos exploded.
Elena pulled Anna behind the examination table.
Marco grabbed Sanz’s wrist as the doctor raised his gun.
Though seated, Marco was stronger.
He twisted.
The gun fell.
Adrian tackled the second guard.
Marco punched Sanz across the jaw.
Sanz staggered.
Then he grabbed the titanium capsule and ran.
“Stop him!” Elena shouted.
Sanz reached the stairwell.
Adrian followed.
Three minutes later he returned.
Alone.
“He got into a vehicle.”
“With the ledger?”
“Yes.”
Marco looked furious.
Elena closed the incision in his shoulder.
“He has both halves.”
“No.”
She looked up.
Marco smiled.
“You switched it?”
He nodded.
“What did you give him?”
“A blank storage capsule from the medical tray.”
Elena stared.
“When?”
“While you were screaming at Adrian.”
“I wasn’t screaming.”
“You were emotionally projecting at high volume.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Then Marco opened his hand.
The real cylinder rested in his palm.
They returned to the safehouse.
Anna slept for twelve hours under guard.
Elena stayed beside Marco.
At dawn, she began another therapy session.
“Push down.”
Marco gritted his teeth.
His right leg trembled.
“Again.”
He pushed.
His heel moved.
Elena’s eyes filled.
“Don’t.”
“I know.”
He tried again.
This time his foot slid three inches.
Marco stared.
“Help me stand.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“Your legs aren’t ready.”
“Help me.”
“You’ll fall.”
“Then catch me.”
“You weigh twice what I do.”
“Adrian.”
“No,” Elena snapped.
Marco laughed.
“You’re enjoying authority.”
“Immensely.”
But two days later, with braces and Adrian supporting him, Marco stood.
Only for four seconds.
Four shaking, agonizing seconds.
Then his knees buckled.
He fell back into the wheelchair.
No one spoke.
Marco stared at the floor.
Then he laughed.
Elena had never heard him laugh like that.
Not bitterly.
Not sarcastically.
Joyfully.
“I stood.”
“Yes.”
“I stood.”
Adrian turned away, pretending to check the window.
Elena smiled.
“You did.”
Marco looked at her.
Something changed between them.
He took her hand.
Not as patient and nurse.
Not as mafia boss and employee.
Just a man holding onto the person who had given him back something he believed was gone.
“Thank you.”
Elena squeezed his hand.
“You did the work.”
He didn’t let go.
Neither did she.
That evening, Adrian decoded part of the two ledger halves.
The information was devastating.
Judges.
Police officers.
Company executives.
Smuggling networks.
Blackmail accounts.
And one encrypted list titled MERIDIAN.
Elena’s father’s research.
Marco scanned the names.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Elena asked.
He turned the screen.
The final authorized research subject was listed eighteen months earlier.
SUBJECT M-17.
INITIALS: M.B.
Elena whispered, “You.”
Marco looked lower.
The approving physician was Victor Sanz.
The financial authorization came from Gabriel Bellucci.
Marco went still.
“So Gabriel knew.”
Elena shook her head.
“Maybe the authorization was forged.”
“Maybe.”
Then Adrian opened the attached payment log.
Gabriel had received twelve million dollars from a Ferraro account seven days after Marco’s accident.
Marco stared at the screen.
His uncle had claimed everything he did was protection.
The payment suggested otherwise.
A phone rang.
Gabriel.
Marco answered.
“Tell me the twelve million is fake.”
Silence.
Marco closed his eyes.
“Gabriel.”
His uncle replied quietly.
“It isn’t.”
Marco’s face hardened.
“You sold me.”
“No.”
“Twelve million dollars.”
“I took the money.”
“Why?”
“To make Ferraro believe I was his.”
“And were you?”
Gabriel hesitated too long.
Marco whispered:
“You were.”
“Marco, listen to me.”
“How long?”
“Listen—”
“How long did you work for Ferraro?”
Gabriel’s voice changed.
“Long enough to know what happens next.”
“What happens next?”
“They’ll come for Sofia.”
Marco’s blood turned cold.
Gabriel continued.
“And this time, they won’t threaten her.”
A second voice appeared faintly on Gabriel’s line.
A child crying.
Leo.
Marco shot upright.
“Where are they?”
Gabriel whispered:
May you like
“I’m sorry.”
Then the call disconnected.
